Cannot recall two teams playing for that title with combined (now) 23 losses. SHC, to their credit, defeated Serra Friday at SCU for the second time in three tries. Very nice work. Miller and Mixon, again, made the difference. A tough double-matchup. Now the question becomes: Will the winner be considered for a NorCal Open bracket? Maybe not.
CCS Open Final
- Thread starter colhenrylives
- Start date
This shows that the CCS open pool play method is flawed. NCS Open got it right. The top 2 teams should get a 1 game bye tournament style. It is hard to go 1-2 in wcal and not have any incentives going into the playoffs (besides homecourt). MA and SC going 0-3 shows they couldn't compete.
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Very tough for league mates to play 3 times and go 3-0. Agree with the NCS Open format, Seeds 1 and 2 should earn a 1st round bye.
Really impressed by SHC’s play in recent weeks. They spread the floor and let the Miller, Mixon and Pernell go to work at the same time trusting their teammates by looking for cutters, open shooters and making that extra pass. Having players that can finish at the rim or dishing to the weak side cutter comes in handy when playing in an open arena and/or struggling from the perimeter. They also play with force winning 50/50 balls and playing a much improved defense than years past.
Really impressed by SHC’s play in recent weeks. They spread the floor and let the Miller, Mixon and Pernell go to work at the same time trusting their teammates by looking for cutters, open shooters and making that extra pass. Having players that can finish at the rim or dishing to the weak side cutter comes in handy when playing in an open arena and/or struggling from the perimeter. They also play with force winning 50/50 balls and playing a much improved defense than years past.
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I would not consider Santa Cruz losing by 12 to both Mitty and Serra and 3 to SI in OT and SI best SH twice as being non competitive.
And MA losing to SHP and Riordan by a combined 6 points as being non competitive.
The unfortunate side in all of it is they both were a combined 21-1 in their leagues, and in my opinion that really effects things such as overcoming adversity. And that’s not going to improve when both teams have held league teams to 25-40 points in quite a few games while putting up 70 or 80.
And MA losing to SHP and Riordan by a combined 6 points as being non competitive.
The unfortunate side in all of it is they both were a combined 21-1 in their leagues, and in my opinion that really effects things such as overcoming adversity. And that’s not going to improve when both teams have held league teams to 25-40 points in quite a few games while putting up 70 or 80.
No they wont. 2019 SH won CCS Open and they were a 10 seed in D1 Nor Cals. I expect the same this year.
One last observation re Friday's CCS Open finale: The three most impactful and dominant guys on the floor were football players: SHC's Mixon and Miller and Serra's Gilmartin. Three good examples of the desirability of preps playing more than one sport.
CIF may look at it this way, since all the CCS Open teams were automatic qualifiers to NorCals, they can seed the teams by overall W-L and SOS...Look at Riordan last year, they won the Open against another NorCal Open candidate in Mitty and still had to go on the road to play NCS runner-up De la Salle. Their reasoning was overall record and SOS.
Agree. The football players bring a certain physicality and confidence to a team. I thought Riordan missed Isiah Chala's presence for just that reason as he chose to sit out his senior year to concentrate of football.
Riordan had a stacked roster without Chala and did just fine. Theres only few duo sport athletes since the 90s that have EXCELLED in both football and basketball. Jason Hardee (Serra), Kevin Greene (SH), and I think John Tofi (Riordan). Mixon and Miller I think you can throw their names in that group as well.
Familiarity with others plays an important part. Check out teams like Campo, DV and even SHC last night. Miller and Mixon have played together since they were kids. Chala, Wilhite and Woodson also played together as kids. Riordan's roster is definitely loaded but with new players. Losing Wilhite removed that one go to player when the game was close. Woodson and Rencher are doing their part, but you can tell they are forcing things when the game is tight since they are still learning to play together. The SHP game was a step in the right direction as the team spread the floor, looked for that extra pass to the open shooter or to players that were cutting weakside on drives to the rim. Less forced plays and unforced turnovers were keys to the convincing win, too. Will be interesting to see where the teams are seeded. WCAL could represent well in NorCals.
Igor Olshansky - Defensive Tackle - SI , Oregon, Chargers, Cowboys and Dolphins
SHC’s Kevin Gogan I recall was on SHC’s WCAL basketball title team and had a very good NFL career.
Igor was far and beyond, a great football player. As a basketball player, he was average at best. Im talking like 1st team WCAL for both sports.
Gogan also played baseball at SH…not SHC. Just an old guy detail there.
USC, Cal, Oregon and Notre Dame were heavily recruiting Rob to play football. While at USD, Jim Harbaugh wanted him to come out for the team. He even got a minicamp invitation to the Minnesota VIkings. Basketball was the sport he truly loved.
