LA City Section Top 16

LA City Section has 60 schools which compete in basketball, but only 16 of them will compete for the honor of becoming City Champion once the regular season is finished on Friday, February 8, 2002 when the last regularly scheduled games conclude.

Of those 60 potential teams, we can eliminate 11 Magnet schools right off the bat from the equation, because the City Section, in its infinite wisdom has decreed that Magnet Conference schools are not eligible for the City Championship bracket (they may compete in the "Invitational" bracket, about which more below).

This leaves 49 teams potentially eligible for the overall City Championship tournament bracket looking at 16 spots, of which 8 are "guaranteed" to the champions of the 8 non-Magnet leagues (e.g., Coliseum, Eastern, Marine, Northern, Sunset Six, Valley Mission, West Valley and Western). The remaining 8 spots are chosen by a committee of coaches from among the remaining 41 other teams, based on overall record, league finish, strength of league and strength of schedule, and most likely, who's scratching whose back.....

So, with the top 16 teams going to the "City Championship," this still leaves those remaining 33 teams, plus 11 Magnets with nothing to do....So, there's another bracket, involving the next best 16 teams, who compete for the "City Invitational" Championship.

What follows below is our Top 16, and we're thinking of this as a sort of "what if" the season were over today and we had to pick the teams competing for the City Championship title, based solely on their overall and league records through Saturday, January 26, 2002. Here's a look at the projected brackets.

LA City Section Top 16 & Next 16 (Issued January 27, 2002)
Projected City Championship Bracket Teams (Top 16)
Rank	Team	League	Overall	Conference	Selection Method
1	Westchester	7-1	19-2	Western League	(automatic bid)
2	Fairfax	7-1	21-3	Western League	(pick)
3	Dorsey	6-0	14-4	Coliseum League	(automatic bid)
4	Crenshaw	4-2	15-6	Coliseum League	(pick)
5	Fremont	4-2	17-4	Coliseum League	(pick)
6	Sylmar	6-0	15-5	Valley Mission League	(automatic)
7	Narbonne	5-1	14-6	Marine League	(automatic)
8	Carson	5-1	14-6	Marine League	(pick)
9	Reseda	5-1	12-4	Valley Mission League	(pick)
10	Cleveland	5-1	12-8	West Valley League	(automatic)
11	North Hollywood	6-0	13-8	Sunset Six League	(automatic)
12	Taft	4-2	12-8	West Valley League	(pick)
13	Grant	4-2	12-9	Sunset Six League	(pick)
14	Palisades	4-4	13-7	Western League	(pick)
15	Franklin	6-0	13-7	Northern League	(automatic)
16	Bell	6-0	11-6	Eastern Leauge	(automatic)
Projected "City Invitational" Teams (Next Top 16)
17	Los Angeles Jordan	5-1	12-8	Eastern
18	Los Angeles	4-4	12-8	Western
19	Manual Arts	2-4	12-7	Coliseum
20	Gardena	4-2	10-7	Marine
21	Hamilton	3-5	11-12	Western
22	University	3-5	15-8	Western
23	El Camino Real	4-2	10-10	West Valley
24	Canoga Park	4-2	7-13	Sunset Six
25	Belmont	5-1	8-8	Northern
26	Washington Prep	2-4	6-12	Marine
27	Wilmington Banning	2-4	10-6	Marine
28	Locke	2-4	10-10	Coliesum
29	LA Poly	3-3	10-11	Sunset Six
30	Birmingham 2-4, 7-9;	2-4	7-9	West Valley
31	Bravo	5-1	9-11	Magnet
32	King-Drew	5-0	11-8	Magnet