I appreciate the compliment, and we would feel we would have a pretty good chance against either Salesian or BOD -- but I think either one would be the favorite going in. Remember, when you saw us we were playing a team that we match up with very well (not tall, not overwhelmingly athletic, backcourt not deep), but yes, we're pretty good.
And if you look at our path in D2, I don't think anyone would say we're going to coast, or even have an easy time. Assuming we get by Whitney tonight, we have either Elk Grove or Presentation on Saturday, neither an easy out. If we get by that, it's very likely we'll get either Modesto Christian or Valley Christian, and then the finals project to be Sacramento or Vanden (and Vanden would be on the road). As with pretty much every division, I think the top four seeds can look at any one individual game and say to themselves "I like our chances but we'll have to play well" -- but the issue is you have to play well three games in a row.
As for the bottom five comment, I didn't really express myself well. What I meant was that in routs, with 12 good players, it was difficult to throttle back because the bottom five weren't that much worse than the top five. On some good teams, the dropoff after number eight in the rotation is pretty steep, and so when the end of the bench is in, an inferior team can do OK.
