SoCalHoops High School News

Buckley Beats Both First Place Teams
But Loses Coin Flip--(Feb. 13, 1999)

It all came down to a coin toss.  Heads or tails.

Buckley, a Division V-AA team from Liberty League, a team that was hoping to make the playoffs for the first time in three years, played it's final regular home season game last night against Viewpoint.    But the Griffins, who this week were selected by the SCIBCA Coaches Poll as one of the teams "receiving votes for consideration" to be among the top 10 in their Division,   found themselves in the unenviable position of playing not for a playoff spot, but for the right to watch someone else call "heads" or "tails" on a coin flip.   

They would have to watch a coin toss that would determine whether they would get to go to the playoffs as a matter of right,  or whether they would go home and sit an wait for the "at-large" selection committee from the Southern Section to come calling.

How did it happen that Buckley, a team with the second best record in the league,  found itself in this position?   Because of a loss this week, a week that saw the Griffins playing 5 games in 7 days, a week in which they won 4 of 5 games by scores of 65-38, 62-49, 65-45, and 82-60,  (an average winning margin of 20.5 points), a week where a single loss meant that the Buckley's post-season would depend upon the toss of a coin. 

Because of a log-jam in the Liberty League standings,  Buckley needed the win against Viewpoint just to earn the right to watch someone flip a coin to get the last of 4 "automatic" playoff spots awarded to their league.

Buckley did win the game, convincingly, by 22 points,  82-60, in a fast-breaking, exciting and hard fought contest in which  Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-3" So. SG) scored 30 points, 24 in the first half,  Alex Clancy (5'-11" So. SG) scored 19 points including 4 three-pointers, and in which freshman David Gale (6'-0" Fr. PG) dished out 8 assists and picked off 6 steals. 

For Buckley, it was the fifth win in six straight games, and each win had been more convincing than the previous one.  But for the one untimely loss,  there would have been a three way tie for first instead and they wouldn't have had to deal with watching a coin toss.  Some would say that's the consequence of losing too many league games.  But when a team finishes tied for second place,  somehow a coin toss just doesn't seem a fitting way to end the season.

But because the Griffins finished in a tie for second, at 9-5 with league rival Holy Martyrs,  both teams having split games against each other, it all came down to a coin flip.  A single toss of a coin. Heads or tails.

Here's precisely how it happened. Liberty League has  8 teams, so  4 teams get "automatic" bids to the playoffs.   Going into last night's game, Yeshiva, and Providence had 10-4 records in league play, and were tied for first, so they got the first two spots.  Buckley, Windward and Holy Martyrs all finished tied for second at 9-5.  Because Windward had beaten both Buckley and Holy Martyrs in each meeting,  Windward received the third spot, and Buckley and Holy Martyrs, who split, needed a tie-breaker. 

So a coin was flipped.

Within minutes of the conclusion of last night's game, a game in which Buckley hammered Viewpoint by 22 points,  the full reality that the Griffins had only earned the right to watch someone else call out "heads" or "tails" began to sink in upon the players.  But they didn't have to watch, because the coin flip took place behind closed doors. It was conducted by Paul Sutton, head coach of Providence, the Liberty League president.   The only people allowed to attend were the Buckley AD and the Holy Martyrs AD and the coaches.

Heads or tails. 

It didn't matter for purposes of a coin flip that Buckley had played an exciting and competitive season, the best in four years.  It didn't matter that the Griffins had tied for second in league. It didn't matter that sophomore Colin Ward-Henninger was perhaps the only Liberty League player to be consistently ranked by the LA Times among the top 25 in scoring averages in the Valley region of  Southern Section,  averaging more than 16 points per game,  and it didn't matter that he was named by Eric Sondheimer of the LA Times Valley Edition, as the "best small school athlete in the Valley".   It also didn't matter any longer that freshman point guard David Gale had been ranked every week since the start of the season among the top steals leader in the Valley region of Southern Section, nor did it matter for a coin flip that this week Gale was ranked 2nd in the Valley in steals averaging 5.2 per game, and that he'd been ranked every week in assists among the leaders.  Likewise, it didn't matter when tossing a coin that Buckley (13-9 overall and 9-5 in league) had beaten each of the first place teams, that they beat Viewpoint last night for the second time in two meetings by more than 20 points.  And it also didn't matter that Buckley had beaten both of the first place teams once, (Providence on their home court) and that it had played Windward twice to overtime (one a triple overtime).

None of that mattered at all.  The only thing that mattered was "heads" or "tails."

Was it "fair" that it might end this way?  Who knows; we at SoCalHoops can't answer that one.  While the CIF continually  stresses and tries to instill values of fair play and good sportsmanship in the athletes who participate in organized sports, many times, just like other times these players will experience in their lives,  things aren't often "fair."  

In fact, at the moment the coin was tossed, behind a closed door,  "fair" seemed to be really beside the point. 

But still, all things considered, there was something odd about watching a team leave it all out on the floor for 32 minutes, only to have it all determined by the toss a coin.   And from the looks on the faces of the players when they were informed of the results of the coin toss,  there seemed something distinctly not fair about what had happened.  

But fair or not,  the reality was,   like it or not,  that it had all come down to just a single coin toss.

When the coin came to rest on "heads," Holy Martyrs, a team with an identical league record to Buckley, had "earned" the right to an automatic  playoff berth.   And instead of a playoff spot, Buckley had "earned" the right to wait and hope that the CIF Southern Section playoff committee would somehow, like a needle in a haystack, pick them out from among the other teams who petition for "at-large" status. 

We spoke with several of the Buckley players after the game, and most of them realized that the odds were pretty long on a post-season selection.  But having just gone through the coin toss experience,  most were still hopeful that with a little human intervention,  a little thoughtful analysis and deliberation,  they would fare better than just watching someone call out "heads" or "tails."  The Buckley players were all hopeful that when their record was considered, they might yet have a shot.   Said one of the Buckley seniors after the coin toss,  "I just hope that the committee sees that we're a good team, with a winning record, and that we deserve to get a spot. It's not like we didn't do well; we tied for second place in our league.  Our record is a lot better than some of the other teams who will get automatic bids from other leagues."  

Earlier on Friday, before the last league games in Southern Section were played, SoCalHoops spoke with the CIF Southern Section office about the selection process for playoffs, including the process of selection for "at-large" berths, and the seeding process in general. 

We learned that if there's a chance that a team like Buckley and other teams in similar circumstances will be selected, it will first be based on determining the number of open and available "at-large" slots.   There is no set number, and it all depends on the number of automatic berths and how large the committee decides to constitute each bracket.   Once those factors are known, and assuming there are "at-large" openings, a special "at-large" committee will then begin the process of culling through the "at-large" petitions.

What will they look for?  Well, taking Buckley as an example, the committee is likely to look at things such as (1) the fact that Buckley beat 1st place Providence (which is playing in Division IV-A in playoffs) on it's home court;   (2)  the fact that the Griffins beat another first place team, Yeshiva this past week by 20 points, 65-45;  (3) the fact that Buckley took another 2nd place team, Windward,  to not just one, but two overtime games this season, including one of the most exciting triple overtime finishes this season in Southern Section;  (4)  the fact that Buckley beat Holy Martyrs, the team that got lucky and called "heads" with an impressive showing in their first meeting;   (5) the fact that the most recent SCIBCA poll ranked them as among the "Other Teams Receiving Votes" close to being among the top 10 in the division; and (6) that they have a group of players who are consistently ranked among the individual leaders in scoring, assists, and steals in the region in which the team plays.  

According to a CIF Southern Section spokesperson, here's how "at-large" selection works:  "Any team with more than 10 overall wins can petition to be selected as an 'at-large' team.   However, there's no guarantee that any at-large teams will be chosen. It all depends on how many  'automatic' berths there are for a particular division and how big the playoff bracket will be.  In Division V-A it will probably be a 32 teams bracket, but that hasn't been decided yet." 

"Basically," the spokesperson told SoCalHoops,  "each league president or representative is required to fax us the official final  standings by Saturday morning; most will have them to us by Friday night. The playoff committee will then go to work on Saturday and select the "automatic" berths.  These are chosen based solely upon the league order of finish.  In a 5 or 6 team league, the top three teams automatically qualify.  In a 7 or 8 team league, the top 4 teams are automatically selected." 

"The first part of the selection process is done without regard to the Divisions," the spokesperson continued.  "The automatic spots are inserted into their proper Division brackets and depending upon how many spots remain to be filled, this will, in part, determine how many "at-large" teams are needed," the spokesperson added.  "Once it's determined that at-large teams will be needed, there are lots of factors that go into selecting them," the spokesperson said.  "The committee looks at things like total wins, overall competitiveness of the team, standings in CIF polls, SCIBCA Polls, and as much other  information as they can get their hands on about a particular team."

Returning to our example of Buckley, like other teams in the same position (and there are several others in some of the larger Divisions),  the Griffins still have reason to be hopeful, especially if the composition of last year's Division V-AA playoff bracket is any indication of how the Southern Section might handle "at-large" petitions this season.

In 1997-98, (last season), the Playoff Committee decided on a 32 team D-V-AA playoff bracket tournament. Considering there are about 75 teams in the Division, this allowed about half the division to participate in post-season play. In fact, last year, rather than just limiting the Division outright to the top 32 teams, the selection Committee wisely chose to expand participation in the Division, and invited another 16 teams to play in a first round of   8 "wild-card" games, thus involving 16 teams and close to 200 additional athletes in the playoff process who might not otherwise have participated. 

The winners of these "wild-card" games were then slotted into  8 "open" slots of the 32 team bracket, which thereafter was treated just like any other 32 team tournament.   This was a great idea, one which maximized the involvement of as many schools as possible while also increasing the level of participation.  Whether this type of model will fit into the new method of playoff bracketing this season, which will not rely on "regionalization" as in years past, is something that we'll only find out this Sunday afternoon when the at-large team selections (if any)  are made public and the bracketing and seedings are announced.    

So what are the odds of being chosen as an "at-large" playoff team in Division V-AA?  Rougly about the same as they are for Divisions I-A, I-AA, II-A and II-AA, all Divisions with about 75 teams per division.  Divisions III and IV probably have double the odds of being selected, simply because in order to make up a competitive pool of 16 teams they'll have to take at-large teams, given that there are only about 25 teams per division.

But as for the real odds, at this point, no one knows for sure, and it won't become clear until all of the official league standings are sent to the CIF and the committee begins to see how many teams qualify in which division as "automatics."   In Division V-AA, there may be teams with better overall records than Buckley's, but we're willing to bet that there aren't many other teams who finished tied for second place in their league who won't end up making the playoffs outright.  

But if last year is any guide, teams in the same position as Buckley still have reason to hope that they can continue their season into the playoffs.   Let's look at the standings as reported in the newspapers and also take a look at the list of teams playing in V-AA. If 40 teams make it (8 wild card games in a 32 team bracket), here's our take on how things might shape up among the league leaders, how many "automatics" might make it to V-AA, and thus how many open slots there might be:  

Academy League: 3 guaranteed playoff spots, but only two are likely to be in V-AA--Total (2);
Arrowhead League:   3 automatic bids, but will probably only send one to the division as an "automatic"-- Total (3);
Camino Real League: Only St. Anthony is V-AA--the rest are in other divisions--Total (4);
Christian League: 3 automatics, will probably send 3--Total (7);
Condor League: Gets 3, but will in probably only send 2 to V-AA--Total (9);
DeAnza League: Only Aquinas is V-AA; they will go--Total (10);
Delphic League:  Gets 3 spots guaranteed; only two (Campbell Hall and Pacific Hills) are in V-AA (no other teams finished high enough or have good enough overall records)--Total (12);
Desert Mountain Legue: Gets 3 spots, but the top spots are V-A, not V-AA this year--Total (12);
Express League:  Is V-A, so they should send no one to V-AA--Total  (12);
Freedom League:  Gets 3, should send two to V-AA--Total  (14);
Heritage League:  Gets 3, but only two of the top three should go to V-AA--Total (16);
Liberty League: Will send only 3 of it's 4 to V-AA as "automatics"--Total   (19);
Metro League: Gets 4 playoff spots, but only one is in V-AA--Total (20)
Olympic League:  Gets 3 playoff spots, but only one is in V-AA--Total  (21);
Prep League:  Has 4 playoff spots, but should be sending only two to V-AA--Total (23);
Santa Fe League:  Has 3 spots, but only team in the division, Bell-Jeff, didn't qualify--Total 23;
Tri-Valley League:  Has 3 spots as "automatics" but none this year in V-AA--Total (23);
Valley League:  Gets 3 spots, but will likely only send one to V-AA  (Valley Torah)--Total (24);
Victory League:  Has 3 playoff spots, but only one, Bloomington Christian, is V-AA--Total (25);
Westside League:  Gets 4 spots (8 teams) but only Milken is in V-AA--Total (26).

Assuming a 32 team bracket, there should be around 6 open spots for at-large, maybe more, possibly a couple less.  And if the "wild-card" concept is used this year, there should be more than enough spots to ensure that many deserving teams participate. And if the seedings from last year are any indication of the manner in which the division was bracketed, Buckley,  and other teams like it with winning records, can still hope to get a chance at a playoff spot.

We were also informed yesterday by the CIF Southern Section office spokesperson that the "at-large" committee will consist of one school principal, one coach representative, a member "at-large" and probably a few more people. We're told they'll consider "everything, and that they will try to gather as much information as possible."

Given the thoroughness of most people we've met who work for and with the CIF, we're sure that they'll give every eligible team attention, and that they'll  apply the deliberation the situation requires.   

But no matter the level of the attention they give, we're certain about one thing: A committee of professionals, who care about the game and care about the athletes will give it more thought than simply calling out "heads" or "tails."   

And because they will,  regardless of their decision, we know of at least one group of players who will be grateful that they were even considered to be eligible for a playoff at-large spot. 

"All we want is a chance, as one of the teams that finished in second place in our league, to be considered," said senior Sasha Rahban.

"This is my last chance. I don't want to go out with just a coin flip."

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