Boys, Girls BB State Rank Updates

Two players that have led their State Top 20 teams to No. 1 seeds in their Division I section playoffs are Trey Kell from St. Augustine of San Diego and Brooke Johnson of Hanford. Photos: Mark Tennis & Harold Abend.

O’Dowd girls are still No. 6 with season possibly over due to disqualification from section playoffs. Hanford girls also make move up to No. 19. For the boys, J.W. North jumps from No. 11 to No. 8 while another team with forfeit issues, Cosumnes Oaks of Sacramento, goes in as a newcomer.

Check below for this week’s new list of the State Top 20 boys and girls basketball rankings.

To read our breakdowns on each Top 20 team, why some of these rankings moves were made, which teams are on the bubble and for the first CIF divisional state rankings for both boys and girls basketball, you need to be a member of our Gold Club. Join our team today by CLICKING HERE.

Coach and trainer Chris Asher works with state stat stars and players from state-ranked teams of all ages, helping them to improve their speed, quickness and agility. He is based in Hollywood, also has a role with the UCLA track program and serves athletes within many miles of his location. For more about him, CLICK HERE. For a video about his Gold Medal Excellence training program, CLICK HERE.

J.W. North of Riverside cracks the top 10 with its big win over previous No. 6 Sierra Canyon. The Huskies, who play No. 3 Corona Centennial in an Inland Empire showdown on Friday, along with top-ranked Mater Dei are the state’s two best unbeaten teams on the court.

For Sierra Canyon, it is one of four CIFSS Open Division playoff losers that remain in the State Top 20 and if we had more room we almost moved in Cantwell Sacred Heart for its accomplishment of pushing Mater Dei to overtime.

Two new teams that did crack this week’s State Top 20 are Mayfair of Lakewood and Cosumnes Oaks of Elk Grove. Mayfair just beat previous No. 16 Chaminade and plays Mater Dei next. Cosumnes Oaks has won 25 straight games on-the-court, including one win over strong bubble team St. Mary’s of Stockton. The Wolf Pack have 15 losses by forfeit.

(Compiled by Ronnie Flores with assistance from Mark Tennis; updated through games played Saturday, Feb. 22; previous rating in parentheses)

1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 28-0

20. (20) Cathedral (Los Angeles) 22-4

*Forfeit loss or forfeit losses not included

Dropped Out: Previous No. 16 Chaminade (West Hills); No. 17 Serra (Gardena).

NEW GIRLS BASKETBALL
TOP 20 OVERALL RANKINGS

Last year’s first CIF Open Division state champions from Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland may have no options for continuing their season in the aftermath of being disqualified from the CIF North Coast Section playoffs.

Bishop O’Dowd head coach Malik McCord talks to media after last year’s CIF Open Division final. Photo: Willie Eashman.

On Monday, however, it was reported by Stephanie Hammon of the Contra Costa Times that a CIF spokesperson said such a move couldn’t happen.

“If a team can’t qualify for its section tournament, it can’t qualify for the state tournament because (the state tournament) is an extension of the section tournament,” the CIF spokesperson said.

There’s is a sentence, however, in the CIF’s Open Division criteria that a section “may choose to replace selected teams in the division from which they were selected.” We don’t know if that would apply to a situation like this one or not because, as with every CIF criteria written up in recent years, it’s confusing and unclear. It also doesn’t actually state anywhere in the document that a section champion or runner-up or semifinalist or anything like that can only be considered for the Open Division in basketball.

Perhaps the best analogy to the O’Dowd girls situation comes from track and field. We’ve all seen over the years some national-level 4×100 relay team drop the baton in a section qualifying race and then that team just can’t qualify for anything else moving forward. By O’Dowd officials not counting that one game as an actual contest instead of mistakenly counting it as a scrimmage, the baton got dropped.

(Compiled by Harold Abend with assistance from Mark Tennis; updated through games played Saturday, Feb. 22; previous rating in parentheses)

1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 24-1

6. (6) Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 23-4*
*Season may be over after disqualification from CIF North Coast Section playoffs.

7. (7) St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 22-7

20. (18) Enterprise (Redding) 24-2

Dropped Out: Previous No. 19 Troy (Fullerton).

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark, Ronnie Flores and Harold Abend on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports