After a season of suspense, hyperbole and debate, the "winners" are in.
The California Interscholastic Federation just announced its new Open Division competitors and there were some surprises.
Stanley Johnson leads Mater Dei,
which was selected into the CIF's
initial Open Division South field.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
The new division was created to put all the perennial powers which are having another superior season into one tournament, thus creating better chances for other schools to win a state titles in the other divisions.
Many believe it was in reaction to private school dominance and give the public schools a shot.
Twenty of the 25 boys state champions in the past five years and 21 of 25 girls champions were private schools.
In any event, the teams were selected by the 10 CIF commissioners located in different regions throughout the state. Here they are:
South boys: 1.
Etiwanda (27-3); 2.
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) (30-2); 3.
Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) (27-3); 4.
Bullard (Fresno) (27-2); 5.
Westchester (Los Angeles) (28-6); 6.
St. John Bosco (Bellflower) (24-6); 7.
El Camino Real (Woodland Hills) (28-3).
South girls: 1.
Windward (Los Angeles) (30-1); 2.
Santiago (Corona) (29-2); 3.
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) (28-1); 4.
La Jolla Country Day (17-11); 5.
Troy (Fullerton) (25-4); 6.
Stockdale (Bakersfield) (24-5).
North boys: 1.
Salesian (Richmond) (30-3); 2.
Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) (26-4); 3.
Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) (26-3); 4.
Sheldon (Sacramento) (25-5); 5.
Serra (San Mateo) (25-5); 6.
Modesto Christian (Modesto) (28-3); 7.
Newark Memorial (Newark) (23-7).
North girls: 1.
Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland, Calif.) (26-3); 2.
St. Mary's (Stockton) (29-2); 3.
Carondelet (Concord) (25-3); 4.
St. Mary's (Albany) (28-4); 5.
Sacramento (27-4); 6.
Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) (24-6); 7.
Miramonte (Orinda) (27-2); 8.
Brookside Christian (Stockton) (26-4).
Check out the MaxPreps computer
boys and
girls rankings to see how they match up.
See complete BOYS bracket here. GIRLS bracket here.
The biggest boys Open surprise might have been the exclusion of
De La Salle (Concord)
(25-4), which easily met the criteria and has a long history of
success. By all indications it wanted to be pulled up and expected to.
De
La Salle lost in the North Coast Section semifinals to eventual
champion Deer Valley-Antioch, which didn't meet the criteria, but is
clearly one of the top eight teams in Northern California. Deer Valley
opted not to petition up which seemed to seal De La Salle's fate to be
moved up.
Instead, Central Coast Section runner-up Serra, a
Division II team that has never won a state title and didn't want the
move up, was pulled up as was Newark Memorial, another Division II
squad.
The biggest girls Open surprise by far was the inclusion of
Brookside Christian, the defending state Division V girls champion,
which will open the Open playoffs against nationally ranked Bishop
O'Dowd.
Check out more analysis later.
Here is the criteria the CIF used to selected the squads.
The following criteria will be utilized to select the teams for the Open Division for the CIF State Basketball Tournament. A school needs to only satisfy one of the criteria below to be considered:
* A school must have won two consecutive section basketball championships; or a school must have qualified for the regional championships for three of the past four years.
Cal-bound K.C. Waters leads top
Open North seed Bishop O'Dowd.
Photo by Dennis Lee
* A school qualifies for the second straight year after competing in the state or regional final the previous year.
* A school qualifying for their regional playoffs may request to be placed in the open division.
* A school was ranked in the Top Ten of Cal Hi Basketball, Cal Preps and/or MaxPreps Rankings (early March) the past two years (current year and previous year).
Evaluation Tool:
A school's strength of schedule will be used to evaluate the strength of the program. (i.e., regional or national type of schedule).
Entry Cap:
* No more than four teams may be selected from any one of the 10 sections.
* Sections may choose to replace selected teams in the division from which they were selected.
More about the
state and regional tournaments from the CIF.
