Coyotes, Broncos to battle in West Region quarterfinal

Well the pairings for the Division II men’s basketball playoffs are official and to no one’s surprise Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona will be doing battle once again.

The two teams split regular season meetings with each winning on its home floor. This showdown will take place on neutral territory as Western Washington will host a four-team sub-regional. That’s another whole story.

But it will be good to see the teams square off with so much on the line, adding to what has become an interesting rivalry. It also guarantees the area a team in the semifinals. Broncos vs. Coyotes, Coyotes vs. Broncos.

Neutral court.

Player of the Year Larry Gordon against CCAA Tournament MVP Brandon Brown.

Both coaches were playing it cool on Sunday night, perhaps not wanting to provide bulletin board material for the other.

Oh so many subplots.

The whole sub-region scenario is ludicrous. Call it the Alaska/Hawaii rule. The NCAA just didn’t like the thought of having to fly seven teams to one location so they changed the rules in midstream. Instead of having eight teams go to one location the NCAA has divided the West Region into two sub-regions with the winners squaring off to decide who goes to the Elite Eight.

The rule only affects the West because it is the only region so spread out it would be in a siuation where seven teams have to fly in.

Now you have to make decisions on the two teams that get to host. Cal Poly was in perfect position last week at No. 2 in the region but it lost. Western Washington should not have been able to leapfrog three teams in one week and get the nod ahead of the Broncos who beat the Vikings head to head.

The other brain-numbing move was the award of the eighth and final seed to Humboldt State over UC San Diego. Humboldt lost two of three games against San Diego, both by double digits. One of those came just last week in the CCAA Tournament. Humboldt played a far easier schedule and played the majority of its nonconference schedule at home an has lost four of its last five games. San Diego has a reason to be furious.

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