Preseason update after St. Mary's event

[ClayK]

Mitty, St. Joseph Notre Dame, Bishop O'Dowd and Miramonte were all at the St. Mary's camp this weekend (along with EYBL teams Boo Williams (Virginia) and Cal Stars, plus Cal Ballaz). And much of Etiwanda's roster was with Cal Stars Valley.

Mitty clearly looked to be the class of the group, with a tall, deep, talented, well-coached team. Hunter Hernandez appears to be the point guard (I didn't ask Sue if anyone was missing), which takes her out of her best position, presumably, but it's a really nice team. There are no superstars in the Haley Jones category, so Mitty might not be quite as strong as in the past couple years, but it sure looks like the NorCal Open title will run through San Jose.

Miramonte and O'Dowd played a one-point game (won by Miramonte on two late free throws by Jordan Allred), so those two perennial rivals seem to be as good as ever. Note, though, they are in different NCS divisions this year, so unless the NCS passes the Open Division proposal, they won't play in NCS.

SJND also looked very good, with yet another Mastora sister in the mix.

And St. Mary's used Madigan gym, with its 94-foot court and AC, as the main court, which worked out well too. The EYBL/Ballaz-level games were well-suited to that court length.

Congrats to Paul Thomas and the SMC staff for putting this together ...

 

[LBJ6]

Miramonte is D1 or is O dowd D1 this year

 

[OnBall8]

Mitty clearly looked to be the class of the group, with a tall, deep, talented, well-coached team. Hunter Hernandez appears to be the point guard (I didn't ask Sue if anyone was missing), which takes her out of her best position, presumably, but it's a really nice team. There are no superstars in the Haley Jones category, so Mitty might not be quite as strong as in the past couple years, but it sure looks like the NorCal Open title will run through San Jose.

Unless I am mistaken, Mitty was missing Sr. Ashley Hiraki, who could presumably fill that role as PG allowing Hernandez to slide over to the 2 guard.

 

[LBJ6]

Miramonte is D1 or is O dowd D1 this year

Answered my own question. Miramonte should be the favorite in D1 this year and O dowd can sleep walk to a D2 NCS title. Is there anyone that can remotely challenge them in D2?

 

[ClayK]

I thought I'd check the NCS website, and to my surprise, Salesian is D2 this year as well. I thought they had one more year in D3.

Maria Carrillo drops to D3 and Willits drops to D5, while St. Bernard's moves to D4.

So in a way, it's working, as D1 will be very competitive, Salesian and O'Dowd will face each other in D2, and SJND and Cardinal Newman will battle it out in D3.

Of course, if NCS implements the Open this year, which is a possibility, presumably most of those teams would be pulled up to compete against each other.

 

[colhenrylives]

It is somewhat surprising that NCS has not gone all the way to implement competitive equity by instituting an Open Division. CCS has been utilizing the Open for years. Which has allowed the lower consolation divisions to feature public schools, for the most part. The CCS Open is essentially the WCAL/WBAL playoffs. In other words, it's a private/parochial affair (with an occasional public sacrificial lamb tossed in as cannon fodder to even out the bracket).

 

[bones40]

Clayk do you know if the NCS open division
proposal is on the table for boys and girls basketball for the 2019-2020 season ?

 

[ClayK]

My understanding is that the Sports Advisory Commission will consider the proposal in August, and then it will go before the Board of Managers for approval at the fall meeting. I believe the proposal is for this year, but it could be delayed a season, if approved.

 

[colhenrylives]

What's handy: The CCS experience

My understanding is that the Sports Advisory Commission will consider the proposal in August, and then it will go before the Board of Managers for approval at the fall meeting. I believe the proposal is for this year, but it could be delayed a season, if approved.

What's readily available for the asking and examination: The CCS Open Division experience.

 

[Winning Is Fun]

The SMC camp the week before had Pinewood there and they didn't win a game. The two time defending Norcal champs may have trouble just to make CCS open this year. Far fetched????

 

[LBJ6]

The SMC camp the week before had Pinewood there and they didn't win a game. The two time defending Norcal champs may have trouble just to make CCS open this year. Far fetched????

They'll look a lot better when Una gets healthy. They'll have 3 really good guards. Yes, them not making CCS open is far fetched.

 

[OnBall8]

Pinewood has at least 3 transfers. Not sure if they are playing with the team or not. 2 of them are 6'2"+ I believe and the other is an athletic wing from Homestead. No idea how these kids will fit into the system they run, or if they will run a slightly different system than recent years

 

[ClayK]

Pinewood might not be as good as in the past couple years, but underestimating Doc's program is probably not a wise idea.

 

[Winning Is Fun]

I have seen the two transfers and they're not exactly the type to fit the pinewood system. They're average players. Maybe Doc will coach them up.

Una may not be back for a while. Didn't she tear her acl in December? She's their best player when healthy. If she doesn't come back 100% it'll be a VERY rough year for them. Did I just see they lost 29-14 to cardinal Neuman? Is that a misprint?

 

[northbaybbguru]

Here's to hoping the NCS puts an "OPEN" section into the works this year. Fingers crossed!

(If not) The way the divisions are set up right now are pretty solid. Makes for some interesting potential matchups in the D1/2/3 finals.

 

[Norcal_Fan]

Clay,

Why doesn't NCS just take the powerhouse teams and move them ALL in D1 and start from there? seems like its a better move than slowly moving them up every 2-3 years. For ST. Joes to go D1, they'd have to wait another 4-6 years according to this process.

 

[ClayK]

Good idea, but I like this one better:

Begin by eliminating divisions entirely. Then, at the end of the season, all teams that qualify for postseason are ranked 1 to 100 (or however many there are). Then, the top eight are Open, then next 16 are Division 1, etc.

Basically, the committee already does this -- ranking all the teams that qualify -- so the only real change is that there's no artificial distinction (divisions that are still primarily based on enrollment) that separates teams.

With eight Open teams and 16 teams per six divisions, that's 104 available slots, which may or may not be filled. If there are more, add an outbracket game (two teams) starting in Division VI. Outbracket games would then be added to Division V, if necessary, and so on.

If there are not enough qualified teams, then the top seed in Division VI gets a bye; then the top seed in Division V; and so on up the line. (The Open would stay at a full eight.)

 

[Norcal_Fan]

Okay...but what happens for Norcals? Do all 8 get Norcal births or just top 2 (since there's only 8 teams), 4, all 8? CCS, I think ALL open teams get norcal births regardless if they lose in the first round. I remember Presentation was robbed of going to Norcals one year because of this.

 

[ClayK]

NCS gets 25 bids to NorCals, and it's up to NCS to determine which 25 teams it submits to the NorCal committee.

There are a lot of ways to divide those 25 in the six existing divisions (though Division VI does play for a state title, only a NorCal title). If you add the Open, presumably all Open teams would move on to NorCals, and then decisions would have to be made about how many from each division would automatically qualify.

In some ways, that's almost a separate issue from the NCS format, but in many ways, they are linked.