SoCalHoops High School News
CIF Central Section Playoffs:
League Structures & Playoff Seedings--(Feb. 25, 1999)
For some time now we've been promising to update our coverage of Central Section of CIF and the teams playing there. Why? Well for one thing, the Central Section is not located in Northern California, despite the fact that everyone really believes anything north of the Tehachapis is NorCal. Nope, the Central Section, geography notwithstanding, is really located in Southern California. Really. The teams in the Central Section compete in the Southern California Regionals of the State Championship Tournament, and should one or more of them win in any of the five divisions (I, II, III, IV and V), that team or teams will be the representatives from Southern California on March 19 & 20 at ARCO Arena for the State Championship games.
Here's a list of the league placements for the 1998-99 year for teams in the Central Section of CIF:
CIF Central
Section Sequoia Division |
|||
North League Chowchilla |
Central League Dinuba |
South League Arvin |
East League Corcoran |
CIF Central
Section Sierra Division |
|||
West League Caruthers |
East League Central Valley Christian |
Central League Alpaugh |
Coast League Avenal *Football only |
CIF Central
Section Yosemite Division |
|||
TRAC League Buchanan |
North League Bullard |
West League Golden West |
South East
League Bakersfield |
South West League Centennial |
East League Delano |
We don't pretend to know a lot about most of these teams, but we've seen some of them several times this year either in Las Vegas at the Reebok Holiday Classic (actually that was last year, in December 1998, so don't get picky), and at the Best of the West Tournament. Several of these teams also traveled to other venues and we're generally pretty familiar with teams like Clovis West, Clovis, Edison, Fresno Washington Union and Bakersfield High.
Just like the leagues in Southern Section and San Diego Section, when it comes time for playoffs, league action ends and teams drop into their appropriate Divisions according to their "CBED" (California Board of Education) enrollment figures. We assume the cutoffs are the same as they are for Southern Section. But unlike Southern Section, the playoffs are just for overall divisions (i.e, I, II, III, IV and V), and given the relatively small number of schools, there's no need to further subdivide them into "AA" or "A".
So who are the hot teams this year? Well, we're not exactly sure of the overall league standings (the nice folks at the Central Section office were going to send them but we haven't received them yet), but here are the seedings of the teams in the various brackets for playoffs:
Division I | Division II | Division III | Division IV | Division V |
1. Clovis West 2. Bakersfield 3. Ridgeview 4. West 5. Central 6. South 7. Hanford 8. Redwood 9. Centennial 10. Clovis 11. Hoover 12. Monache 13. Roosevelt 14. Buchanan 15. Delano 16. Golden West "OutBracket" Stockdale |
1. Edison 2. East 3. Highland 4. Tulare Western 5. Sanger 6. Tulare 7. Winner "B" 8. Winner "A" Outbracket "A" Foothill "B" North |
1. Washington Union 2. Yosemite 3. Exeter 4. Dinuba 5. Shafter 6. Sierra Both Washington & |
1. Chowchilla 2. Garces 3. Corcoran 4. Riverdale 5. Orosi 6. Kerman 7. Kingsburg 8. Firebaugh 9. Lindsey 10. McFarland 11. Templeton 12. Taft 13. SJM 14. Caruthers Chowchilla & Garces |
1. Coast Union 2. Immanuel 3. CVC 4. Fresno Christian 5. Strathmore 6. Laton 7. Mission Prep 8. Kings Christian |
Interestingly, Central Section seems to have the same problem that occurred in the Southern Section with Division III, i.e., there aren't a lot of schools who play in that division for playoff purposes, and only 6 teams (just like III-A here) qualified for the playoffs. Oh well. We'll be posting up the brackets for these playoff brackets shortly. In the meantime, one of our readers has posted up most (if not all) of the first round results in Central Section. from the first round games played yesterday in Divisions I, IV and the various "Outbracket" games. Most second round or quarterfinal games in every division will be played tomorrow night, as we all lurch towards the State Playoffs.
©Copyright
1999 All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
E-mail: jegesq@socalhoops.com