NorCal Roundup: Finals are set

[Streak One]

Here is where we stand heading into Saturday. The private/pubic split is at six apiece.


Open Division: #1 Woodcreek vs. #2 Sheldon 8:00 PM at Santa Clara

Woodcreek beat De La Salle 51-46

Sheldon beat Mitty 56-43


Division I: #3 Logan vs. #9 Palo Alto 4:00 PM at Santa Clara

Palo Alto beat St. Mary’s-Stockton 75-63

Logan beat Heritage 58-51


Division II: #3 Moreau Catholic at #1 St. Francis-Mountain View 6:00 PM

St. Francis beat Del Oro 75-57

Moreau Catholic beat Cardinal Newman 82-66


Division III: #4 Mission-San Francisco at #3 Vanden 6:00 PM

Mission beat St. Ignatius 64-54

Vanden beat Vista del Lago 64-52


Division IV: #3 St. Patrick-St. Vincent at #1 Palma 6:00 PM

Palma beat Central Catholic 64-59

St. Patrick-St. Vincent beat Lick-Wilmerding 73-55


Division V: #2 Elliot Christian at #1 St. Francis-Watsonville 6:00 PM

St. Francis beat Bentley 64-51

Elliot Christian beat Branson 41-34

 

[PhotoGuy_271]

Mission tops St. Ignatius in NorCal Division 3 semifinals

Here's the story

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/articl...NorCal-Division-3-11002595.php#photo-12550938

 

[Straight8]

A link to several articles:

http://bayareapreps.com/

 

[noknight]

Two teams from the MVAL make it to Norcal finals. Not too shabby for an "awful, atrocious" league! Since they're the only league to do this, I guess awful and atrocious are good things. #AlternativeFacts

 

[Straight8]

Also another breakdown of Saturday's NorCal Regional finals [The private/pubic split is at six apiece]
BY SECTIONS->
SJS 4 teams
CCS 4 teams
NCS 3 teams
SFS 1 team

**CCS vs NCS in 3 of the 6 contest

** 2 teams are from the same league [Moreau Catholic and James Logan are Co-League Champions of the MVAL in NCS]

** 3 of James Logan's 5 losses are to NorCal finalist Moreau Catholic, St. Patrick-St. Vincent and Mission-San Francisco [the other 2 losses were to Dublin and DeLaSalle]

Open Division: #1 Woodcreek 31-2 vs. #2 Sheldon 30-3 @8:00 PM at Santa Clara
SJS v SJS

Division I: #3 James Logan 27-5 vs. #9 Palo Alto 26-5 @4:00 PM at Santa Clara
NCS v CCS

Division II: #3 Moreau Catholic 24-9 at #1 St. Francis-Mountain View 21-9 @6:00 PM
NCS v CCS

Division III: #4 Mission-San Francisco 33-1 at #3 Vanden 30-3 @6:00 PM
SFS v SJS

Division IV: #3 St. Patrick-St. Vincent 26-7 at #1 Palma 25-4 @6:00 PM
NCS v CCS

Division V: #2 Elliot Christian 29-4 at #1 St. Francis-Watsonville 28-2 @6:00 PM
SJS v CCS

 

[LoganHomer]

Two teams from the MVAL make it to Norcal finals. Not too shabby for an "awful, atrocious" league! Since they're the only league to do this, I guess awful and atrocious are good things. #AlternativeFacts

Last season it was basically Moreau destroying everyone (they lost 1 game to NM but that was a total upset and MC would have won 9/10 times), with NM and Logan competing for second place. This year NM was awful and it was between Logan and Moreau and the rest of the teams were awful also. The league is very top heavy. Kennedy, American, Irvington really need to rebuild their whole program and sadly MSJH will never really host a good team because they're a very academic oriented HS and they just don't have the athletes.

I am confident that Moreau and Logan will continue to have good teams in the future as well and NM has always been a good team. Most of the games are so boring (just look at the amount Logan/Moreau won by in all their league games) and as much as it's cool to see Logan destroy the teams, it makes it not worth it to attend games even though I live 5 minutes away from Logan.

 

[bones40]

C mon noknight I give credit to Logan and moreau on great seasons and I hope both can
finish the deal for norcal bragging rights but let's not pretend that the league they
play in is not bad in terms of quality opponents it is not a good league at all
besides those two programs.

 

[hoopman2015]

LoganHomer, the deck was set perfectly this year for a Logan cship run this year with a Senior-laden team and a couple of key transfers. I think I predicted that in the preseason. They are going to come way back to the pack next year unless they get some more impact transfers. They have a fairly weak junior class. Obviously Moreau will still be strong next year with Walker running the show. NM was hurt by two expected starters missing the season for medical reasons, and Ashmore will have them back on track next year. Dont sleep on Washington either. Next year they could challenge for the MVAL title. Youre right about the rest of the MVAL though. Teams 5-8 are not going to be relevant.

 

[noknight]

C mon noknight I give credit to Logan and moreau on great seasons and I hope both can
finish the deal for norcal bragging rights but let's not pretend that the league they
play in is not bad in terms of quality opponents it is not a good league at all
besides those two programs.

Oh, I definitely am not saying that the MVAL is the WCAL or anything like that. But the horrid nature of the MVAL has been used by some folks on here for a while as a reason why Moreau underachieves. Nevermind that virtually every year, there's at least one team (Newark or Logan) who is capable of getting to the open or Norcal. So I point out the fallacy in hopes that the incessant denigration of Knight and Moreau ends. It doesn't, but I still try...

 

[hoopman2015]

Moreau deserves credit for the success they have had, but you have to keep in mind they are the only private school in a league full of public schools. Given their aggressive recruiting, they should dominate that league year in, year out.

 

[Straight8]

@hoopman2015 you are so very right about the MVAL and their teams. I would go a step further and say the future besides Moreau and Newark will be very different. With the AAU programs many school have Freshmen and underclass players playing well in their starting lineups. Irvington had a freshman that will average 20 points in his Sophomore year next season. And yes Washington will have 2 returning players averaging in the range of 17 to 20 points a game. Of the 8 MVAL teams at least 4 schools look better on paper then Logan.

 

[LoganHomer]

LoganHomer, the deck was set perfectly this year for a Logan cship run this year with a Senior-laden team and a couple of key transfers. I think I predicted that in the preseason. They are going to come way back to the pack next year unless they get some more impact transfers. They have a fairly weak junior class. Obviously Moreau will still be strong next year with Walker running the show. NM was hurt by two expected starters missing the season for medical reasons, and Ashmore will have them back on track next year. Dont sleep on Washington either. Next year they could challenge for the MVAL title. Youre right about the rest of the MVAL though. Teams 5-8 are not going to be relevant.

I'm not saying Logan is going to be this good in the upcoming years but they'll be able to compete with MC and NM in league games. Also, I disagree with us going back to the pack. I think Logan will be much better then the past and people will realize how bad of a coach Fortenberry was. Logan has always had really good athletes (our track program is really good) and had good size coming in. 2/7 of Logan's main rotation are two sophomores, one is 6'4 Malcolm Steadman whose brother hit a growth spurt into his Junior year and ended up as our 6'9 center that averaged 15 ppg, and by all indications he's better then his brother so far, we also have a couple of tall athletic sophomore guards.

 

[relittleton]

Two teams from the MVAL make it to Norcal finals. Not too shabby for an "awful, atrocious" league! Since they're the only league to do this, I guess awful and atrocious are good things. #AlternativeFacts

Last season it was basically Moreau destroying everyone (they lost 1 game to NM but that was a total upset and MC would have won 9/10 times), with NM and Logan competing for second place. This year NM was awful and it was between Logan and Moreau and the rest of the teams were awful also. The league is very top heavy. Kennedy, American, Irvington really need to rebuild their whole program and sadly MSJH will never really host a good team because they're a very academic oriented HS and they just don't have the athletes.

I am confident that Moreau and Logan will continue to have good teams in the future as well and NM has always been a good team. Most of the games are so boring (just look at the amount Logan/Moreau won by in all their league games) and as much as it's cool to see Logan destroy the teams, it makes it not worth it to attend games even though I live 5 minutes away from Logan.

I usually come here to read and never comment but I'd like to give a little insight to our program at Irvington. We are an academic oriented school as well. There's no open enrollment. We compete with MSJ on an academic level. Our boys basketball just beat out 178 schools for the 2017 CIF Div 1 Scholastic Award.

The only way into Irvington is thru the Arts program. If you even put you want to play a sport you are denied entry. It's not a contact sport school. Badminton, golf, and tennis reign supreme here. Even the school paper takes joy in writing against the contact sports.

Now about basketball...

It literally takes me 3 years to train enough players to have an ok season. That's because the kids aren't built for it. I bring 23 to 25 freshman onto 3 levels each year. That will bring me 3 seniors on varsity 4 years later. We've done some great things and are looking to forward to better years. But when we do get a good win I know I definitely made my money over here. Nothings given.

Im proud of Moreau and Logan. I'm huge supporter of their programs. Strong league or not they have put in the work. When looking at the schedules of many of the good teams up and down the bay lots of them play a certain amount of high ranking team (9000 +) and low ranking teams. I say if the weaker teams are in your league coaches should schedule stronger preseason games and vise versa. They have done just that and that's why they are winning. Keep pushing MVAL!!!

 

[NorCalSportsFan]

Luckily Palma doesn't play on Friday (St Partick's Day). Still going to be an upward battle for the Chieftains against the Bruins to get to the state finals again.

 

[H.E.A.T.]

I predict ccs gets shut out in finals .
Open SJS either way
D1 Logan. NCS
D2. MC. NCS
D3 Vanden SJS
D4 SPSV. NCS
D5 ELLIOT SJS

 

[NorCalSportsFan]

Open - Woodcreek - SJS
D1 - Paly - CCS
D2. St Francis - CCS
D3 Vanden SJS
D4 Palma CCS - Game at Palma and Palma is 25-0 at home over last 25. Defeated HMB b 22 at home and lost by 2 at neutral. SPSV won by 12 over HMB
D5 St Francis - Watsonville - CCS

Taking 4 CCS teams and 2 SJS for an NCS and SF section shutout