High school basketball enters the final phase of its season Tuesday night when the State Playoffs begin. For some, its time to quickly shake off the championship hangover. For most, however, it's forgetting the failure of not winning a sectional championship and taking advantage of a new lease on life.
There are sure to be surprises. Not since 2007 have the top four seeds all advanced to the Southern California Regional Semifinals.
Recent history tells us you can't get caught up in the seeding. Once we get to this point of the season, there are some really good teams, with high seeds, which makes this part of the season a little more interesting.
In 2008, it was the fifth-seeded Riverside King creating a buzz. The Wolves went on the road to pick up wins at Westchester and at City Section champion and top-seeded Taft two days later to advance to the Southern California Regional Finals.
In 2009, as the sixth-seed, Fairfax traveled to Fresno to take on Edison in a first-round matchup. The very next night, the Renardo Sidney-led bunch was at Mater Dei to defeat the Monarchs. The Lions eventually suffered a one-point loss to Western League rival, Westchester in the Regional Semifinals. The Comets were on their way to their first of back-to-back state titles.
Last year, as an 11-seed, Long Beach Poly paved a way to the Regional Semifinals. The Jackrabbits won at Crenshaw and avenged a sectional semifinal loss to Etiwanda with a win on the Eagles' home floor.
This year as the top seed in the bracket, the Jackrabbits have home court advantage throughout the first three rounds. CIF Southern Section Division I-AA runner-up, Corona Centennial is the two seed. City Section champion, Taft, is the three seed and Southern Section Division I-AA semifinalist, Mater Dei is the four seed.
Here are some higher seeds from the Southern California area that could make some noise in the Division I Bracket:
Loyola The Cubs are the fifth seed in the bracket and the hottest team in the field not named Long Beach Poly. They completely dismantled Capistrano Valley in the Southern Section Division I-A final. The Cubs will get after the opposition with intense defensive pressure and offensively run every chance they get. Joe Stein is a marksman from beyond the arc. If you haven't seen or heard of Julian Harrell, take notice. He's silky smooth and helps the Cubs in a variety of ways.
Westchester, as a seven seed, one word comes to mind regarding the Comets. Dangerous. After all, they are the defending, back-to-back State Champions. However, this Westchester team isn't like the ones we've become accustomed to seeing in recent years. They entered this season having lost 11 players from last year and weren't even expected to make a return trip to the City Section finals. They did. Despite a spirited fourth-quarter comeback, the Comets came up just short to Taft. It's hard to count out head coach Ed Azzam.
Etiwanda, if the Eagles, the ninth seed, can make it back from their visit to Fresno unscathed, its likely a rematch will present itself with Long Beach Poly. The Eagles are tremendous on the defensive side of the ball and in Byron Wesley, have a player that can carry them down the stretch in a close game.
