The 8 CCS Open Teams?

[ccsbball20]

As the regular season is coming to an end and section playoffs starting in a few weeks... What are people's thoughts on who the 8 teams that will be selected for the CCS Open Division? I think 7 of the 8 are pretty much set, but what about the last spot with possibly 4-5 teams that could be that 8th team?

My thoughts.


1) St. Ignatius

2) Pinewood

3) Mitty

4) Eastside College Prep

5) Sacred Heart Cathedral

6) Scotts Valley

7) Palo Alto

8) ? Possibles: St. Francis, Valley Christian, Presentation, Westmoor, Piedmont Hills

SF beat SHC, but has losses against Valley and Pres but play them both again this week, and lost to Westmoor

Valley just beat Westmoor, but lost 3 in a row before that including a blow out loss to Pres where they only scored 16 points last week

Pres beat Westmoor and Scotts Valley earlier this seaosn but that was with Jennings who is no longer with the team. They lost to Piedmont Hills and Branham, split with Valley and beat SF, but play SF again this week

Westmoor has wins over SF and Pres, but just lost to Valley. They played a tough non league schedule and will almost certainly go undefeated in their league

Piedmont Hills beat Pres early this season, but lost to Palo Alto and Los Gatos. They are undefeated in their league with 4 games remaining, but just had a bizarre result of beating a 2-18 WIllow Glen team by just 2 points in Overtime


The next two weeks of league could make a lot of difference in who that last team is.

 

[SouthBayHoopFan]

Some thoughts.

1. The CCS Open is a "positive" Open Tournament. By that I mean that most teams want to be in the Open division because it means they will automatically go to the NorCal playoffs and get a higher seed than all other CCS teams in their division that were not in the Open division. To that end, I'd rather see a team like Piedmont Hills or Westmoor be selected for the CCS Open, and be rewarded for a great league season. St. Francis, Valley Christian, and Presentation will all be sub-.500 in league, so they should earn their way to NorCal through the regular CCS division tournaments. And all three could do that.

2. As I understand it, league standings are used for relative seeding in the CCS playoffs. So for example, if Mitty wins the WCAL, they must be seeded higher than SI, even if SI is ranked higher. So the SI vs Mitty game at Mitty on the 20th will likely decide which team gets a higher Open seed. I look for Mitty to win that game (Mitty and SI girls usually split their games, each winning at home.) If that happens, I think the top three seeds will be Pinewood, Mitty, then SI. If SI wins that game, then it will be SI, Pinewood, then Mitty as you indicated.

3. It probably won't come down to this, but only three teams from any division can be in the CCS Open tournament. Mitty and SI are both in Division 2 and are locks for the CCS Open, so only one of St Francis, Presentation, and Westmoor can make it. If one of these teams does make it into the CCS Open, then only the winner of the CCS division 2 tournament will qualify for the NorCal playoffs. It might actually be more fair to leave all three of these teams in the CCS division 2 playoff, and allow the top 2 from that division tournament to earn their way to NorCal.

4. If you're throwing Westmoor into the mix, I think you also have to consider Mountain View and Los Gatos -- also Division 2 teams. Yet another reason to leave all of these second-tier Division 2 teams in the CCS Division 2 tournament and let them earn their way to NorCal. I'll stick to my original pick of Piedmont Hills in the 8th spot.

5. Too bad the other sections don't have an Open tournament like CCS. This is fun, and produces better games. Now if the CCS would only stagger the dates of the games so we could watch more of them. :-0

6. I know this dead horse has been beaten many times already, but the CIF needs to make their Open Tournament a "positive" tournament -- one that all teams want to be in. They could do that by holding the Open tournament after the division tournaments. The participants would be the top 8 teams from the state championship games. I'd love to see that.

 

[jazzpt55]

The only real interesting games are the Semis because if you lose in the Semis
you have probably "Won" a State Championship in D5 if your Pwood or a D2 Championship
if your Mitty

...Am I correct, ALL 3...Mitty, Pwood and SI can't be taken into the
Norcal Open?

 

[SouthBayHoopFan]

Depends on 6 or 8.

 

[jazzpt55]

So if it is 6 one of the 3 is out?

 

[northbaybbguru]

I had heard that Doc(Pinewood) wants to go open....cant he petition for it even if he loses?

He won D5 last year...I think its very cool he wants to go for it this year if that's true.

 

[jazzpt55]

Doc has to win that CCS semifinal
At Milpitas this year
Plain and simple
prepare for Mitty or SI....

If can beat either one of
those his team deserves a spot

 

[Streak One]

I wasn't a fan of the CCS Open Division at the start, but it has been a really good addition to the section playoffs.

From the initial list, I agree with the first seven and the eighth spot can go either way.

Here's a question. Is it better to play in Open and have an automatic NorCal bid or have a better chance at a section title. This discussion happened last year with Leigh's boys basketball team.

 

[SouthBayHoopFan]

I suppose it depends on your teams' expectations and past successes. Teams that haven't had a lot of success in the past or don't have high expectations for the present, probably would rather take their shot at the section title. I'm sure that was the case with the Leigh boys team last year. It looked like Mitty, Serra, and Saint Ignatius would all be pulled out of the CCS D2 playoff into the Open, leaving a rare opportunity for Leigh to compete for a section title. Instead, Leigh got pulled into the Open and Saint Ignatius won the D2 section title. I don't think that was the right decision by the selection committee.

So for the top-level teams, I think the Open is a big positive because another section title isn't their focus. It gives them an automatic entry to NorCal, and three competitive games heading in. For the mid-level teams it's a double-edged sword. A chance to compete for a section title that they wouldn't typically have if the Open teams were playing in the CCS division tournament. But it's also disappointing if they get pulled into the Open with no chance or winning either there or in the NorCal playoffs.

 

[IQ4BBall]

Here's an interesting take on the 8th spot...

The way it looks right now, it comes down to one of two ways: either Piedmont Hills gets in or a 4th WCAL gets in.

Should Piedmont Hills run the table in the Mt Hamilton BVAL, they would stand at 21-3, 14-0 in league with a big non-league win vs. Presentation. However, they would have a loss to Los Gatos.

Should Valley Christian finish ahead of Pres and St. Francis (they beat SF last night to jump into 4th at this moment), they would have a case for the Open. They beat a Los Gatos team which beat Piedmont Hills (in terms of common opponents) and a split with Presentation. VC also walked through the D3 CCS playoffs last year and would welcome the challenge of the Open.

VC won a recent CCS title last year. Piedmont Hills hasn't won a CCS title in a while, and with Paly going Open, would most-assuredly be the #1 seed.

Interesting debate that will be solved in a mere 11 days!

 

[bodyguard]

Originally posted by IQ4BBall:
Here's an interesting take on the 8th spot...

The way it looks right now, it comes down to one of two ways: either Piedmont Hills gets in or a 4th WCAL gets in.

Should Piedmont Hills run the table in the Mt Hamilton BVAL, they would stand at 21-3, 14-0 in league with a big non-league win vs. Presentation. However, they would have a loss to Los Gatos.

Should Valley Christian finish ahead of Pres and St. Francis (they beat SF last night to jump into 4th at this moment), they would have a case for the Open. They beat a Los Gatos team which beat Piedmont Hills (in terms of common opponents) and a split with Presentation. VC also walked through the D3 CCS playoffs last year and would welcome the challenge of the Open.

VC won a recent CCS title last year. Piedmont Hills hasn't won a CCS title in a while, and with Paly going Open, would most-assuredly be the #1 seed.

Interesting debate that will be solved in a mere 11 days!

Don't forget about North Salinas, 19-2 record and a traditionally strong program. Looks like SI, Pinewood, Mitty locks for top three seeds. Eastside, Scotts Valley, SHC and Paly likely shoe-ins. So the 8th spot will either be a 4th WCAL team or one of a number of the above-mentioned teams and you can throw Menlo in that group as well.



This post was edited on 2/16 1:38 PM by bodyguard

 

[colhenrylives]

The Pres resume trumps the others for eighth. For now.

 

[jazzpt55]

SI at Mitty Friday....
if the top three are SI, PW and Mitty does Mitty go to the
number one seed in the CCS Open if they beat SI?

This is huge because it means playing Pwood in the CCS Semis
if you finish the third seed....

 

[downbylaw]

Don't count out #4 seed Scotts Valley and #5 seed SHC or #6 seed Eastside Prep. All seeds #1-#6 are capable of beating each other on any given night.

This post was edited on 2/17 12:39 PM by downbylaw

 

[jazzpt55]

I expect those 3 to make to the semis....
last year Mitty was upset
but I expect Sue will have them ready

 

[ccsbball20]

Looks like the 8th and final spot will go to Valley or Pres. If Pres beats Notre Dame at home Friday, both Valley and Pres would tie for 4th in the WCAL at 5-7. They split head to head, so it may come down to the committee's opinion of who's more deserving. Obviously Piedmont Hills, Westmoor, and North Salinas could be in the discussion still.