You didn’t think we were going to leave you hanging on Saturday did ya!? We will be blogging all of the games (including updates from the Division III games at St. Mary’s College)  right here at Prep Corner starting at 11 a.m. Make sure to comment, because if you don’t I will just turn it off and stop the updates!

By the way, wrestling fans should be over at our sister blog right now and Saturday! Ben Enos is running the live blog from the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield. Man, we just got you guys covered for everything! If you’re really cool, you will just open both screens and continue to hit refresh.

Below I have every final game, boys and girls, divisions 1 through 5. Picks are due by 11 a.m. Saturday, March 1. This is for all the marbles. Check out the standings below. We have quite the race going.

                     —————————————————————————-

Copy the list of games below, paste it in a new comment to this post. Erase the team you think is going to lose. If you don’t pick a game you will automatically lose that game. Each correct pick is worth 1 point (other rounds will be scored the same). If you want to tell us why you picked your games, feel free. If you win (any division), you will automatically be granted eternal glory.

D-I

BOYS: De La Salle/Newark Memorial. GIRLS: Deer Valley/Berkeley.

D-II

BOYS: Hayward/Las Lomas. GIRLS: Carondelet/Northgate.

D-III

BOYS: Campolindo/Dublin. GIRLS: Miramonte/Hercules.

D-IV

BOYS: St. Mary’s/Kennedy. GIRLS: Justin Siena/St. Patrick-St. Vincent.

D-V

BOYS:Branson/Lick Wilmerding. GIRLS: Branson/Head-Royce.

Overall Standings through 3 Rounds

*Just boys games.

Division-I Boys

Division-II Boys

Division-III Boys

Division-IV Boys

Division-V Boys

Division-I Girls

Division-II Girls

Division-III Girls

Division-IV Girls

Division-V Girls

That’s right. I’m back. Some of you may have seen my story today (Argus/Daily Review) on the GREAT Newark-Castro Valley boys hoops game. Wow, what a game!

I’m currently shacked up at the Extended Stay in Bakersfield for state wrestling.

Tough week with that Jury Duty. I thank all of you for hanging in there with me. I was dismissed from Jury Duty for some reason Wednesday afternoon. I don’t think some of the defense attorneys liked when I answered a question with a question. Or how I told one attorney that “you started to ask a question and then ended with a statement, so what is your question? And try not to be so wordy this time.”

 Anyway I’m here if anyone has some questions about the Newark-Castro Valley game or about state wrestling. I’ll be up for the next couple of hours doing research.

BOYS

Division I

Division II

Division III

Division IV

Division V

GIRLS

Division I

Division II

Division III

Division IV

Division V

These are the final rankings submitted by Dennis Miller.

Other receiving consideration: Amador Valley, Newark Memorial, Liberty, Berkeley, Northgate, Bishop O’Dowd and Acalanes.

These are the final rankings submitted by Dennis Miller.

Other receiving consideration: James Logan, Washington, Newark Memorial, California, Tennyson, College Park, Monte Vista, Northgate.

So I’ve ran this theory by a bunch of people since I left the Washington-Deer Valley game tonight and it has made sense to everyone so far…

The general consensus is that the officiating was terrible across the board tonight with a common theme — way too many fouls. I think this directly correlates to the use of three officials at NCS games. The whole year, these kids have played with two officials and everyone gets used to that. But when NCS rolls around all of a sudden there is an extra set of eyes and an extra whistle on the court.

I wish there was an average foul per game number we could analyze because I guarantee it goes up with 3 officials instead of 2. It’s not like baseball where having more umpires obviously helps, in basketball the use of more officials definitely changes the game.

On the surface it seems like more officials would equate to a better officiated game, but there were quite a few free throw contests out there tonight and it shouldn’t be that way in the playoffs. It’s not fair to the kids who get used to games getting called a certain way all year, then having that change at the end when they are already under a lot of pressure.

This is not a knock on the individual refs, who for the most part do a good job, I just think the games should be officiated the same way in the playoffs as they were during the regular season.

Deer Valley coach Lindsay Wiley said she thought the team who’s superstar fouled out first was going to be the team that lost. Morgan Woodrow (Washington) fouled out with 2:19 left in regulation, Patrice Saindon (Deer Valley) fouled out at the end of overtime … Deer Valley wins by 5.

Food for thought.

With everything going on tonight, this is all I have time to do…….AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe updates later…

The All-Hayward Area Athletic League Team was selected Monday night and just submitted to me. I won’t release the entire team because I have to save something for the print edition (Team will come out in Tuesday’s paper), but I will announce the co-Player’s of the Year….

Davion Berry, Hayward — An obvious choice here. The HAAL scoring champion led his team to a second-place finish in league. This is the junior’s first year as a starter and he reached the free throw line over 100 times this season. He has led the Farmers to the top seed in the NCS Division II playoffs. However, he went down hard in the first-round victory against Northgate and will sit most of tonight’s game against Windsor, unless absolutely needed, according to coach Iman Mattox.

DJ Broome, Castro Valley – A great selection for co-Player of the Year. I really commend the coaches for going with Broome. The 5-foot-6 point guard doesn’t average double-digit points, but he is the reason the Castro Valley offense goes. Broome showed off his ability to break down a press in the quarterfinal playoff victory over Pittsburg. He is still averaging around nine points a game, I believe. But it certainly is his ability to run the offense that got him the award. Nobody in the HAAL runs an offense better than Broome and he is up there with the best point guards in the East Bay. He is a true old-school point guard, pass first and shoot second. One of the most exciting players to watch in the HAAL.

Congrats to both players.