NEW Bay Area Basketball Rankings

Joe DeMers (left) and the team at College Park of Pleasant Hill will try to make another deep playoff run this season. Desire Finnie of Berkeley, meanwhile, will hope for the same among the girls. Photos: Ronnie Flores & Harold Abend.

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Boys: CCS, NCS Seeding Surprises

There weren’t too many surprising playoff pairings announced on Sunday by the CIF Central Coast and CIF North Coast sections.

Based on last week’s Bay Area Top 20, however, seeing St. Ignatius of San Francisco (previous No. 9) not in the CCS Open Division was a bit of a shock. That result is more due to the Wildcats getting upset in the opening round of the West Catholic Athletic League playoffs by St. Francis than some inexplicable evaluation. They will instead be a favorite for the CCS Division II crown.

Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 6 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco.

In this week’s Bay Area Top 20, both Freedom and Pitt were given major boosts due to upsets in the WCAL playoffs as well as both Leigh and Half Moon Bay suffering losses. Newark Memorial, which was won 15 straight games heading into the NCS D2 playoffs, also has been elevated from No. 10 to No. 7.

Here are this week’s complete Bay Area Top 20 for boys (Compiled by Mark Tennis; previous ranking in parentheses; after games of Saturday, Feb. 22):

1. (1) Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 22-4

Dropped Out: Previous No. 16 Berkeley.

Teams On The Bubble: Albany 22-5; Branson (Ross) 23-5; Castro Valley 18-8; College Park (Pleasant Hill) 18-6; Dougherty Valley (San Ramon) 19-7; Mills (Millbrae) 21-6; Pinole Valley (Pinole) 15-13; Salesian (Richmond) 17-13; San Benito (Hollister) 20-4; San Leandro 15-11; Santa Cruz 20-7; St. Francis (Mountain View) 14-12; St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 18-10; St. Patrick-St. Vincent (Vallejo) 21-8.

Girls: The disqualification heard ‘round the state

The Bay Area girls basketball community is in turmoil with the announcement that Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland has been disqualified from the CIF North Coast Section Division III playoffs.

There have been several editorials about the situation and all seem to agree that if the CIF wants to include O’Dowd in the Open Division, the Dragons meet the criteria.

Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 6 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco.

The NCS says 26 games is the maximum allowed while state-ranked La Jolla Bishop’s has played 29 games entering the CIF San Diego Section Open Division playoffs. Torrance West has played 30 games entering the CIF Southern Section D2A playoffs. In Texas and other states, teams have played as many as 35 games entering their playoffs.

This O’Dowd issue is not settled, and won’t be until the CIF makes a ruling.

There was a lone newcomer in this week’s Bay Area Top 20 and that was North Bay League playoff champion Cardinal Newman, which had tied for the league title with cross-town rival Santa Rosa.

Independent Redwood Empire correspondent Daniel Poulter supplied the information for the team’s 47-42 victory over Santa Rosa, the second Newman victory in 10 days over the previous top team from the North Bay portion of the Redwood Empire.

Cardinal Newman, in only its third year of girls sports after competing as Ursuline for decades before the schools merged, was led by sophomore Tiffany Salinas. She led three girls in double figure scoring with 15 points and had seven rebounds.

Here is this week’s Bay Area Top 20 (Compiled by Harold Abend; previous ranking in parentheses; after games of Saturday, Feb. 22):
(*Forfeits not included)

1. (1) Salesian (Richmond) 24-5

2. (2) Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 23-4**
**Season suspended pending CIF ruling

3. (3) St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 22-7

Dropped Out: Previous No. 20 Valley Christian (Dublin).

Teams On the Bubble: Alameda 16-10, Campolindo (Moraga) 16-10, Castro Valley 17-9, Clayton Valley (Concord) 20-6, Dublin 16-9, Heritage (Brentwood) 15-11, James Logan (Union City) 18-9, Justin-Siena (Napa) 23-5, Lowell (San Francisco), 20-5, Lynbrook (San Jose) 16-8, Moreau Catholic (Hayward) 22-5, North Salinas (Salinas) 22-2, Pittsburg 18-8, Redwood (Larkspur) 20-8, Saratoga 20-4, Valley Christian (Dublin) 25-3.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @CalHiSports

Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend