The CCS seeding commttee could not find eight private/parochials to fill out its Open Division bracket today. So Palo Alto and Capuchino, a pair of publics, will be sacrificed on Friday at Pinewood and Mitty respectively. Nice work. In the past, Open losers would automatically be seeded into the NorCal regionals. There are no regionals this year. So CCS is the only post-season game in town.
CCS Open notes
- Thread starter colhenrylives
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No argument with the seeding. Just a little disappointed that the committee has Paly playing Pinewood two weeks after Pinewood beat them by 30 at Paly. I'd have rather seen Paly as the #8 playing Mitty, just for a change of scenery. Not sure that Paly shares that view.
CCS Bracket - http://cifccs.org/Playoffs/results/20-21/BASKETBALL_GIRLS_OPEN_2021.pdf
For this year, I would have loved to see a four team Open Bracket. That might not be possible, but it is tough that CCS Open doesn't mean automatic NorCal bid this year.
For this year, I would have loved to see a four team Open Bracket. That might not be possible, but it is tough that CCS Open doesn't mean automatic NorCal bid this year.
Heck, the WCAL couldn't find one school to compete against Mitty, so filling out a decent Open Bracket is impossible.
Maybe the CCS should go to the old school professional wrestling model....In the late 70's/early 80's Andre the Giant would sometimes take on 2-3 opponents at the same time, so maybe teams playing Mitty could have 6 on the floor versus Mitty's 5. Another possibility would be to take the best 12 players from public school rosters, and see if they can defeat MItty? Anything is better than 87-32, or even the high comedy of a 98-43.
Maybe the CCS should go to the old school professional wrestling model....In the late 70's/early 80's Andre the Giant would sometimes take on 2-3 opponents at the same time, so maybe teams playing Mitty could have 6 on the floor versus Mitty's 5. Another possibility would be to take the best 12 players from public school rosters, and see if they can defeat MItty? Anything is better than 87-32, or even the high comedy of a 98-43.
Agree on 6-team Open this year (or maybe even 4).
Would have helped bolster the Division brackets, too.
Heard Paly (14-5) was originally 6 seed in Open until a very late flip-flop with Menlo (4-4). For obvious reasons, that's a notable shift.
BTW, think fully-healthy Menlo could surprise at SI.
This already exists outside of school, AAU, and in the case of Mitty specifically, whenever their Cagers teams play other teams we have this. Not sure what the yearly fuss is about publics, privates, CCS, Mitty, etc. In most every sport/activity, school teams aren't where the real competition and top action happens, but school teams does get coverage in the media and message boards.
It really doesn't matter how many teams are in a division or a bracket -- the bottom seed will complain that there are too many, and the top seed in the next one down is silently smiling.
If you have six teams, No. 7 is happy. If you have seven teams, No. 7 is whining.
Really, the CCS Open should be Pinewood and Mitty, as the closest game either of the two teams has played against any of the others is 13 points. But let's say there were four ... well, No. 5 is now the best in Division I, and it's a private school.
Wherever you draw the line, you create favorites and underdogs -- so eight, really, is no different than six or 12 or four.
If you have six teams, No. 7 is happy. If you have seven teams, No. 7 is whining.
Really, the CCS Open should be Pinewood and Mitty, as the closest game either of the two teams has played against any of the others is 13 points. But let's say there were four ... well, No. 5 is now the best in Division I, and it's a private school.
Wherever you draw the line, you create favorites and underdogs -- so eight, really, is no different than six or 12 or four.
Unless you're worried about competitive games.
Which do you think will be a closer game:
Cap against Mitty, or Cap against current top seed in . . . pick a division?
Paly against Pinewood, or Paly against Los Altos (current #1 seed in D1)?
Plus, it's not like there isn't room in Division brackets (i.e., you're not bouncing teams out of CCS altogether).
What's different about these very late CCS playoffs is that Open Division losers cannot proceed to a NorCal tourney bracket that's suitable for their competitive level. In a normal year, teams like Capuchino and Paly, after losing their openers, would play a consolation game or two then head to NorCals in a division appropriate for them. Now, they will be sacrificed to the private/parochials and their seasons will end, probably in very one-sided fashion (unless the Mitty and Pinewood coaches decide to exercise some serious compassion). In this very odd season, CCS should have gone with six in the Open. All private/parochials. Apples to apples as it were.
Regarding Cap v. Mitty, remember that Cap has 3 legitimate D1 kids, has played together as an AAU team for years and has dropped over 100 points on a couple of teams this year. I believe their 3 D1 kids are averaging about 60 points a game between them. Is there another public school team in CCS that has their resume? For that matter, I don't know of any team in CCS besides Mitty that has 3 D1 players in their starting 5 with the possible exception of Pinewood (sorry, don't know their roster that well.)
But why should the private/parochials get beaten down? They've all already lost to Mitty and Pinewood, sometimes by huge margins. Is it OK for the girls who don't go to public schools to be "sacrificed"?
From what I have seen in the recent past (I havent been to a game this year) is that a good team like Cappuchino will have a great starting 5 with a bench that can compete in their league. But when you play Mitty, and they have waves of D1/D2 kids coming off the BENCH, these other teams have trouble keeping up. The pace might be a little faster than they are used to, but even if they want to play fast, its the ability to play at that pace for an entire 32 minutes that gets daunting. I see your point that it might not be as big of a blowout as people here are making it seem, but I also doubt Cap is as good as BOD and we saw what that score looked like against Mitty. This could still have potential to get very ugly
To the surprise of very few, it's ugly. Mitty leads 50-13 with four mins to go in third quarter.
* 70-24 with four mins to go.
Capuchino definitely has some skilled players. But the waves of very large Mitty players are just rolling over them. It has to be demoralizing to see a Mitty center block a shot, grab the board, and go coast to coast. And almost all of them can do it.
* Final Mitty 80 Capuchino 29.
* 70-24 with four mins to go.
Capuchino definitely has some skilled players. But the waves of very large Mitty players are just rolling over them. It has to be demoralizing to see a Mitty center block a shot, grab the board, and go coast to coast. And almost all of them can do it.
* Final Mitty 80 Capuchino 29.
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Didn’t seem like it to the players. I caught the end and cappuccino never hung their heads or gave up. Plus it’s probably good for that coach to learn some humility going into a real season next year
Mitty could have gone to 100, but didn't. No reason to rub it in. They won and move on. USA Coach for a reason.
Congrats to both teams for playing, someone has to win and someone has to lose.
Congrats to both teams for playing, someone has to win and someone has to lose.
What a great opportunity for us down at Mitty. I’m so proud of my girls for never quitting. We never thought of going to the open division, instead of D3, as a negative. We accepted the challenge. They are very talented and well coached. I was told that we are the first ever PAL team to be selected to the Open division. Not bad for 10 kids from San Bruno. Also, wanted to thank all of you for posting. I read these boards all the time and really enjoy it. Off-season starts Monday. We will be back!
Capuchino is a neighborhood team with kids from San Bruno and Mllbrae. Mitty is a regional all-star team with kids from all points of the South Bay compass. The geographic reach of the two programs is dramatically different. No comparison really. The Monarchs suck in talent from far and wide like a hoops Hoover on steroids.
Thank you for clarifying. I did mean the first girls team from the PAL. Capuchino is actually harder to get into than any other school in the area. We have an IB program that isn’t offered everywhere. If you don’t live in San Bruno, you can’t even get a transfer most times. Either way, they are really good and we have to get better to compete at that level. Great experience for us.
daughter's boyfriend from New York, played some and coached some. I offered to him that Sue Philips is the Tara Vanderveer of Bay Area girls' basketball. after Sabrina Ionescu had a big game vs. Mitty as a freshman, she encouraged Sabrina to try out as a walk-on for the USA U17's which she coached. rest is history.
good thing she didn't notice Sabrina sooner. might have ended up at Mitty.
Yes, the M-A girls were in the CCS Open two years in a row - 2016 and 2017. They were the fifth seed both years, and lost to Valley Christian in the first round both years.
Curious as to why teams can't play better or at least work on trying to play better man defense against Pinewood. Girls get beat getting back on defense and beat off the dribble. This leads to help, and open shooters. If SI can play good defense and not get beat off the dribble constantly, it could be a close game.
Ironic though that Pinewood plays a lot of help defense. I think If Pinewood played against Pinewood, the score would be like 150 - 148 because they'd help and leave outside shooters open.
Ironic though that Pinewood plays a lot of help defense. I think If Pinewood played against Pinewood, the score would be like 150 - 148 because they'd help and leave outside shooters open.
Pinewood is highly skilled at all 5 positions offensively. Getting high schoolers to play consistently solid player-to-player defense at an elite level is easier said than done.
Pinewoods losses in recent years have mostly come to teams like Mitty, BOD, Salesian, Winward, etc. that have the players and coaches to accomplish that. Not your run of the mill high school squads
Pinewoods losses in recent years have mostly come to teams like Mitty, BOD, Salesian, Winward, etc. that have the players and coaches to accomplish that. Not your run of the mill high school squads
Doc runs a lot of kids onto the floor in most/all Pinewood games to date. I suspect that rotation will get significantly tighter in the Open Finals against Mitty.
I expect to see a lot of The 4 Seniors, plus Ladine. The fifth senior (Bucher) will likely be "6th Man" in terms of minutes, even assuming she starts. Could get very tight after that.
Regardless, looking forward to the Mitty-Pinewood showdown.
Any team that doesn’t play help is going to get shredded defensively. Ideally win the bounce and keep the offense out of the paint. But help isn’t where you lose. It’s your rotations out of help.
And help is where scouting and the ability of players to process information at full speed comes into play ...
Those coaches who can communicate opponents' preferences and strengths in digestible form, and those players who can transfer those insights into on-the-court decision-making are a tremendous combo at this level. Few girls can do more than two things well, and taking those things away -- especially for the role players -- is huge in big games.
Those coaches who can communicate opponents' preferences and strengths in digestible form, and those players who can transfer those insights into on-the-court decision-making are a tremendous combo at this level. Few girls can do more than two things well, and taking those things away -- especially for the role players -- is huge in big games.
This x100.... but you and I both know there aren't nearly as many coaches that know how to teach this than there claims to be... help is easy to teach, helping the helper and so forth, not so much
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