It’s NCS semifinal time!

The 25-1 Campolindo Cougars face the 20-6 Northgate Broncos in their third meeting of the season.

As y’all know, it’s usually darned tough to beat a good team three times in a row, but that’s what the Cougars needs to do.

As I look down on the floor to watch the Cougs warming up, I notice that Logan Robeson is on the floor, dressed down, and NO BOOT. No idea whther he’ll play or how much if he does, but it’s sure nice to see him back out there!

Game summary

I mean...wow. Wrong on soo many levels.

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Some fun matchups coming on Wednesday especially the four games in D1 and D2

Division I

McClatchy at Oak Ridge
St. Mary's at Folsom

Division II

Antelope at Vista del Lago
Del Oro at Laguna Creek

Division III

Placer at Vanden
East Union at Lincoln

Division IV

Argonaut at Calaveras
Colfax at Dixon

Division V

John Adams Academy at Bear River
Woodland Christian at Bret Harte

CCS Open: St Ignatius leads SHC 32-14 at the half.

Division I

Monte Vista beat Dublin 47-33
Logan beat San Leandro 57-47

Logan at Monte Vista 7:00 PM Friday

Division III

Alhambra beat West County 51-45 (Alhambra has won seven in a row inclduing wins over Acalanes, Pinole Valley and WC)
San Marin at Moreau Catholic (Wednesday)

Alhambra at winner of Sam Marin/Moreau Catholic

Division V

University beat Mt. Diablo 78-46
Branson beat San Domenico 51-29

University vs. Branson at Novato HS 7:00 PM Friday

Early surprise in the CCS

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Open (Wednesday)

Bishop O'Dowd at Carondelet
San Ramon Valley at Salesian
Heritage at Cardinal Newman (extra game)

Division I (Tuesday)

Dublin at Monte Vista
San Leandro at Logan

Division II (Wednesday)

Alameda at Acalanes
Montgomery at Northgate

Division III (Tuesday)

San Marin at Moreau Catholic
Alhambra at West County (Alhambra beat Pinole Valley)

Division IV (Wednesday)

Gateway at Marin Catholic
Lick-Wilmerding at Piedmont

Division V (Tuesday)

University at Mt. Diablo
San Domenico at Branson

Division I

Sheldon at Inderkum
Modesto Christian at Folsom

Division II

Granite Bay at Whitney
Grant at Elk Grove

Division III

Manteca at Vanden
Burbank at Central Catholic

Division IV

Union Mine at Liberty Ranch
Venture Academy at Calaveras

Division V

Mariposa County at Denair
Bradshaw Christian at Ripon Christian

Rams hand Ponderosa their first loss of the season.

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Go Bruins!

Redwood beat Liberty 4-1: JR Rory Minty went 5.1 innings and gave up five hits and an unearned run. He struck out three. At the plate, SR Cole McGowen went 2-for-3 with a triple and a RBI.

Pittsburg beat Monte Vista 8-0: SO Cole Leschak threw a two hit shutout with six strikeouts for the Pirates. Pittsburg got hits from eight different players including two RBI apiece from Leschak and SR Khamani Blakney.

On Friday, California beat Liberty 4-3. SR Raoul Fabian went 3-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. SR Dom Tuyor went 3-for-3 with two RBI. SR Nick Bronzini tossed five no-hit innings with two walks and 11 strikeouts.

CVC is one of the loudest gyms around…. Student sixth man group is NUTSO, at least if anything near full capacity is allowed tonight…

Bishop O’Dowd hasn’t lost since I saw them get run down from behind by University in the MLK Showcase at DLS.

Total record is 17-5, a few games short of max, I suppose due to Covid cancellations or whatever….

CVC is 19-9, having played a tough nonleague sked and then going 1-5 vs. the top powers in the DFAL. Might be the best 9-or-more-losses team in Norcal.

CVC is ranked #7 in NCS by Maxpreps and O’Dowd is at #9.

I’ve picked CVC to win this, but it could really go either way.

The Warriors have ended the regular season with four straight wins.

It will be interesting how the CCS seeds the Open after Mitty

Pinewood (one loss to SI, beat St. Francis, O'Dowd, Moreau, SRV)
Valley Christian (split with SI and St. Francis, beat Vanden, Newman, lost to Moreau, Salesian)
St. Ignatius (split with VC, swept St. Francis, lost to Carondelet x2, St. Mary's, Antelope)

I’m down her in San Jose for the doubleheader…. Haven’t seen Mitty’s girls in-person this season, nor have I ever been in ths gym, ever.

Not expecting a real competitive game here, with Mitty having blown out St. Francis in their two league meetings…

The two teams split their league series…

Who’ll win the rubber match?

Division I

Turlock at Inderkum
Sheldon at Lincoln-Stockton
Weston Ranch at Modesto Christian
Edison-Stockton at Folsom

Division II

St. Mary's-Stockton at Granite Bay
Oakmont at Whitney
Rodriguez at Grant
Jesuit at Elk Grove

Division III

Center at Vanden
Kimball at Manteca
Placer at Central Catholic
Burbank at El Camino

Division IV

West Campu at Liberty Ranch
Union Mine at Sonora
Venture Academy at Marysville
Ripon at Calaveras

Division V

Aspire Langston Hughes Academy at Denair
Bret Harte at Mariposa County
Bradshaw Christian at Fortune Early College
Bear River at Ripon Christian

Here are the games for Monday.

Division I: Monterey Trail at Oak Ridge, Lincoln-Stockton at McClatchy, Edison at St. Mary's, Cosumnes Oaks at Folsom

Division II: Rodriguez at Vista del Lago, Christian Brothers at Antelope, Atwater at Del Oro, Whitney at Laguna Creek

Division III: El Dorado at Vanden, Kimball at Placer, Los Banos at East Union, Manteca at Lincoln

Division IV: Orestimba at Calaveras, Liberty Ranch at Argonaut, Capital Christian at Colfax, Marysville at Dixon

Division V: Mariposa County at Bear River, Golden Sierra at John Adams Academy, Ben Holt at Woodland Christian, Millenium at Bret Harte

Presented are each Sections' NorCal playoff eligibility criteria. Not saying which ones better. Some are geared toward advancing the stronger school teams regardless of enrollment size, others favor a more enrollment "equity."

Central Coast Section (CCS): Total of 21 Teams per State CIF Blue Pages
All eight Open division teams (8 teams)
Finalists in Divisions 1 - 5 (10 teams)
Three (3) semifinalists from Divisions 1 - 5 who do not advance to the CCS finals (3 teams)
Note: does not specify the criteria how those three semifinalists are selected.

North Coast Section (NCS): Total of 25 Teams per State CIF Blue Pages
All six teams competing in the Open division (6 teams)
Finalists in Divisions 1 - 3 (6 teams)
and the final four (4) teams (semifinalists) competing in NCS Divisions 4-6 will receive automatic berths (12 teams)
The 25th entry will be assigned to the highest seeded (smallest number) semifinal losing team in Divisions 1-3 only.

Sac-Joaquin Section (SJS): Total of 23 Teams per State CIF Blue Pages
Finalists from Divisions 1 - 5 (10 teams)
Semifinalists from Divisions 1 -5 (10 teams)
Finalists from Division 6 (2 teams)
One "at-large" team with the highest MaxPreps ranking not advancing to the semifinals.

North Section (NS): Total of 10 Teams per North Section Rules; 12 Teams per State CIF Blue Pages
Note: North Section does not have any D1 - D2 schools based on enrollment
Finalists from Divisions 3 - 5 (6 teams)
Semifinalist loser with the best seed (smallest number) from Divisions 3 -5 (3 teams)
Either the other Semifinalist loser from Division 4 and from Division 5, using a tie-breaking formula (1 team)
or the other Semifinalist loser from D3, if the D4 or D5 team above opts-out

San Francisco Section: Total of 2 Teams
Section Finalists (2 teams) - The S.F. section only consists of 10 schools/teams
Lowell and Immaculate Conception should be finalists

Oakland Section: Total of 2 Teams
Section Finalists (2 teams) - The Oakland section only consists of 8 girls basketball schools/teams
Oakland Tech will win section easily--excellent schedule strength (dangerous team);
KIPP King Oakland should be other finalist

Here are my picks for the finals an winners plus a non-top four team to watch

Open: Campolindo over De La Salle. Hard to have an underdog in the Open bracket, but Northgate is intersting

Division I: Clayton Valley Charter over Moreau Catholic. Outside of Moreau, I think Monte Vista is dangerous at No. 11

Divisison II: San Ramon Valley over Salesian. Not a deep bracket, but No. 5 Alameda is a lower team to watch

Division III: SPSV over Piedmont. Archie Williams is at No. 4, but they could pose problems with their size.

Division IV: University over Marin Catholic. No. 8 St. Mary's has four of its 6 losses to ranked teams.

Division V: Cloverdale over Head-Royce

Just finished on BallerTV
Way to many athletes on SF
Wish we could see them play
Etiwanda or Desoto again

Annoying: When teams don't post their results on MaxPreps ... not even a score. Lack of rosters not far behind.

Ok so could someone please explain to me how SPSV isn’t in the Open division? 19-1 with the only loss being to the #2 team in Arizona. Champs of the TCAL rock, defending ncs D3 champs. They’ve been a solid program for years and finally broke thru and knocked off Salesian only to get hosed by the NCS folks. So you’re telling me a 5th place team in the EBAL is better than the 1st place team in the TCAL? I didn’t watch tooooo too much high school hoops but if 925 is that dominating compared to other parts of the section then I really need to start checking out more tri valley games. I understand their schedule was pretty soft and this worst Salesians record has been in a long long time. I get that. But to split the 6 automatic NorCal berths between 2 leagues is pretty lame.

Is it still the same rule that if you finish top 4 in your division, you go to NorCal?