san diego irony

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SoCalHoops High School News

CIF State Tourney: Ok, Ok. . . So
Three San Diego Teams Are Still In It--(March 10, 1999)

We admit it. We screwed up. And the funny thing is, we knew it as soon as we re-read what we wrote late last night. But we were just too tired to correct the mistake. But others were quick to jump on us, tellings us that we "clearly don't know anything about San Diego basketball" or that we were "dissing the San Diego Section," or that we were just idiots who don't deserve to live. Ouch. A bit harsh, don't you think.

You wouldn't believe the amount of e-mail we received today from people chastising us for saying that with the loss of Bonita Vista in Division I, that there were no San Diego teams left. What we think we said (we won't go back to find it, so we can justify any mistake by saying we've just got a faulty memory) was that there were no San Diego teams left in the Division. Meaning Division I.

In actuality, there are still three San Diego teams left in the Southern Regionals. In Division III, University of San Diego High School, the defending State Champions are still alive and they will play San Dimas tomorrow night.

In Division IV, The Horizon Panthers, who many believe could actually knock off Verbum Dei (again) this season and take the State Title from the defending champions. Horizon will meet Crossroads in tomorrow's semifinal game in the upper half of the bracket, so they'll have to get through one more game to get a shot at Verb (who will have to beat Serra to advance). And finally in Division V, San Deigo Section's El Cajon Christian, in a game that will take teams from extreme opposite ends of the State Southern Region, will meet Central Section's Cambria Coast Union.

The losers from last night include Bonita Vista in Division I (which lost to Mater Dei), Orange Glen in Division II (which lost to Inglewood), St. Augustine (which lost to Chaminade) in Division III, Bishop's School in Division IV, and La Jolla Country Day in Divison V, which got hammered by Santa Clara.

Three out of seven isn't bad. How does it compare to other divisions? Well, LA only has one of two alive (Manual is in, Fairfax is out); Central Section had 5 of it's 8 entrants lose, and only Fresno Edison (D-II), Washington Union (D-III), and Cambria Coast Union (D-V) are still standing. And Southern Section's 20 entrants were whittled down to 13.

But the real point we were trying to make when we committed the big gaffe was this: The Division I Regional Finals will be in San Diego, yet it will consist of only LA & Orange County teams. Divisions II, III and V will be played up in LA (actually Long Beach at the Pyramid) but it's likely that in at least two of those Divisions the finalists will include teams from San Diego or Central Section. Pretty ironic. Or just not very good planning.