The state basketball playoffs start Tuesday.
Hundreds of teams received their seeding on Sunday and are now getting ready for a sprint that they hope will end in Sacramento on March 8-9 with a victory at the state championship.
As always, some teams fared better than others when the brackets were unveiled.
In the competitive-equity model the California Interscholastic Federation uses for seeding, teams are ranked from top-to-bottom and then divided into divisions, with the top 5-8 going into the Open, the next 16 in Division I and on down the line through Division V.
With six teams in this year’s Open for the boys and girls, the lucky ranking numbers were 7, 23, 39, 55 and 71. If you had one of those numbers, it was like winning a lottery.
Your team was a No. 1 seed, which means home games until the state finals as long as you keep advancing.
Clovis West (7), Branham (23), Santa Cruz (39), Santa Teresa (55) and Athenian (71) were top boys seeds in Divisions I through V.
Pinewood (7), Branham (23), University-San Francisco (39), St. Bernard’s-Eureka (55) and Mendota (71) drew the top girls seeds in Divisions I through V.
The brackets never make everyone happy, as we all know, and every year there are questions.
The Bay Area News Group spoke to CIF associate executive director Brian Seymour on Sunday night about decisions that affected teams in this region.
Here are the highlights:
Darren Sabedra: How tough was it for the committee to go with six teams in the Open and put the San Ramon Valley girls as the sixth seeded instead of a No. 1 in Division I?
Brian Seymour: That’s always a tough one. You could say that from when we go with who is going to be the 16th seed in D1 to the next team in 2 and so forth and so on. That’s always the toughest one. They (committee) focused on six because, to be honest with you, that’s where they kind of thought there was a larger separation with the teams that really throughout the entire season played above a certain level. Of course, San Ramon Valley has been terrific all year.
Darren Sabedra: Was it harder this year to fill out the girls NorCal Open bracket because there is a team at the top (Mitty) that is so dominant?
Brian Seymour: You know about it. Obviously you watch games all year long, you know that when they’re healthy, how solid of a team they are across the board. I mean, they’re the national No. 1 team right now. Quite frankly, down South with Etiwanda, how they’re not the national No. 2, I am not sure because they’re terrific as well. Basically what you’re trying to do is find from the teams that you have to choose from, group them as competitively as you can. That’s why you see sometimes that there are not more teams in the first division because the committee realizes from year to year there are certain teams that can compete and then there are others that maybe it’s not in their best interest.
Darren Sabedra: The Oakland Tech girls were a unique case this season, given that they had to forfeit six non-league games for using an ineligible player. Did the forfeits play any role in Tech being in Division II and not Division I? (Tech is the defending Division I champion).
Brian Seymour: You look at the body of work of the entire season and you trust the commissioners, too, looking at it and saying, ‘This is why this team is where they’re at. It could be all kinds of different circumstances. It could be from an eligibility standpoint. I could be from injury. It could be from a sit-out period. You take all those things into it. There are enough people on the committee who have been doing this for a long time that they realize what’s a good team and where they should be.
Darren Sabedra: So the committee feels it is not compromising the bracket by putting them in Division II and not Division I?
Brian Seymour: Right. There were other teams that they felt were just better and that’s why they filled up the Division I and they fell into Division II.
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Darren Sabedra: Bellarmine has a 10-17 record and got a home game as a No. 5 seed in the Division II boys bracket. Does CIF take into account records when deciding where a team will play?
Brian Seymour: You can’t go into it and say we don’t think this team deserves a home game simply because they don’t have a strong record. Take a look at who they’ve played throughout the year. A big piece of this that we look at is not only what your record is and what your finish was in your section tournament but who did you play. It’s one thing to be 28-1 and you really scheduled against no other teams that are currently in the tournament. That’s an eyebrow raiser. Compared to a team that might be .500 but they had to play against (several) teams that are in the tournament. When it’s their number and they get called and they get placed on the board, that’s just the way it goes. If they’re a top eight seed at that point, they are probably going to get a home game.