First let me say that I’m simply a fan of high school basketball and have no affiliation or ties to ARHS.

After watching the replay of the brawl and now reading ARHS coach’s remarks after their season ending loss, I have to ask the question does the coach have the leadership qualities to lead such a prestigious program? As an outsider, I say No.

This coach’s quote from the article stands out to me:

We’re the high seed left in the tournament, and we would have been at home if it wasn’t for an out-of-control team that we just played,” Curtin said. “You feel a bit robbed.”

He either doesn’t understand that his lack of leadership led to one of his players shoving an opposing player in the back, or worse he does know he lacks leadership qualities, and is attempting to blame the opposing team for the escalation that followed.

Either way, he should be let go. It’s obvious he doesn’t have what it takes to lead young men- regardless of his X’s and O’s Prowess.

First of all, let us recognize what a pleasure it is to have an opportunity to be playing tomorrow night!
Northern Santa Barabra County jewels, the Knights of Santa Maria the Central Section Champions are in the NorCal Open Finals. The Knights although geographically are a Southern California team, that the C.I.F. placed in the north after selection of the Open brackets. The C.I.F. only taking 5 teams from both North and South seeded Saint Josephs the #3 in the North.
Nice package on St. Josephs from KSBY:
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MC vs. St. josephs
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2024 lineman Manasse Itete has left Modesto Christian for Central Catholic according to Brandon Huffman.

Itete is one of the top 2024 prospects in the region.

A DROLL STORY:

They’re not your every day Hoopsters. But man they love the game!

Did you ever wonder why some shots just seem to hang on the rim? They may roll around, and hang there, maybe they go in, maybe not?

The kid at the playground was trying to get some info on them. It seemed like he would never stop pestering the old timer, who showed up at the playground every day.
The kid asked him, “ You actually saw them once?” That’s right kid, I did. It had been some years since anyone had shown this much interest, in one of the oldest of playground legends. “The Drolls “

Legend had it they were tiny hoopsters, invisible to humans. They would sit up on the rim during games, and play their own style of hoops.
Spinning the ball round and round in the cylinder, then pushing it in or out, depending on their mood, and the crowds reaction.
When a player took a shot, they would sit up there and decide whether they would let the ball drop, that is if it was a good shot, and was going in anyway.
They would scan the crowd and watch the expectations in the crowds eyes. Sometimes if the score was tied, they would play keep away for several shots, driving the crowd into a frenzy! Every so often they would snatch the ball and jam it between the rim and backboard.

Then watch in fun as some small kid, or out of shape old guy, try to jump up and dis-lodge it. “ Hey can we borrow your ball for a second?” They got a kick out of that . Kind of mean if you ask me.

I think Michael Jordan pissed them off with the tongue thing. I mean there he was, tongue wagging, flying to the hoop with no warning, and slamming it thru. They barely had time to get out of the way. That really made them really edgy.
They all had favorites. They loved Rodman. He livened things up for them. They would flip him the ball quite often, when he went up for rebounds. They just had their own crazy ways of doing things.

So, have you had enough storytelling he said to the kid?
You mean that was just a story, and not for real? I thought you said you saw them once? Well, I have never actually seen them, but I’ve seen what they can do.

Hey kid, I heard something recently. What’s that said the kid?
Last I heard, they were headed to Golden One Arena. Something about big high school crowds, and lot’s of fans to play with. Man those Drolls just love the game.

Here’s wishing you great hoops!

Coaches,

We will again be hosting the City Championship at CCSF on May 19th to 21st. We always have a great field of teams and play an NCAA bracket to determine the City Champions in 17u (Elite), 16u (Varsity) and 15u (JV) divisions. We usually sell-out with 100 or so teams. If you want a spot please contact me at coachrandal@yahoo.com

Randy Bessolo
Bay City Warriors
415 418 4568

Brought my keyboard, really not expecting to be able to use it due to shaky phone/wifi down here in the San Ramon hills…. and the strong possibility I’ll be forced to stand up the whole game…

Thing 1 is good so far, the signal is holding up…. We’ll hafta see what happens when 1500 cellphones are searching for signal at same time later on…

Thing 2, dunno for sure yet.


Anyyyyyyywaaayyyyyyyyyy…

SJ comes in with a 26-6 record while facing a schedule rated 14.2, mostly due to the weak league they played in… But otherwise they have played some excellent teams, for example losing by just 1 to Modesto Christian.

DV comes in at 27.3 vs. a 20.3 schedule, two of the losses being close ones to SoCal powerhouses, and one to always-tough Monte Vista.

I’m sure everyone that bothers with this little corner of the Internet knows the DV stars, the speedball guards Beasley and Sevilla…

And probably as many know of the super-stud soph Tounde Yessoufou…

Anyway, 33 minutes til tip.

NorCal Finals by Section D1-D5

(3) SJS: Modesto Christian - Open; Vanden - D2; Ripon Christian - D5
(3) Central Section: St. Joseph - Open; San Joaquin Memorial - D2; Sierra - D5
(2) NCS: Salesian - D1; Granada - D1
(2) Oakland Section: Oakland; Oakland Tech - D3
(1) CCS: Half Moon Bay - D4
(1) Northern Section: Chico - D4

(0) San Francisco Section

Can we just combine the SF and OAK sections into one?

There are 16 schools in the Oakland section, and they are guaranteed 2 Norcal playoff spots. Oakland and Oakland Tech are very good teams, but 3rd place team is Fremont at 15-15 with a Maxpreps rating of 3.7.

There are 15 schools in the SF section, and they are also guaranteed 2 Norcal playoff spots. Lincoln and Lowell are good teams and were the playoff teams this year. #3 was Washington with a Maxpreps rating of 6.4.

Seems like at the very least, they should combine the 2 sections and award 3 Norcal playoff spots at the maximum.

North Bay Basketball Academy’s (NBBA) final tryout for UA RISE Circuit and GXL teams takes place Sunday, March 12th. We are looking for a few positions to fill.

For more information and a tryout invite, please contact Brock Winter at brock@northbaybasketballacademy.com.

TIMES:
- 15U: 9:30 – 11:00am @ Novato HS (Gordon Gym)
- 16U: 11:00am – 12:30pm @ Novato HS (Gordon Gym)
- 17U*: 11:00am – 12:30pm @ Novato HS (Gordon Gym)
*Unsigned Seniors welcomed

I see all the girls and boys finals scheduled on NFHS. I don’t see any of them on the Comcast Schedule. Major
Move by the Spectrum-NFHS-CIF alliance …if this is the case this year.

NorCal Finals by Section appear fairly represented

(1) Oakland Section: Oakland Tech - D1
(3) SJS: St. Mary's - D1; Colfax - D3; Bret Harte - D5
(2) CCS: Mitty - Open; Menlo - D4
(3) NCS: Salesian - Open; San Domenico - D4; Cornerstone Christian - D6
(3) Northern Section: Pleasant Valley Chico - D2; Fall River - D5; Weed - D6
(2) Central Section: Central - D2; Caruthers - D3

Despite all the NorCal seeding complaints (which are valid), the NorCal commissioners have to be satisfied with the finals representation.

A DROLL STORY:

They’re not your every day Hoopsters. But man they love the game!

Did you ever wonder why some shots just seem to hang on the rim? They may roll around, and hang there, maybe they go in, maybe not?

The kid at the playground was trying to get some info on them. It seemed like he would never stop pestering the old timer, who showed up at the playground every day.
The kid asked him, “ You actually saw them once?” That’s right kid, I did. It had been some years since anyone had shown this much interest, in one of the oldest of playground legends. “The Drolls “

Legend had it they were tiny hoopsters, invisible to humans. They would sit up on the rim during games, and play their own style of hoops.
Spinning the ball round and round in the cylinder, then pushing it in or out, depending on their mood, and the crowds reaction.
When a player took a shot, they would sit up there and decide whether they would let the ball drop, that is if it was a good shot, and was going in anyway.

They would scan the crowd and watch the expectations in the crowds eyes. Sometimes if the score was tied, they would play keep away for several shots, driving the crowd into a frenzy!

Every so often they would snatch the ball and jam it between the rim and backboard.
Then watch in fun as some small kid, or out of shape old guy, try to jump up and dis-lodge it. “ Hey can we borrow your ball for a second?” They got a kick out of that . Kind of mean if you ask me.

I think Michael Jordan pissed them off with the tongue thing. I mean there he was, tongue wagging, flying to the hoop with no warning, and slamming it thru. They barely had time to get out of the way. That really made them really edgy.
They all had favorites. They loved Rodman. He livened things up for them. They would flip him the ball quite often, when he went up for rebounds. They just had their own crazy ways of doing things.

So, have you had enough storytelling he said to the kid?
You mean that was just a story, and not for real? I thought you said you saw them once? Well, I have never actually seen them, but I’ve seen what they can do.

Hey kid, I heard something recently. What’s that said the kid? Last I heard, they were headed to Golden One Arena.
Something about big high school crowds, and lot’s of fans to play with. Man those Drolls love the game.


Here’s wishing you great hoops!

Will try to give live updates if signal is reliable.

SO. Centennial vs Harvard Westlake
D1 Norte dame vs Sierra Canyon

NO. Modesto Christian vs St Joes
D1. Salesian vs Granada

Where will Kiddman be tonight? Thinking Granada as he is a fan of 2 for 1 basketball!

Half LJCD 26 EW 23
End of 3 EW 40 LJCD 37

Anybody see this game on NFHS? The Pwood game last night was at OT and was
Streamed… So I know the cameras work…

Carondelet is 23-7, SRV 27-4…

These two met back in January, SRV winning a close one…. No reason to think this rematch won’t be close, also.

Any team playing tonight has had a great season! Now it comes down to court play, clock management, ability to make free throws and Coaching.

Open-
De La Salle at Modesto Christian
Another matchup of titans as the Spartans travel to Modesto to try stamp their ticket to the Finals.
MC has a full roster for the first time in a long time now. They Played West Linn with 7 players and had a 14 point lead in the 4th qtr. Prince fouled out and West Linn pulled even went into OT and we lost. DLS was at home versus West Linn and played amazingly in front of their home crowd. MC will be ready for any zone defense, full-court press or defensive maneuvers the face. Who on DLS will be able to stop both Jalen Brown and BJ Davis?
MC78-69 DLS



Dougherty Valley of San Ramon will host Saint Joseph's of Santa Maria
This will look similar to the MC vs. Saint Joe's game back in January as Beasley and Sevilla play very well and can move the ball. Big question is who wins the boards and points in the paint. Again, home cooking might help. St. Joes could easily be undefeated as every loss but one was 1 or 2 points. The other was by 6.
St. Joesphs likes to be very physical, which might hinder the Wildcats.
St. Joe's 75-74 DV

Just for the heck of it. Good luck to all the teams playing.

D1
Granada over CW. I’m all in on EBAL this year. Granada gets it done on the road in a tough environment. Not many weaknesses to this team.

Inderkum over Riordan. Impressive win by Inderkum in round 1 and besides MC game they’ve been red hot.

Salesian over university. Defense prevails in a lower scoring affair

SRV over SHP. Too many weapons and too battle tested coming out of EBAL.

D2
Whitney over GB. These teams know each other well. Should be a very close game

Bellarmine over Vanden

SJM over Calif high. (But will be a great game )

Branson over WR.

D3
I’m heading to Rio vs JS. This should be a great one. I’m on in the fence. Rio has been excellent all year.

My picks from here to get to Golden 1:

Open: Modesto Christian
D1: Salesian
D2: Weston Ranch
D3: Justin-Siena
D4: Chico
D5: Ripon Christian

Open: Mitty
D1: St. Mary's
D2: Pleasant Valley
D3: Colfax
D4: Hillsdale
D5: Bret Harte

Great Games Saturday. Who does everyone have?

I'm going:
Mitty 64 CW 51
Too much size, too much depth, rebounding mismatch. I do not see CW being able to use their trademark zone trap against Mitty all game.

Piedmont 68 Salesian 64
Salesian is playing as well as anyone. An upset here would not surprise me in the least bit. Piedmont has not been tested in weeks. Are they healthy? I lean Piedmont here at home.

Valley Christian beat Buchanan 13-0

Riordan beat Lick-Wilmerding 17-0

St. Francis beat Westmont 4-2

Acalanes beat Tamalpais 2-1

Marin Catholic bet Northgate 4-3