February 2008 Archives

Now I realize who I was missing . . .

In my Wednesday Press-Telegram column, I projected the nine players who I believed would wrap up the IBM 25 Greatest College Basketball Players of all time.

During the ESPN broadcast of the Notre Dame-Louisville game, "No. 7 Bill Bradley Princeton" scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

I didn't have Bradley in my final nine picks. Yikes! He belonged there, although I'm not hold enough to have watched him play as a Princeton Tiger.

Something tells me one of my nine choices, guard Rick Mount of Purdue, isn't making the cut . . .

Just in, via a CIF Southern Section press release:

The Poly vs. Millikan girls' basketball I-AA final will tip off at 6:30 Friday night in the Walter Pyramid, with Dominguez facing Mater Dei in the boys' I-AA Saturday night at 6:30 in the Honda Center.

The Dons-Monarchs clashed will be televised nationally by Fox Sports Prime Ticket.

Here's the entire Southern Section announcement:

2008 SITES/DATE/TIMES FOR BASKETBALL
BOYS BASKETBALL
Colony High School, Thursday, February 28, 2008 - Tickets $9, $5, $5
6:30 p.m. - Division VAA - Pacific Hills vs. Lutheran/La Verne
8:15 p.m. - Division IVAA - Jurupa Valley vs. Patriot

Colony High School - Friday, February 29, 2008 - Tickets $9, $5, $5
6:30 p.m. - Division VA - Rosamond vs. St. Bonaventure
8:15 p.m. - Division IVA - Valley Christian/Cerritos vs. Twentynine Palms

Honda Center - Saturday, March 1, 2008 - Day Session - Tickets $9, $5, $5
9 a.m. - Division IIIAA - Campbell Hall vs. Price
10:45 a.m. - Division IIIA - West Valley vs. Perris
12:30 p.m. - Division IIA - Rancho Verde vs. Knight
2:15 p.m. - Division IIAA - Colony vs. Bishop Montgomery

Honda Center - Saturday, March 1, 2008 - Night Session - Tickets $12, $9, $5, $5
6:30 p.m. - Division IAA - Dominguez vs. Mater Dei
8:15 p.m. - Division IA - M.L. King vs. Etiwanda

GIRLS BASKETBALL - All Tickets $9, $5, $5
The Walter Pyramid - Friday, February 29, 2008
3 p.m. - Division VA - Crossroads vs. Sierra Canyon
4:45 p.m. - Division IVA - Laguna Hills vs. University
6:30 p.m. - Division IAA - Poly/Long Beach vs. Millikan
8:15 p.m. - Division IA - Redondo Union vs. Mira Costa

The Walter Pyramid - Saturday, March 1, 2008 - Day Session
9:30 a.m. - Division VAA - Whittier Christian vs. Maranatha
11:15 a.m. - Division IIIA - Colony vs. Chaffey
1:00 p.m. - Division IVAA - St. Mary’s Academy vs. Bellarmine-Jefferson
2:45 p.m. - Division IIIAA - Summit vs. Marlborough

The Walter Pyramid - Saturday, March 1, 2008 - Night Session
6:30 p.m. - Division IIA - Ayala vs. Cajon
8:15 p.m. - Division IIAA - A.B. Miller vs. Los Osos
Tickets will be available Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning at the participating schools.
Parking @ Colony HS - $4.00
Parking @ Honda Center - $12.00
Parking @ Walter Pyramid - $5.00

Wilson and Dominguez are playing in the IAA semifinals (but not one another) Tuesday night.

And the Valley Christian Crusaders will be playing at The Colony High in Ontario next Friday night in the title game of the CIF Southern Section's IVA title game against Twentynine Palms.

Who could have imagined that the Wilson Bruins, and not No. 3 seed Simi Valley or six-seeded Mayfair, would be hooking up against Mater Dei, just a win away from playing in the Honda Center on March 1 with a section title on the line?

Ted Hollister's team is one of the real cool "stories" of the season.

And, while one Compton team (Dominguez, which mounted a couple of rallies to pull away from visiting JSerra, 75-68), is also a victory away from a trip to Anaheim, another tipped it off for the final time Friday.

When will the Moore League have another player as spectacular as Demar DeRozan? It will be a while.

And it's too bad he couldn't have played at least once in a championship (aka, The Honda Center) setting before ending his Compton career.

But Santa Margarita, even with its best player (Klay Thompson, who Lakers' broadcaster Mychal Thompson was in the stands at Compton High Friday night), the Eagles appeared to be more complete team than were this collection of Tarbabes.

The final score was 62-55 but the visitors from south Orange County dominated from the start of the second quarter on.

The Dominguez Dons are going to have to play a lot better than they have in the playoffs, or than the last time they played the Eagles (winning, 59-55, in the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei), if they're going to make it 2-0 against the Trinity League runner-up.

The Wilson High boys' basketball team will play its third consecutive CIF Southern Section IAA playoff game at home Friday night, courtesy a winning coin flip this morning at the Southern Section office in Los Alamitos.

The Bruins, who upset No. 3 seed Simi Valley (78-76) Tuesday night, will play host to No. 6 Mayfair, which cruised past Lynwood (71-50) Tuesday.

In the other coin flip involving an area team this morning, the Nol. 1 seed Dominguez Dons came out on top against JSerra of San Juan Capistrano and will play host to the Lions in the Dominguez gym Friday night in another IAA quarterfinal.

No. 4 Compton, which rallied to beat host Gahr Tuesday night (94-86), automatically drew the home game against No. 5 Santa Margarita, since the the Eagles (who beat Loyola Tuesday, 85-66) played at home in their first two games.

In the only other game involving area teams, St. Paul will be the host (with a site to be deterimined) to No. 1 Valley Christian in a IVAA semifinal Friday night. No coin flip was neccessary since the Crusaders had been at home twice and the Swordsmen were on the road once.

The Trojans won the first time around (Jan. 19, Pauley Pavilion). But they're missing their most underrated player tonight since Daniel Hackett is in street clothes, courtesy a back injury.

It's "Blackout Night" for USC tonight. Lots of USC faithful dressed in (mostly) black. Catchy.

Now I'm blogging . . .

8:59
Well, it was kind of gnarly to watch. UCLA's offense was nearly good enough to be called "sluggish" but it still looked darn-right prolific next to the Trojans'. And I'm not sure what O.J. Mayo's best game was this season but I sure know when and where he endured his worst performance. I have yet to see the final stats but I'm guessing he had right at 10 or so turnovers.

The Oregons come to Southern California and the Bruins and Trojans need sweeps: UCLA to maintain its advantage in the Pacific 10 Conference lead and USC to bolster its NCAA Tournament at-large hopes.

A "classic" this wasn't. OK. Enough of the bashing and I'll be on my way.
8:47
Now that is a manly offensive rebound by Kevin Love (ripping the ball away from Davon Jefferson) to give the Bruins an eight-point lead with a TV TO being dropped upon us with 2:34 remaining.

8:43
The coaches and players from the winning team are bound to disagree with my assessment but . . . this now, officially, the ugliest game I've watched this season. Offense is non existent. And we can say it's all because of rock-solid defense, either. Painful to watch . . .

8:35
UCLA's offense has got stagnant (solid D by the Trojans) and the Bruins' lead is only six points (46-40). This rates among the "ugly" games, offensively, of the season. Of course, it's one of those "Eye of the Beholder"-kind of deals, if stingy half-court defense is a turn-on for you.

8:25
UCLA up 44-33, Collison shooting a FT after the TV TO at 11:33 ends. Mayo one bucket and about seven turnovers.

8:08
The Bruins are still up by eight (35-27) after a breakaway dunk by Russell Westbrook but Howland called a timeout immediately after the dunk (with 18:05). My guess is he isn't happy with the way Gibson is dominating in the low post. He scored two buckets inside the lane in the first minute of the second half.

7:47
OK. It's intermission and UCLA leads, 31-23.
Not much offensive continuity in the game, which isn't surprising considering both teams (and coaches Howland and Tim Floyd) put such a premium on defensive game-planning. The Trojans also were hurt when Davon Jefferson picked up his second foul and went to the bench for the rest of the half with 8:03 to go. UCLA led at the time, 18-15. Mayo scored only two points, taking a lob pass from Dwight Lewis for a dunk with 1:42 remaining on a set play after a timeout.

By the way, I just read that Duke lost its first ACC game tonight (at Wake Forest). Oh, and by the way: How about Memphis moving that game out at UAB Saturday night to remain unbeaten? The Tigers could lose at home to Tennessee next Saturday night and still roll into the tournament with the No. 1 overall seed.

7:43
It's still a bit of a sloppy game, offensively, but the Bruins lead, 29-21, with 2:12 in large part because of their commitment to hitting the floor for loose balls. They've turned three of those situations into transition baskets. Mayo still hasn't scored. Love got his first bucket (a 3) with 5:52 to play.

7:33
It's a bit if a grind-it-out type of deal. Not much in the way of transition offense and USC has turned it over seven times. The Trojans trail only 20-19, though, because they're doing a solid job rebounding their and following in their own misses. Mayo has taken just one shot and is scoreless.

7:24
We've had three timeouts in about a minute and a half: one each called by UCLA and USC, and TV TO No. 2 . . . oh, yeah: the Trojans now lead, 15-14. They've got three (if I recall correctly) follow shots for dunks. Forceful offensive rebounding by the home team and failure to put bodies on bodies by the visitors.

7:20
A missed block out by Lorenzo Real-Mata led to a follow dunk by Taj Gibson and that resulted in an immediate timeout by Ben Howland, whose team still leads, 14-13.

7:15
First teley TO and it's UCLA 11, USC 9.
The Trojans have blocked a couple of Kevin Love shots but the big freshman had a stupendous (or something like it) hustle and dive for a loose ball that the Bruins turned into a follow dunk by Josh Shipp, after which Shipp glared at O.J. Mayo.

7:05:
Black unys for the Trojans, as well!

La Mirada (vs. Dominguez), Mayfair (vs. Lynwood) and Wilson (vs. Simi Valley) won coin flips at the CIF Southern Section office in Los Alamitos earlier today and will play host to IAA second-round boys basketball playoff games Tuesday night.

Gahr (vs. Compton) is the automatic host for the game with the Tarbabes since the Gladiators were on the road Friday night (vs. Tesoro) while Compton was at home (vs. Verbum Dei).

Los Alamitos, in the IA division, lost its coin flip with Dos Pueblos so the Griffins will have to travel to Santa Barbara County (in Goleta, near UCSB) for a second-round game Tuesday night.

In the IVA division, top seed Valley Christian will be at home to Yucca Valley in a quarterfinal Tuesday night.

I'm on the Fox Sports Prime Ticket High School Show, which will be broadcast at 10:30 p.m.

The topic? The Southern Section and L.A. City boys basketball playoffs, of course.

The Los Alamitos Griffins, losers of three of their final four regular-season games but still the Sunset League champions, were the No. 8 seed in the IA division.

Russ May's program has won back-to-back section titles, bagging the IA a year ago and IAA two seasons ago.

And the Griffins got a very tough first-round draw (albeit, at home) Friday night in Inglewood, which was 14-11 overall and finished 6-4 in Ocean League but was its No. 3 seed.

The division's top seed is Riverside's Martin Luther King (coached by Millikan High graduated Tim Sweeney Jr.), which is 24-2 with losses only to the top two sees in the IAA division, Dominguez and Mater Dei.

Also to be filed under the "as expected" category, Alpha League champion Valley Christian was the No. 1 seed in the IVA division.

The Crusaders have a first-round bye on Wednesday and will play host Friday to the winner of Wednesday's Faith Baptist at St. Genevieve first-round game.

As expected, Dominguez, Mater Dei, Simi Valley and Compton were the top four seeds when the CIF Southern Section released its boys IAA basketball pairings early this afternoon.

Trinity League runner-up Santa Margarita was the fifth seed while Suburban League champion Mayfair was No. 6, South Coast winner Capistrano Valley was No. 7 and Wilson, which finished tied for second in the Moore League (with Poly) but got the league's 2 seed because it beat the Jackrabbits twice, is the eight seed.

Three of the division's wild-card games Wednesday night involved Long Beach-area teams: St. John Bosco at Jordan, Orange Lutheran at Paramount and Downey at Artesia.

The SJB-Jordan winner plays a first-round game at La Mirada (the Suburban runner-up) Friday night. If Paramount wins, it plays at Capistrano Valley while the Downey-Artesia victor gets the dubious distinction of playing at Mater Dei.

Other first-round Friday games include: Chaminade at Dominguez, JSerra at Centennial, Cerritos at Santa Margarita, Gahr at Tesoro, Verbum Dei at Compton, Crespi at Wilson, Torrance at Lynwood, the winner of a Alemany at Dana Hills wild card game at Mayfair and Poly at North Torrance.

Look for more details in Monday's Press-Telegram.

I'll be at the CIF Southern Section's office late this morning and well into the afternoon for the release of the boys basketball playoff pairings.

I'll offer a quick look at the matchups, in Press-Telegram area-pertinent divisions, ASAP!