JC NOTES : Playoff Pairings Switch Angers El Camino Coach

El Camino College men’s basketball Coach Ron McClurkin looked relaxed Wednesday night as he watched the first round of the women’s regional basketball playoffs in El Camino’s North Gym.

McClurkin was holding a videotape of the Riverside team, the Warriors’ likely opponent in Saturday’s first round of the men’s playoffs. He and his players had watched it closely and felt they had the Tigers pegged.

But when McClurkin got home, he learned that information about Riverside wouldn’t do his team any good. “There was a message on my (telephone answering) machine that said we’re playing at Santa Monica,” he said. “I found out at 10 at night!”

The normally mellow McClurkin was upset, and with good reason. Originally El Camino was seeded No. 16, which meant a home game against 17th-seeded Riverside (16-15) in Saturday’s first round. Those pairings were chosen by conference representatives at a meeting Tuesday.

But on Wednesday afternoon, Bill Barnes, the conference official in charge of seedings, engineered a switch. It involved three South Coast Conference teams: No. 23 Long Beach, No. 21 Pasadena and No. 16 El Camino.

The new pairings have Pasadena, still seeded 21st, visiting No. 12 Golden West. Long Beach--which originally was to travel to Golden West--is now seeded 16th and will host Riverside.

That means El Camino, now seeded 23rd, will meet a much tougher team on the road. Santa Monica placed second in the Western State Conference with a 26-8 overall record.

“If they wanted to make a change,” McClurkin said, “they should have done it during the meeting (Tuesday), not two days before the game.”

But Barnes, an administrator at Long Beach City College, said there was an error that he didn’t learn about until late Tuesday, when Long Beach Coach Bill Fraser complained about his team’s seeding.

Barnes said committee members didn’t seed SCC teams correctly, and that it was his duty to fix the matter.

“It was brought to my attention that those seedings had not been honored or followed in accordance with the seeding process,” he said. “I had to make sure the guidelines were in practice.”

Barnes said a team’s seeding should be determined primarily by its conference finish. Head-to-head competition and overall records are only secondary factors, he said.

El Camino was ahead of Long Beach on two of the three counts, but apparently that wasn’t enough to remain No. 16. The Warriors beat Long Beach (15-15) twice in league play this season, and their overall record (20-10) is better.

But El Camino finished with a 3-5 conference mark and in a three-way tie for third with Mt. San Antonio College and Pasadena. Long Beach finished second to Cerritos with a 4-4 record.

The confusing part is that no one--including Barnes, who oversaw Tuesday’s meeting--caught the fact that El Camino was seeded ahead of Long Beach and Pasadena. Mt. SAC didn’t get a playoff berth.

“It’s an embarrassing error,” Barnes said. “They overlooked three teams, and it’s embarrassing. It shouldn’t happen again.”

Harbor College, seeded 14th, will host No. 19 College of the Desert in Saturday’s first round.

The Seahawks placed third in the Southern California Athletic Conference with a 7-4 mark (22-12 overall). Desert is the fifth-place team in the Foothill Conference.

If the Seahawks win, they will go to Santa Ana on Wednesday for a second-round game against No. 3 Rancho Santiago (27-3).

Wednesday’s first-round playoff game was an easy outing for the eighth-seeded El Camino women’s basketball team. The Warriors handily defeated visiting Moorpark, 77-59.

Saturday’s second-round game at Golden West will be a tougher workout for the Warriors (22-7), who placed second in the eight-member SCC. Golden West is seeded No. 1 with a 32-1 mark. The Rustlers easily swept the Orange Empire League with a 12-0 record.

“We lost to them last year in the first round of the playoffs,” said El Camino guard Kim Bly, who suffered a knee injury earlier this season. “And we’re really looking forward to playing them again. It should be a very intense game.”

Bly scored 15 points against Moorpark despite looking wounded. The sophomore played with a white bandage on her left knee and tape around her left thumb and right little finger. Center Cheri Bullet had a game-high 24 points, and guard Lynn Sherman had 21.

Eight El Camino basketball players made the men’s All-SCC team. Forward David Keeter and guard Larry Lockley made the first team, and guards Frank Beatty and Keith Brown the second team. Lockley leads the Warriors with 18.2 points a game. Keeter is second with 16.8.

Among the women, Bullet, a 6-foot center-forward from Banning High, was named the conference’s Most Valuable Player. Bly and Sherman were also named to the first team, and guard Tammy Booker made the second team.

Nineteen South Bay junior college football players signed letters of intent with four-year colleges Feb. 14, the first official sign-up day.

El Camino led the pack with 12. They include defensive back Niu Sale (Missouri), quarterback Frank Dolce (Utah), defensive lineman Eugene Lofton (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), defensive tackle Jagade Freeman (Cal State Fullerton), defensive end David Porter (Fullerton), defensive end Jeff Cummins (University of Oregon), linebacker Derrick Deese (USC), wide receiver David Blakes (San Jose State), offensive lineman Ismael Peralta (Ball State), linebacker Tracy Gentry (Houston), wide receiver Khevin Pratt (Utah) and tight end Marlin McBride (University of Texas, El Paso).

Southwest’s star defensive linemen, Chris Mims and Bernard Dafney, signed with Tennessee, and wide receiver Ansel Littlejohn with UTEP. Cougar defensive back Lorenzo Dickson will play at Houston and linebacker Joseph Kearney at Oregon State.

Harbor defensive lineman Kevin Johnson signed with Houston.