Boys Open Division: Two leagues rise above all others
After learning that St. Patrick-St. Vincent didn’t make the Open Division on Sunday, we had to check to see if Bruins were eligible. In the North Coast Section, only teams coming from Division I, II and III can be pulled up to the Open. SPSV was eligible. But the committee passed on the D-III Bruins, who improved to 19-1 on Saturday when they beat Salesian to win the Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division. It also passed on Bishop O’Dowd, the reigning Open champion from 2020. (There were no NCS playoffs last year because of the pandemic). O’Dowd went undefeated in the West Alameda County Conference’s Foothill League to finish 15-5 overall. The Dragons are on a 12-game winning streak. SPSV is the top seed in D-III, O’Dowd the No. 3 seed in D-I. The committee instead showed its love for the Diablo Athletic League’s Foothill Division and the East Bay Athletic League, which filled the six-team Open bracket with three teams apiece: No. 1 Campolindo, No. 3 Miramonte and No. 5 Northgate of the DAL Foothill and No. 2 De La Salle, No. 4 Dublin and No. 6 Granada of the EBAL. The two leagues were definitely the strongest and a case can be made for all six to land where they did. But SPSV only lost to a 23-2 powerhouse from Arizona, Brophy College Prep. When MaxPreps updated its NCS computer rankings Saturday night, SPSV was fourth, behind Campo, DLS and Northgate. The strength of schedule probably hurt the Bruins, who had the lowest among the top 11 teams in MaxPreps’ rankings.
Girls Open Division: Salesian’s seed was the right call
This much was clear Saturday, the final day of the regular season for NCS schools: The winner of Saturday’s EBAL championship game between Carondelet and San Ramon Valley would be seeded No. 1 in the Open Division. Carondelet won 64-49 and indeed was seeded No. 1 on Sunday. But the committee went with Salesian over San Ramon Valley for the No. 2 seed, which was the right call. Salesian has four losses on the season — two to the Central Coast Section’s top team, Archbishop Mitty, one to Texas power DeSoto and the other to Folsom of the Sac-Joaquin Section, which is 23-2. SRV had won 22 in a row, which included a win over Carondelet two weeks ago, before losing the rematch to Carondelet. But Salesian is ranked higher than SRV by MaxPreps’ computer and has a stronger strength of schedule than the Wolves, who received the No. 3 seed in the Open.
Boys: Best first-round matchups
The top two seeds in the Open Division received first-round byes, which means we won’t see Campolindo or De La Salle on the court until Feb. 23. The Open has the stage to itself Thursday, with matchups that look terrific on the computer screen: No. 5 Northgate (19-6) at No. 4 Dublin (16-5) in one opener, No. 6 Granada (15-7) at No. 3 Miramonte (22-4) in the other. Northgate lost back-to-back late-season games to Campo and Miramonte by a combined five points. Granada won on the road last week over Dougherty Valley and Dublin in the EBAL tournament to reach the final, which the Livermore school lost to De La Salle. Miramonte’s record speaks for itself. Dublin went 8-1 in the EBAL during the single round-robin schedule, with the loss coming at DLS.
Girls: Best opening-round matchups
As with the boys Open, the top two seeds have byes this week. So Carondelet and Salesian will have a 10-day layoff before playing again. Their opponents will be decided Thursday when No. 5 Bishop O’Dowd (14-6) travels to Santa Rosa to play No. 4 Cardinal Newman (21-4) and No. 6 Heritage (17-5) plays host to No. 3 San Ramon Valley (24-3). Heritage will be at home because, in the NCS, league champions host in the first round when playing an opponent that didn’t win a league title. The Heritage-SRV game will be a matchup between two of the section’s top players, SRV’s Natalie Pasco and Heritage’s Amanda Muse. In the other first-round Open game, one team is red hot, the other not so much. Cardinal Newman has won 15 in a row. O’Dowd has lost five of its last seven, including twice in league play to Piedmont, which as a D-IV school was not eligible for the Open. Cardinal Newman reached the Open final two years ago, losing to St. Joseph Notre Dame, which didn’t make the playoffs this season. O’Dowd is probably better than its late-season slide indicates. The Dragons played competitively Saturday against CCS juggernaut Pinewood, losing 57-47.
Potential surprise team
Our dark horse is the Monte Vista boys. Seeded 11th in Division I, the Mustangs gave Dublin all it could handle twice in the final nine days of the regular season, losing at home in overtime on Feb. 4 and coughing up a 12-point lead on the road in the final three minutes Tuesday in the EBAL tournament, losing 62-60. Monte Vista opens the playoffs Tuesday at California, which beat Monte Vista 59-53 last month in league play. If the Mustangs (11-14) win Tuesday, they’d advance to play No. 3 Bishop O’Dowd or No. 14 James Logan on Friday.
Source: www.mercurynews.com