San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
AT 6-11, SMITH IS A WILD CARD IN PLAYOFFS
LCC adds standout volleyball player for Open Division push
It’s a little like the 1986 movie classic Hoosiers when Jimmy Chitwood suddenly decides to play and leads tiny Hickory High to the 1964 Indiana State boys basketball championship.
The talk of the San Diego Section Open Division boys basketball playoffs is the addition of 6-foot-11 Wesley Smith to an already good La Costa Canyon (16-11) team.
Two weeks ago, Smith, a member of the USA Men’s U21 National Volleyball Team, showed up at an LCC basketball practice.
He warmed up with the Mavericks, took part in drills and told coach Dave Cassaw that he’d like to join the team.
“You don’t turn down an athletic 6-11 guy who’s already in your school,” Cassaw said. “The only thing I asked was that he was in for the rest of the season. And he agreed.”
Smith is the wild card in the Open Division playoffs that start Friday.
“Our only loss in league play was to LCC … the first night Smith played,” said Carlsbad coach Clark Allard, whose team is 23-5, seeded No. 2 and hosts Torrey Pines in the first round.
“We had no idea he was playing. Had no idea what to expect. But he has really good hands, runs the floor and has a 38-inch vertical. The guy can play.”
La Costa Canyon is seeded fifth in the Open Division and plays at No. 4 San
Ysidro (17-11) with stars Mike Williams and JJ Taylor.
Smith was named best blocker as Team USA won gold at the Pan American Cup in Havana in October.
“He has my attention,” said Mike Haupt, coach of No. 1-seeded St. Augustine (24-4). “We don’t see kids like him very often.
“We need to get by Mater Dei Catholic (21-7) first, but if we do, we play the winner of LCC-SAN Ysidro, so we’ll be scouting that game.
“At this point, anybody can beat anybody. So you better be ready to play.”
St. Augustine is the defending Open Division champion.
The top end of the eightteam Open Division bracket is loaded. The bottom end with Carlsbad-torrey Pines and Santa Fe Christian (24-4) at Montgomery (23-5) is wide open.
Carlsbad and Torrey Pines have already played twice this season with Carlsbad sweeping the league series.
Playoff formula
While football and other sports use a CIF Power Ranking system, basketball uses Maxpreps Rankings to pair the playoffs.
Maxpreps feeds data … won-loss records, opponents’ record, strength of schedule … into a computer and comes up with an algorithm to give teams a ranking.
Moving on
All eight teams in the Open Division — boys and girls — advance to the Southern California Regionals.
The semifinalists and finalists advance in Division I.
The champion and runner up advance in Divisions II and III.
Only the champions advance in Divisions IV and V.
With the exception of the Open Division, all others have 16-team brackets.
Top seeds
On the boys side, Mission Bay (Division I), Otay Ranch (Division II), Victory Christian Academy (Division III), Vincent Memorial (Division IV) and Rock Academy (Division V) are the top seeds.
On the girls side, La Jolla Country Day (Open), Mater Dei Catholic (Division I), Olympian (Division II), San
Diego (Division III), Palo Verde Valley (Division IV) and Valhalla (Division V) are the top seeds.
Other than some flipflops because of head-tohead games or trying to avoid first-round league matchups — other than in the Open Division — the pairings went smoothly.
On the boys side, San Pasqual Academy (11-2) was a No. 8 seed. However, SPA didn’t meet the minimum standard of 15 games. So the selection committee decided to drop the Dragons to No. 9.
Play-in games
The boys have one Monday play-in game with San Diego Jewish Academy traveling to High Tech Mesa in a Division V game. The winner plays at No. 1 Rock Academy on Tuesday.
The girls have four playin games. In Division III, San Ysidro is at Liberty Charter on Monday with the winner playing No. 1 San Diego. In Division V, Guajome Park is at SET with the winner playing No. 1 Valhalla; High Tech North County is at Warner with the winner at No. 6 Mission Bay; and Ocean View Christian is at Gompers Prep with the winner playing High Tech San Diego.
Opt outs
Three schools, all on the girls side, qualified for the playoffs but opted out. Bishop’s (2-22) and El Camino (0-26) opted out of the Division I playoffs and San Pasqual Academy (8-6), a league champion, informed the CIF Office it would not play in the postseason.
john.maffei@sduniontrinune.com