Basketball Battle Lines Are Drawn : No Surprises as Teams Seeded for Monday’s Playoff Start

The conglomeration of coaches, from Borrego to Bonita, stood in pairs and small groups and talked business. Mainly, the business of basketball.

In this case, the conversation revolved around the seedings for the high school basketball playoffs that begin throughout the county on Monday and end 13 days later at the Sports Arena.

For the 135 schools that will participate in this post-season party, the playoff picture was made perfectly clear on Saturday morning at the San Diego Section offices.

In effect for the second season is the five-division format in which every school is eligible to participate and placed according to enrollment. This is in contrast to the 3-A, 2-A, 1-A format used in most other sports.

The new format denies a clear-cut champion for each of the three divisions as played during the regular season but allows an athlete from a losing team to taste post-season competition.

“I think it’s a good system,” said Mike Seaman, Mission Bay boys’ coach. “I know there are those who think that having everyone qualify for the playoffs takes something away from a league championship, but I like the idea. It’s a great opportunity for the kids.”

The Buccaneers (15-7) ended the season winning seven of their last eight games, earning a co-championship with La Jolla, and are seeded ninth in Division II.

“This way,” said Seaman, “you have three seasons: preseason, your league season and postseason.”

Sweetwater Coach David Ybarra sees the multiteam playoffs as a chance for San Diego strength to show off at the state level this year.

“It gives teams a chance to go into the state finals,” said Ybarra, whose Red Devils were given a No. 3 seed in Division I.

Records were the key basis for the seedings, but also taken into consideration were schedule strength and whether a team was headed up or down at the end of the season.

There were no great surprises Saturday.

Poway (19-4, Palomar League), San Diego (17-4, City Central), Sweetwater (24-2, Metro) and Monte Vista (17-4, Grossmont 3-A) are the top four seeded teams in boys’ Division I. Defending champion Santana is unseeded.

Torrey Pines (27-1, Palomar), with its only loss to Florida’s Miami Carol City, is seeded first in Division II, with El Camino (20-5, Avocado), Point Loma (14-10, City East) and Helix (17-6, Grossmont 3-A) two through four.

Lincoln (27-1, City Central), the defending Division III champion, is seeded first in the five-team Division III. Clairemont (12-15, City West) is second.

Christian (12-11, City Central) tops the four-team Division IV and Bishop’s (20-2, Coastal) and Imperial (11-9, Desert) the Division V draw.

In girls’ Division I, Point Loma (26-1, City East), Santana (21-2, Grossmont), Mira Mesa (18-7, City East) and Poway (17-9, Palomar) are seeded one through four.

Vista (22-3, Palomar) and San Marcos (18-6, Avocado) are seeded first and second in Division II, and Ramona (18-3, Avocado), Holtville (19-3, Desert) and Calvin Christian (21-1, Citrus) top divisions III, IV, and V.