I have a pretty reliable source that said Santa Clara had absolutely zero interest in hosting this year’s championships in both basketball and soccer … “because of covid.”

Covid has become an excuse for anything you don’t want to do.

This is par for the course for Santa Clara. This is the same school that conveniently decided to limit crowds for their two biggest home men’s basketball games of the year (Gonzaga and BYU). They made their own decision to do so, completely independent of county regulations. Quite the coincidence that they chose to limit crowds to season ticket holders and students when they were facing the two teams that draw the most road fans.

Hopefully Portland gives the Broncos what they deserve tomorrow.

After a year off, I don't remember how competitive seeding works in NorCal. Is it a free for all? Any team anywhere? Any governing principles?

Here is the website link for all State CIF basketball information and dates.

Championship Brackets will be made available the evening of Sunday, February 27​

Broadcast Information​

Spectrum owns all television and internet broadcasting rights and will broadcast all games LIVE Complete Spectrum broadcast schedule

Additionally, in Northern California, the NFHS Network will carry all games

Vanden v. Lincoln…. The one in Lincoln, not Stockton.

Vanden has ripped a hole in their side of the bracket, crunching everyone in their path…. Lincoln has won pretty comfortably, too…. Overall, Vanden’s sked has been quite a bit higher-rated, but we can see how big a difference that made in the D5 boys’ game just concluded. Made no difference at all….

For the number one seed in the south…
Or is it… If Sierra Canyon wins tonite and LJCD wins tonite does LJCD go
To number one n the south

Just starting the D5 boys…

Denair v Bradshaw Christian.

Bradshaw is only 12-18, but they’ve played a far more challenging slate than that of 22-4 Denair.

The teams have met, though, with Denair winning by 1.

Not having my keyboard because I didn’t know if they’d let me in with it, my updates will be just occasional blurbs.

Open: Carondelet over San Ramon Valley

Division I: Monte Vista over San Leandro

Division II: Acalanes over Northgate

Division III: Moreau Catholic over Pinole Valley

Division IV: Piedmont over Marin Catholic

Division V: Branson over Mt. Diablo

Valley Christian beat San Benito 3-0: Mitchell Birdsall had a home run and Alec Belardes threw six shutout innings. Michael Castaneda got the save.

Serra beat Los Altos 5-3: Serra scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Aidan Brenner had a home run for Los Altos.

Mountain View beat Pioneer 2-0: Chase Yocum tossed six shutout innings with six strikeouts to get the win. He added a double and a run scored.

Burlingame beat San Mateo 2-0: Blake Dempsey and Ryan Kall combined for a three hit shutout with eight strikeouts. Dexter Quisol had a run scored and a RBI.

An interesting thing I noticed about the NCS D1 and D2 sections.

Despite 4 teams being pulled from D1 and 2 from D2 for the Open the 2 teams that won each section (Monte Vista and Acalanes) still smoked everyone. Acalanes won all 3 games by a combined score of 60 pts with the closest being 11. Meanwhile Monte Vista won by a combined 137 pts with the closest game being 14! I mean seriously..they took FOUR TEAMS OUT OF D1 THAT WERE SUPPOSEDLY BETTER.

BOTH section champs were public..so the private narrative doesn't fly on the competitive equity argument.

Im not sure what this all means but it was just something interesting I noticed. Why no close games? Is there really that much of a gap between the haves and have nots?

Unfortunately for Acalanes this means they are bound for D1 after next year as surely CN and Salesian get pulled to the OPEN again and Acalanes rolls every team again..maybe worse as their best players are just babies and should get even better.

Monday's 2nd Round Pool Play
Pool A

• Valley Christian @ St. Ignatius
• Serra @ Mitty

Pool B

• Bellarmine @ Riordan
• St. Francis @ Sacred Heart Prep

As it should be. Mitty gets a chance at revenge for last year.

Will be fun watching the matchup between PW's Elle Ladine and Mitty's Morgan Cheli.

Someone other than Ladine will have to hit the glass for Pinewood. If they limit their live ball turnovers against Mitty's press and hit a reasonable percentage from three, it will be competitive.

Predictions?

Pinewood leads Mitty 29-26 at the half

Laguna Creek leads Antelope 31-28

Have arrived at the top row behind Campo’s bench…. 37 minutes to tip-off.

At the half: Laguna Creek leads Antelope, 31-28.
Both teams shooting over 50% from 3-pt. land, and have adjusted to the huge Golden 1 Center arena.

I just saw that this NCS Open Championship is being held on the home court of Carondelet on Friday at 7pm. I thought these games are held at a Neutral site as it looks like the CCS and the SJS Championships are being held at Neutral Sites. Is this just the NCS appeasing Carondelet? Doesn't seem to align to history or the other sections.

Either way, it should be a good game and the game that many hoped would come to play.

Ton of great matchups tonight. Will be posting updates as I see them

Check for yourself CIFSJS.

Also have you seen the prices for Golden 1 for Section finals? 2 adult General Admissions tickets will set you back about $50.00 with fees. If you plan on being there all day and night not a bad deal, but otherwise.
$12 + 5.25 service fee for students.

Little Update.
Newman vs Santa Rosa for Classic Champ.
Newman got stud Gavin Vogesen cleared and at 6”3-6”4 he gives them another great scoring option. Look for newman to run off 8-10 wins in a row.

Montgomery lost a close one 46-41 to a solid Redwood team that should compete for MCAL along with Marin Catholic, Archie Williams, Branson.

My sleeper team is Justin Siena in d4. 10-3 with 2 of those losses to palma and capital Christian in DLS tourney. They have great size and are lengthy.

should be fun as we start league play coming up.

That was the best I've seen from PW this year. It was an 8 point game at the half. Pinewood started Q3 with three straight three pointers, and that was the game.
SI is a strong team with players at every spot, including two solid bigs, but it had no answer for Elle Ladine who logged 30 points (many of the spectacular variety), more than 20 boards, and a bushel of assists. Plus she played lockdown defense on SI's Sabrina Ma. Hard to imagine there's a better player in Nor Cal.

Great win for Folsom.

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Open (Wednesday)

Northgate at Campolindo
Miramonte at De La Salle
Granada at Dublin (extra game)

Division I (Tuesday)

Moreau Catholic at Dougherty Valley
Bishop O'Dowd at Clayton Valley Charter

Division II (Wednesday)

Montgomery at San Ramon Valley
Benicia at Salesian

Division III (Tuesday)

Archie Williams at St. Patrick-St. Vincent
Piedmont at Branson

Division IV (Wednesday)

Justin-Siena at Marin Catholic
Stuart Hall at University

Division V (Tuesday)

Urban at Cloverdale
Athenian at Head-Royce