SoCalHoops CIF-SS Playoff News

CIF-SS II-AA Preview: Pasadena v. Inglewood
@ Occidental College Tonight--(Feb. 26, 2002)

What: Division II-AA Semifinals
Who: Pasadena (24-4) vs. Inglewood (23-5)
Where: @ Occidental College
When: 7:30 p.m.

Again, we've finally run out of time, and don't have the luxury of posting up full team profiles for the playoffs. We have team records and know just a ton about both of these teams, of course, none of it particularly useful to anyone on the day of the semifinal game which will be played tonight at Occidental College. If you need to ask about these two teams now, then you've either been living on the moon, or just don't follow high school hoops in SoCal.  This is going to be a great game, with some excellent players, some of whom we've had the pleasure of watching since they were little, and now they're high school seniors....That's the bad part about these games....someone has to lose, and it just can't keep going on and on forever....

Rather than drone on with sentimental drivel, there won't be anyone playing tonight who will be feeling any emotion other than the need to win, and No. 2 Pasadena, a team which a lot of people wrote off early in the season after they struggled have won a lot of tough games lately, including going undefeated in the tough Pacific league.  Inglewood, is also a talented and deep team, but they are really only as good against a team like Pasadena as is their big man.  Guards like Ray Reed and Jason McKinney from Inglewood will matchup well against Pasadena's Dino Wilburn and Duwan Rice, and the X-Factor will be D'Angelo Collins, the 6'-9" Sr. F who many say may go straight to the NBA, who was selected as the MVP of the ABCD Camp All-Star game last summer, and who has had an up and down season, suffering a knee injury in mid-January which sidelined him until the playoffs began.

Again, we don't have time to detail all the strengths and weaknesses of each team, so we'll fall back on the usual stuff that we've borrowed from the local papers.....This is from the Pasadena Star News (slightly edited, but basically intact):

"The second-seeded Pasadena High School boys basketball team has stormed past three opponents in the CIF-Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs. Now all that stands between the Bulldogs and a trip to the finals is an unseeded opponent.  Unfortunately for PHS, Inglewood is not your average unseeded opponent. The Sentinels (24-5) have been highly ranked all season, feature a potential NBA prospect and are far from a surprise opponent for today's 7:30 p.m. semifinal at Occidental College. "I knew they'd be there," Pasadena Coach Tim Tucker told the Pasadena Star News' Kevin Chavez "They have a player that might go NBA, and that alone should have them there."  

"That player is 6-foot-9 D'Angelo Collins. Many in high school basketball circles think Collins might make the jump directly to the pros after this season, which Pasadena hopes to end today.  Pasadena's motivation might be even higher, considering Inglewood eliminated the Bulldogs in last season's quarterfinals, 78-52. 'I don't know how much last year's game plays into this year's game," Tucker told Chavez. 'You look at the teams and we've gotten better and matured more than last year. We don't fear them; we've been looking forward to this game." Pasadena's 6-6 center, MacKenzie Clark, will be responsible for slowing down Collins. Guards Duwan Rice and Dino Wilburn will have to shoot well from outside for PHS to advance to Saturday's championship at The Pond.

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