NorCal Bracket Challenge - regional finals

Here is our latest look at the leaderboard. Everyone on this list will soon receive an e-mail from me instructing you to submit your picks for this weekend’s CIF state championship game. I’ll be asking you to e-mail me your picks, that way they will stay anonymous from the other selectors. I’ll be setting a deadline of 8 p.m. on Thursday, that way I’ll have time to compile on the picks and then post them on the blog so they will be public before the games start. (I’ll be traveling down to Bakersfield all of Friday morning, so that’s why I need the picks on Thursday night). Each state championship game will be worth 10 points.

CIF NorCal playoffs bracket challenge

Name	Points
Jeff	219
Jeff Silva-Brown	213
Kyle Bonagura	212
norman rogers	211
Big Tae	210
Jimmy Durkin	209
Stephanie Hammon	208
E_CULB	206
Prep Fan	205
Matt Rempel	203
High School Sports Junkie	200
HoopJunkie	200
renegades10	195
Michael Moniz	191
fit to win	189
Richard Estrada	186
Marcus Reed	179
HiHo	173
BigCougar	171
Bulldog215	164
Mig	161

Here’s the full slate of games. If anybody else wants to make their picks just for fun, feel free to e-mail them to me at jdurkin@bayareanewsgroup.com and we’ll also run a side challenge just to see who picks the most correct winners for the state title games.

Division I boys
Newark Memorial (30-4) vs. Westchester-Los Angeles (32-2), 8 p.m. Saturday

Division I girls
Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills (31-3) vs. Long Beach Poly (31-2), 6 p.m. Saturday

Division II boys
St. Francis-Mountain View (30-3) vs. Lincoln-San Diego (28-2), 8 p.m. Friday

Division II girls
Carondelet (27-5) vs. Mater Dei-Santa Ana (31-1), 6 p.m. Friday

Division III boys
Bishop O’Dowd (30-3) vs. Serra-Gardena (33-2), 3:30 p.m. Saturday

Division III girls
St. Mary’s-Stockton (32-1) vs. Bishop Amat-La Puente (27-7), 1:30 p.m. Saturday

Division IV boys
St. Mary’s (26-9) vs. Price-Los Angeles (32-3), 1:30 p.m. Saturday

Division IV girls
St. Mary’s (31-3) vs. Harvard-Westlake (33-1), 3:30 p.m. Friday

Division V boys
Branson-Ross (25-6) vs. Lutheran-La Verne (27-8), 11:30 a.m. Saturday

Division V girls
Pinewood-Los Altos Hills (26-6) vs. St. Anthony-Long Beach (25-9), 9:30 p.m. Saturday

E_CULB

I crashed and burned!! 🙁
Stephanie Hammon

E_CULB, you never came to say hi yesterday! I didn’t get a chance to ask anyone about Chairese’s knee. It looks like she already had surgery. How’s she doing? Tough way to end the season for the Jackets… they couldn’t buy a bucket in the paint. But a great lineup returns next year. I was really impressed by the freshman, Rachel Howard.
High School Sports Junkie

Ya all know I am a Newwark and MVAL guy but I really didn’t expect this team to make it to state. Now what do I do go with them to win it all or go with my head that says Westchester
bbfan2

go with your head for the bracket challenge, whether u think that’s newark or not, who i think have a pretty good chance
Scl Alum

I really would like Newark Mem. to win it all. The realist in me says that Westchester is probably a good 10-12 point favorite, especially the way they handled a very good Mater Dei team last night down south.
E_CULB

Sorry Steph I got a really good seat and figured if I moved it I would lose it! She’s doing ok relative to the circumstance. Yeah they missed a ton of chippy’s that sucked!
Marshawn Lynch

ALL 3 ST. MARY’S TEAMS WITH VICTORIES!!!!!
Velma Wallace

It was a tough loss for Berkeley High, we just could not get the flow of the game. I would say that we beat ourselves, but they have a great team for next year. I was NOT impressed with Sarah James at all she is overrated or she was not at her best. I understand the joy of winning the game but there fans are AWFUL they made very mean remarks, if I had the time I would love to drive to Bakersfield when Poly put a true whipping on them so I can see their tears and then they will know what it is like to be rude after a loss. Berkeley High displayed a lot of class and never shed a tear when leaving the court, maybe Oakridge will do the same when they LOSE on Saturday nights.
Prep Fan

E_CULB, you may have crashed and burned, but you are still ahead of me. The way I see it, we are within 10 points of everyone but the front runner Jeff, and within 20 of him. You’ve got 7 people to pass and I’ve got 8. With each of the state games worth 10 points, there are still 100 points left. We just need to gain 1 game on each person in front of us, and 2 games on Jeff who has to pick conservatively.

It can be done, but we’ll need Stephanie, Kyle and Jimmy, among others to miss just 1 more game than us.

As for Sara James, I saw her play a handfull of times the last couple of years, but none this year as I couldn’t make it out to Sac. She is a solid player who hustles, plays great D, rebounds, shoots well and is a team leader. I don’t know how she’ll do at Stanford, but I was glad to see they took a chance on another local NorCal girl rather than going out of state or down south.

Jimmy Durkin