Girls BB: Abend CIF pairings reaction
By
Harold Abend
| Published: March 9, 2015
Here's
what our main California girls basketball analyst Harold Abend thinks
about the CIF Open Division pairings (both north & south) that were
announced on Sunday:
There were some real surprises in both the Northern Regional and
Southern Regional Open Division selections and seedings, but we knew the
process would have them so we have to agree with Berkeley St. Mary's
head coach
Nate Fripp when he said the following after
being told he was the No. 5 seed in the north. "I'm not upset. I'm
surprised we were chosen ahead of Carondelet, but it is what it is."
Harold Abend
What it is could be a little puzzling, particularly with respect to
Berkeley St. Mary's. The Panthers do have a head-to-head win over a
Vanden team that also lost to NorCal Open No. 8 seed Modesto Christian,
but Vanden has a win over SoCal Open No. 4 seed Fresno Clovis West, and a
win over SoCal Division I No. 2 seed Vista Murrieta, and the Carondelet
team that went back to Division II has a win over SoCal Open No. 6 seed
Mission Hills of San Marcos.
Also, St. Mary's being seeded higher than No. 7 Pinewood (Los Altos
Hills) and Pinewood behind No. 6 St. Ignatius (San Francisco) is also a
reason for more head scratching.
Several texts, tweets and emails also wanted to know why Dublin did
not go ahead of St. Mary's Berkeley, and that probably had to do with
not having much of a resume prior to the upset over Carondelet. Dublin
indeed could have been taken up to the Open Division because the team
did make it into the NorCal playoffs the last two seasons.
The Southern Region commissioners seemingly leveled the field with
the north and answered past complaints about a short field by adding two
teams this season and going from six teams to eight, but they did it by
adding the two teams from the L.A. City Section that had a chance to
win a state title in their own division, but no chance in the Open
field.
Other than that, the SoCal field seems reasonably seeded, other than a
Clovis West team with a loss to a Vanden team left out seeded No. 4 and
ahead of No. 5 Bishop Alemany of Mission Hills. The good news for
Clovis West fans is the higher seed means at least they get a home game.
Depending on how you weighed the various criteria for the Open
Division, a case could have been made for a whole slew of scenarios,
including what was arrived at with the 16 teams chosen. The north
basically became a mess with many late-season upsets, especially in the
CCS.
The bottom line is our predictions for the Open Divisions won't make a
whole lot of difference other than No. 1 Stockton St. Mary's in the
NorCals and No. 2 Chaminade (West Hills) and No. 3 Santa Ana Mater Dei
in the SoCals. Unless No. 4 Long Beach Poly gets it together, it's going
to be some combination of those three teams that will be in the Open
Division state final later this month at Cal's Haas Pavilion in
Berkeley.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the
vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can
be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don't forget to follow him
on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
