Grading the seeds planted by RPI

The state tournament brackets for girls basketball, boys basketball and ice hockey were announced Sunday.

Taking the math out of it — the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) formula that determines a team’s seed takes into account winning percentage, opponents’ winning percentage and opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage — how accurately were the basketball tournament fields set? Here’s my take:

Class 5A girls

This bracket is straight up awful.

Simply put, No. 1 Fruita Monument should not have received the top seed. Three of the Wildcats’ marquee wins came against lower-classification teams (Valor Christian, Colorado Springs Christian and Pueblo West), and they didn’t play near the toughness in their 5A schedule as other programs.

Are the Wildcats a top10 seed? Certainly. A topfive seed? Probably.

But in a field where a handful of teams are capable of making a run at the title — Fruita Monument included — Regis Jesuit and Grandview are the clear favorites for whom the RPI (sans a classification modifier) did no favors.

The Raiders, who boast five Division I starters, including one of the best prep players in the country in junior Fran Belibi, have not lost in the state of Colorado and are woefully underseeded at No. 6.

Without question, Regis Jesuit should be the No. 1 seed.

Meanwhile, the defending champion Wolves, whose lone in-state loss came to Regis Jesuit, are No. 4 — right behind No. 3 Horizon, a team Grandview beat by 10 points just three weeks ago.

No. 10 Castle View and No. 11 Cherry Creek also got shafted. The Sabercats beat No. 9 Mountain Vista by double digits in league play, while the Bruins are clearly a top 5 team.

Class 4A girls

The RPI got it right with Pueblo West at No. 1, but the Jeffco League teams weren’t given respect by the formula.

Defending champion Evergreen, which is led by junior Claudia Dillon and won the conference, is an insulting No. 6 seed behind No. 5 Valor Christian (which took third in the league behind the Cougars and No. 10 Golden). The Eagles are about where they should be, but the Demons as well as No. 7 D’Evelyn are a couple spots better than their seeds.

Meanwhile, the biggest snub of this bracket goes to No. 8 Mesa Ridge, which ran the table to the Colorado Springs Metro title while not losing to a 4A team all season.

Class 5A boys

The top five teams are all mixed up; there should be consideration given to conference champions as well as recent head-tohead results.

No. 2 ThunderRidge should be the top seed, seeing that it clinched the outright Continental League title with a win over No. 1 Rock Canyon on Friday. And No. 5 George Washington should be flipped with No. 4 Denver East, considering that the Patriots beat the Angels on Saturday for the Denver Prep League crown.

Class 4A boys

The top seeds are accurate. No. 1 Pueblo South, No. 2 Lewis-Palmer and No. 3 Golden each had a couple stumbles this winter, but all three programs consistently proved their elite status.

Overall, it’s a fair setup for the field.