Prep Review : Playoff Mismatches Raise Questions About Qualifying Format

Does the state basketball playoff format have problems? If any doubt remained, the first round of the Southern California Regional Division III boys’ playoffs should have ended the discussion.

Tulare Western, which finished the season 9-16, qualified for the regionals, where it lost to Corona del Mar, 80-47.

Corona del Mar Coach Paul Orris, whose team was an at-large selection, cleared his bench in the third quarter of a game that provided more competition than a bye, but not by much.

“After the game, (Tulare Western Coach Mark Siverly) said to me, ‘If we had played the first half like we did the second, we might have been able to give you a pretty good contest,’ ” Orris said.

“I didn’t know what to respond to him. We just beat them by 33 points and played everybody equally in the second half. We scored 21, 19, 20, 20 and that was really with the second and third string playing most of the second half.

“I am not trying to put him down. I just don’t think he is aware of the caliber of basketball around here . . . it’s just the nature of the beast. There is a pretty high level of basketball in the Los Angeles and Orange County area, and some good coaching. It is unfortunate they had to come that far to get buried. It was not our intention to embarrass them, and I don’t think we did.”

Monache, of the Central Section, also was given an opportunity to compete for the state title in the boys’ division with a losing record. Monache was 12-14.

Monache lost, 78-37, to Dominguez (25-4) of the Southern Section in a first-round Division II game.

What these scores demonstrate is an amazing lack of parity among the sections. Consider that of the 10 state final berths available--five boys’, five girls’--eight were taken by Southern Section teams.

In the first round of the regionals, the average margin of victory was 14.9 points for boys’ games and 20.1 for girls’. In Division III, that figure jumped to 22.8 in the boys’ and girls’ divisions.

So, how did Tulare Western, a team that lost almost twice as many games as it won, earn a berth in the Southern California Regionals while players for Rolling Hills (22-5), the top-seeded boys’ team in the Southern Section 3-A, were turning in their uniforms after losing in the quarterfinal round?

According to Jim Cheffers, the Southern California tournament director for the California Interscholastic Federation, the Southern, San Diego and Central sections each were allowed two entries in each division with the section champion automatically earning one berth.

Tulare Western was the Central Section runner-up in the Division III playoffs. But only six teams fell into that enrollment category (1,000-1,499) in the Central Section, said Merritt Gilbert, the section’s commissioner. That means the Central Section, with only six schools, got the same number of playoff entries in Division III as the Southern Section, which has 70 Division III schools, many of them with basketball teams with records far superior to Central Section teams.

In defense of Tulare Western’s record, Gilbert said that because there are so few Division III schools in the Central Section, the school competes in a league made up of Division I teams. But Tulare Western lost the sectional title game by almost 30 points.

The two at-large berths in the Southern California Regional Division III playoff bracket went to Southern Section teams Corona del Mar and San Luis Obispo.

“We are very pleased that they took our two at-large,” said Dean Crowley, Southern Section associate commissioner. “We hope they did it because they were quality teams. It was also important that we got consideration due to the number of schools in that division in our section and because of the quality of our teams.”

That is still little consolation for a team such as Rolling Hills, which sees a Tulare Western playing in the regionals.

Said Corona del Mar’s Orris: “I feel not so badly for ourselves as for teams like Rolling Hills, for instance, who we beat in the quarterfinals (of the Southern Section 3-A) who had an outstanding team and really deserves to be in the state playoff much more so than Tulare Western, but that is the way the ball bounces. To make it to state as it is set up right now, you have to be at least a finalist in your section.

“I don’t know how you can get around it unless you rewrite the rules. If you don’t go by (the top two) teams from various regions and go by a ranking process, then a lot of politics get into it. It is hard to evaluate a team from Orange County against a team from San Diego unless they have some common competition.”

Perhaps the way to go is to just have each section’s champion advance. The playoff format would be very simple. You win, you advance. You lose, you go home. It also would prevent teams which lose their sectional finals from getting into the state tournament and winning a state title.

Crowley of the Southern Section has another idea.

“If we are going to have state championships, let’s have the best possible teams there,” he said.

“Maybe the answer is that section champions get in and then after that, the committee selects the best possible teams to fill the brackets. Why an 11-14 team? Why a 9-16 team? Take the sectional champs, then fill the bracket with the best possible teams. I would support that totally.”

A shot in the arm: Chanele Chambrone, a first-team All-Southern Section catcher and one of the leading hitters in Orange County last season, has transferred from Tustin High School to Canyon, Canyon softball Coach Lance Eddy said.

Chambrone, who hit .520 as a junior last season, enrolled at Canyon Friday. Her family has moved into the area, Eddy said.

“Chanele is versatile and can play first and third as well as catcher, and I’m not sure where she will fit into the lineup,” said Eddy, whose team went 18-9 and finished second in the Century League last season.

Joe-Max Moore, who helped lead Mission Viejo High School to the Southern Section 3-A boys’ soccer championship, will join some of the top high school senior soccer players in Southern California at the High School Soccer All-Star Games.

The games are Friday at La Mirada High School at 7 and 8:45 p.m. Admission is $3.

Twelve of the 18 participants are from Orange County. They are Dean Miller (Troy), Moore and Todd Patrick (Mission Viejo), Diego Abbes (Kennedy), Eddie Buenrostro (Santa Ana), Chris Stempson (Valencia), Carlos A. Zavala (Saddleback), J.R. Ochs (Brea), Darin Martinez (Esperanza), Daniel Barber and Tim Stevenson (Pacifica) and Bill Kline (Marina).