Long Beach Jordan No. 1 in Slimmed-Down Playoffs

Reduction was the word of the day Sunday when the Southern Section announced pairings for its 1993 high school boys’ basketball playoffs. And when the draw sheets were finished, there were 22% fewer teams invited to play for championships in 10 divisions.

After a three-year experiment in which every team in the section was eligible to compete in the playoffs, Southern Section officials voted last month to limit eligibility to about 50% of member schools.

The result was that 255 of 449 teams (56.7%) were allowed into the playoffs, which begin Tuesday night with wild-card games in two divisions. A total of 327 teams participated last year, down from a high of 367 in 1991.

“Now what happens in league (competition) is going to mean something,” said Dean Crowley, CIF associate commissioner.

Teams that finished in the top half of their leagues received automatic entry, with the brackets being filled by at-large entries that won at least 10 games.

“The only negative is that some programs scheduled tough and didn’t get 10 wins,” Crowley said.

For two teams, 14 and 15 victories were not enough for them to receive bids. Perris failed to earn an at-large berth in Division I-A with a 14-11 record, and Mojave was left out of the Division IV-A field with a 15-7 mark. Of 51 teams that applied for at-large berths, 37 received them.

Long Beach Jordan (17-6), the Moore League champion, was top-seeded in Division I-AA.

Santa Ana Mater Dei (26-1), the defending I-A champion, is No. 1 in that division, and Santa Monica Crossroads (20-3) is seeded No. 1 as it defends its Division IV-A title.

HIGH SCHOOL PAIRINGS: C15