SoCalHoops Tournament News

40th Annual Best In The West Invitational:
The 1999 Bracket--(Dec. 24, 1999)

The 40th Annual Best in the West will start up in high gear Monday morning at Long Beach State, in the men's gym (East Gym) and the Goldmine (West Gym).  There will also be games played at Lakewood High School, but that won't happen until after the first round, and then only on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The tournament will run from the 27th until the 30th, with the Championship game set for 8:30 p.m. on December 30, 1999.   The top two seeds, Artesia and Dominguez are set at opposite ends of the bracket, and if all goes according to the bracketing and they avoid any losses, they'll meet for the title.   Of course, things don't always work out the way everyone plans, and last year the top two seeds (the same two teams) didn't meet because Verbum Dei ended up beating Artesia in a semifinal.  That particular matchup (Verb and Artesia) is unlikely this year, but there are any number of teams capable of beating either of the top two seeds.  

This will be one of the biggest and best tournaments this year on the West Coast, and it will bring together teams from all over California and one from Florida as well.  All the top rated teams in the State will be there (well, all except Redondo which is going to be hosting its own 8 team affair, the 6th Anal Sea Hawk Classic from December 28-30, but that's another story).  This one, the BIW, gathers together in one place most of the top teams who will represent the Southern Section in the playoffs at the State level (well, ok, there's another exception, and that's Mater Dei, which will be playing down in San Diego at the Nike Prep Classic. . . but again, that's another story).

The 40th BIW will feature top teams from virtually every CIF Southern Section Division.  Two State finalists will be there, 10 section finalists and 19 of this year's 32 teams field made it to at least the quarterfinals in their sections and divisions.   There will be several nationally ranked teams, including the top two seeds, Artesia and at the other end of the bracket, Dominguez.  Clovis West is now also ranked nationally and there are several other teams capable of getting that recognition before the season is over. 

In the upper bracket, the really key matchups aren't likely to occur until the second round, although there will be some good first round games, like Pasadena v. Harvard Westlake at 11:30 A.M. in the East Gym, and Crossroads v. Hoover (Fresno) at 5:45 in the East Gym.   Bishop Montgomery and Clovis West are liekly to cruise through their first round matchups (v. Hanford and Millikan, respectively), and if they both win, Bishop Montgomery will matchup against Crossroads on Tuesday at 10:00 A.M. in the West Gym, which should be an excellent game.    Clovis West would then matchup against the winner of the Tampa Catholic v. Archbishop Mitty game, and either way, it will be a good test for the Golden Eagles.   If both Bishop Montgomery wins its first and second round games, they're likely to matchup with Artesia in a quarterfinal matchup at 4:30 p.m. in the West Gym on the 28th.    If Clovis continues to win, look for them to most likely get either Long Beach Jordan, Morningside or perhaps Upland in the other quarterfinal in the upper half of the bracket. 

In the lower half of the bracket, key matchups in the first round include Canyon Springs v. Bakersfield at 10:00 a.m. in the East Gym on the 27th; and Bellarmine Prep v. Gardena Serra at 4:10 p.m. in the East Gym.    Another one you won't want to miss is Palisades v. Fontana at 8:50 p.m. in the East gym, again on the 27th.   The rest of the matchups in the first round are pretty predictable, although we'd be interested too in taking a look at the St. Ignatius v. Lakewood game at 1:05 p.m. in the East Gym.   After the first day, things start to get interesting, and we'd look for Long Beach Poly, which just won the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic Millenium Cup in Vegas, to matchup with either Canyon Springs or Bakersfield (which also just finished playing in Vegas), and that game will occur on Tuesday at 1:05 p.m. in the West Gym.  Pali or Fontana will then matchup against St. Ignatius or Lakewood at 2:50 p.m. on Tuesday in the East Gym, and we're willing to venture a guess that you'll probably see Ayala v. Compton Centennial in another "Sweet 16" game at 1:20 p.m. in the East Gym on Tuesday.  If Aerick Sanders is back with the Serra team then we'd expect Serra to meet Dominguez in the second round, but we've also heard his suspension could last until after the first of January, when school resumes again, so perhaps Bellarmine Prep will have caught a break and get to matchup against Dominguez, which is just returning home from Hawaii where they finished second to Oak Hill at the Iolani Classic.  Beyond those games, it's a little harder to predict what will happen in the lower half of the bracket, but again, if all goes according to plan (i.e., pursuant to the seeding), we should be looking at a matchup between Long Beach Poly and Dominguez which would give the Dons a rematch against Poly to avenge their   pretty convincing loss (or should we say Poly's convincing win) from the semifinals of the adidas Pump Fall Premier Tournament.  Ahhh, another grudge match between Tyson Chandler and Wesley Stokes. . . now there's a game to look forward to watching.    Of course the winner of the bottom half semifinal will meet the winner of the other top half semifinal at 8:30 p.m. on December 30,  but then we've already said that. . . .

Here's the bracket.   Remember, the key to understanding this is that "E" means "East Gym", "W" means "West Gym" and "L" means Lakewood High School.  You can click on the link to get maps and directions to the three gym locations.

Here's the bracket for the 40th annual Best in the West.  We've also printed up and posted the first day's schedule separately in text form for those of you who are spatially challenged and don't like to look at graphical representations of the games (although why anyone wouldn't want to see a bracket would be a mystery to us): 

©Copyright 1997-1999 All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
E-mail: jegesq@socalhoops.com