city section title sites

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SoCalHoops High School News

City Section Championship
Sites Announced--(Oct. 29, 1999)

We were up in the Bay Area yesterday and sans computer, so we didn't get to post anything, but we'll make up for lost time. This one appeared yesterday in some of the local papers, and while it's a bit early to be talking about the City Section Finals (since the season hasn't even started. . . and neither has official practice, which is set for November 8), we figure that you ought to know where you'll be on March 3 and 4, 2000.

You'll be at the Great Western Forum on March 3 (which is a Friday) for the "City Championship" games for the boys and the girls, and you'll be at Loyola Marymount's Gersten Pavilion for the "Invitational Championship" for boys and girls the next day, Saturday, March 4, 2000.

Why are there two championship games? Well, since the City Section scrapped the 4-A and 3-A divisions last year, they've still had the equivalent of two different "divisional" playoffs and championships. Last year, the top 16 teams entered a separate playoff for the "City Championship" and it will be the same this year. Last season the next 16 teams fought for the "Divisional" title, which has this coming season been renamed the "Invitational" Championship. We're pretty sure the same process of selection will be used, i.e., throw all the coaches of the City Section into a room and let them battle it out to see which teams make the playoffs, in which divisions, and then argue for the best (or worst) seeding you can get.

We also understand that there is a proposal being floated right now by the City Section to do away with these two "divisional" separations once and for all, and that the coaches will be considering it throughout the year and then voting on it during the spring, to take effect next year. We'll see what happens, but for this year, it's not going to matter because the top ranked 16 teams will be the ones fighting for the chance to make the State Regional Championship games (only two teams from City Section, the winner and runner-up advance); the "Invitational" Champs do not advance to the State Tournament.