New State Boys BB Divisional Rankings

Possible future NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton stands with his nephew, Zerrion, who plays as a guard for Modesto Christian’s D3 state-ranked team. The Crusaders are No. 7 this week. Photo: Ronnie Flores.

Biggest changes this week are in D3 with newcomers Oak Park and Sonora of La Habra and Cathedral Catholic going up to No. 3. St. Joseph Notre Dame also returns to No. 2 in D5.

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By Mark Tennis
Contributing: Ronnie Flores, Paul Muyskens

There are no new No. 1 teams in this week’s divisional state rankings, but back at No. 2 in Division V is two-time CIF Northern California D5 champ St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda.

The No. 1 teams in the state by division, meanwhile, continue to be Long Beach Poly (D1), Archbishop Mitty (D2), Bishop O’Dowd (D3), Bishop Montgomery (D4) and Village Christian (D5).

All teams have been ranked according to their CIF divisions, but some will obviously be pulled up into the new CIF Open Division for the Northern California and Southern California regional playoffs. We have indicated which teams in which divisions are eligible for the Open Division so readers can then visualize which non-Open Division teams may end up battling it out for the various CIF divisional state titles.

Teams in some sections also can petition the CIF to be considered for the open division. This likely isn’t going to happen, though, for any team that is outside top 10 overall in the state.

(After results of Saturday, Feb. 9 with some scores from early this week indicated)

DIVISION I
1. (1) Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 24-2
2. (2) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 26-1
3. (4) Sheldon (Sacramento) 20-5
4. (3) Etiwanda 22-3
5. (5) Centennial (Corona) 25-2
6. (6) Bullard (Fresno) 22-2
7. (7) Loyola (Los Angeles) 20-6
8. (8) El Camino Real (Woodland Hills) 25-2
8. (9) Westchester (Los Angeles) 24-6
10. (11) De La Salle (Concord) 21-3
11. (12) Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) 21-4
12. (13) Mission Viejo 24-3
13. (9) Deer Valley (Antioch) 19-5
14. (14) San Leandro 20-4
15. (15) West Ranch (Valencia) 19-6
Dropped Out: None.
Eligible for Open Division: Long Beach Poly, Mater Dei, Sheldon, Loyola, Bullard, De La Salle, El Camino Real. It is confirmed from the CIF, by the way, that a team is eligible for the Open Division if it wins a section title in a different division from the year before.
Teams on the Bubble: Bellarmine (San Jose) 16-8, Edison (Fresno) 26-4, El Toro (Lake Forest) 23-5, Heritage (Brentwood) 19-5, Inglewood 16-9, Lutheran (Orange) 17-9, Mission Hills (San Marcos) 21-4, Palo Alto 22-1, Rancho Verde (Moreno Valley) 21-5, San Benito (Hollister) 20-3, Santa Monica 20-6.
Notes & Highlights: Sheldon has already posted an 84-77 victory this week on Tuesday night over Pleasant Grove before a packed gym at Sheldon. The Huskies clinched the Delta River League title while the Eagles showed that a rematch is entirely possible in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I final. Sheldon also moved up to No. 3 in the latest rankings, which had nothing to do with Tuesday’s game but completely due to Etiwanda getting upset by Rancho Cucamonga (a team the Eagles defeated easily earlier in the season).

DIVISION II
1. (1) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 19-5
2. (2) Serra (San Mateo) 21-3
3. (3) La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 22-4
4. (4) J.W. North (Riverside) 23-3
5. (5) Redondo (Redondo Beach) 18-8
6. (6) Newark Memorial (Newark) 17-7
7. (7) Sacramento 20-6
8. (8) El Camino (South San Francisco) 19-4
9. (9) Dublin 20-4
10. (10) San Marcos 23-3
Dropped Out: None.
Eligible for Open Division: Archbishop Mitty, La Costa Canyon, Newark Memorial.
Teams on the Bubble: Canyon (Anaheim) 18-9, College Park (Pleasant Hill) 21-4, Hoover (San Diego) 23-5, Morse (San Diego) 20-7, Mt. Eden (Hayward) 17-7, San Ysidro 20-7, Sunny Hills (Fullerton) 21-7, Thousand Oaks 21-6, Westlake (Westlake Village) 22-4.
Notes & Highlights: All top 10 teams in this division played games last week and none lost. If there had been room for changes, the next two likely to go in seem to be Westlake and San Diego Hoover. The Warriors won a huge game in the Marmonte League over Calabasas while the Cardinals avenged an earlier loss by pinning a loss on the resume of San Diego Morse. Coach Ollie Ghoulson also is fired up at Hoover because this year’s team has a good chance to win 26 games for the sixth consecutive season.

DIVISION III
1. (1) Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 21-3
2. (2) St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 19-6
3. (4) Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 22-3
4. (5) St. Augustine (San Diego) 19-4
5. (7) Tustin 25-2
6. (3) Hart (Newhall) 24-2
7. (6) Modesto Christian 23-3
8. (10) Independence (Bakersfield) 26-1
9. (NR) Oak Park (Agoura Hills) 24-3
10. (NR) Sonora (La Habra) 23-3
Dropped Out: Previous No. 8 Leuzinger (Lawndale), No. 9 Compton.
Eligible for Open Division: Bishop O’Dowd, Cathedral Catholic, Modesto Christian, Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco).
Teams on the Bubble: Calabasas 21-5, Chaminade (West Hills) 20-6, Colony (Ontario) 19-9, Compton 17-9, Damien (La Verne) 20-6, Drake (San Anselmo) 22-4, El Cerrito 18-8, Enterprise (Redding) 20-3, Leuzinger (Lawndale) 19-7, Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 15-9, Santa Barbara 20-4, St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 15-9.
Notes & Highlights: No. 1 Bishop O’Dowd beating previous No. 6 Modesto Christian, previous No. 3 Hart dropping a game to Canyon of Canyon Country and both Leuzinger and Compton falling out of the rankings completely all made for a lot of changes in this division. Oak Park, led by all-state player Ron Lee Jr., was a factor in this division for most of last season, especially at the end and has been playing well in recent weeks. Sonora, the other newcomer, posted an impressive 70-51 win last week over Sunny Hills of Fullerton, avenging an earlier 18-point loss. Travis Ryal led the Raiders with 19 points.

DIVISION IV
1. (1) Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) 26-0
2. (2) Salesian (Richmond) 23-3
3. (3) Brentwood (Los Angeles) 23-3
4. (10) Windward (Los Angeles) 18-8
5. (4) Pacific Hills (Los Angeles) 20-4
6. (5) Serra (Gardena) 20-6
7. (6) Price (Los Angeles) 23-3
8. (7) Army-Navy (Carlsbad) 21-4
9. (8) Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) 24-2
10. (9) Lutheran (La Verne) 21-6
Dropped Out: None.
Eligible for Open Division: Salesian, Pacific Hills, Gardena Serra, Price.
Teams on the Bubble: Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) 16-8, Colfax 21-5, Crespi (Encino) 19-8, Half Moon Bay 19-5, Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 16-10, JSerra (San Juan Capistrano) 15-8, Mater Dei Catholic (Chula Vista) 20-5, Riverbank 21-3, St. Joseph (Santa Maria) 19-7, St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 17-10, Workman (City of Industry) 25-1.
Notes & Highlights: Teams from the CIFSS’s Alpha League are now bunched together at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 after last week’s results, the biggest of which was Windward topping Brentwood 55-54. The Wildcats also had a win against Pacific Hills during the second-round of league play and despite an up-and-down preseason showed what they could do in a win over D3 No. 1 Bishop O’Dowd. Windward’s upward rise caused several other teams in this division to have to drop one spot despite not losing although no teams dropped out. It’s just more proof why D4 is second only to D1 as the toughest division in the state. This is due to the rise in power of smaller private schools in Southern California – such as those three in the Alpha League – in recent seasons.

DIVISION V
1. (1) Village Christian (Sun Valley) 23-3
2. (3) St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 16-10
3. (4) Flintridge Prep (La Canada) 19-5
4. (5) Central Catholic (Modesto) 23-3
5. (6) Brethren Christian (Huntington Beach) 22-3
6. (2) Capital Christian (Sacramento) 21-4
7. (7) Brookside Christian (Stockton) 24-1
8. (8) Mission Prep (San Luis Obispo) 18-7
9. (9) Rolling Hills Prep (San Pedro) 17-8
10. (10) Rock Academy (San Diego) 16-7
Dropped Out: None.
Eligible for Open Division: Village Christian, St. Joseph Notre Dame (though it’s unlikely that either would get chosen for that much of a jump in competition)
Teams on the Bubble: Bentley (Lafayette) 22-3, Buckley (Sherman Oaks) 19-6, Head-Royce (Oakland) 20-4, Hoopa Valley (Hoopa) 20-5, Modoc (Alturas) 18-4, Ripon Christian 21-4, Tri-City Christian (Vista) 22-2, View Park (Los Angeles) 18-13.
Notes & Highlights: Previous No. 2 Capital Christian suffered losses to Mesa Verde of Citrus Heights and West Campus of Sacramento and fell to No. 6 in this week’s rankings. The Cougars are among three CIF Sac-Joaquin Section teams ranked at No. 4, No. 6 and No. 7. The section’s strong D5 bracket also will include Ripon Christian. That should make it tough to call from the semifinals and into the finals. Capital Christian’s losses also enabled St. Joseph to move back up to No. 2. Forget about the Pilots’ 10 losses. All of them seem to be to teams much stronger than Mesa Verde or West Campus.

Comments or corrections? Email markjtennis@gmail.com.