Brian Bolitho, the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s director of business media, responded to the Tribune’s claims that there could be a flaw in the power points system with a guest blog post on ArizonaSports.com Wednesday.
Although the AIA has failed to acknowledge an error and refused to meet with local engineer John Carrieres about the problem, Bolitho said that ‘to say the AIA is ‘ignoring’ an error is incorrect.’
He goes on to say that ‘the current system does not present an error as the formula is working as created by the committee …

Two people applied for the Seton Catholic girls basketball coaching job in 1992. Karen Self and another person, and she won the proverbial coin flip.
She was fresh out of Arizona State following a solid playing career, but never coached before and was broke.
“I was floored when it said $2,000 to coach the season,” she said earlier this week. “I was in it for the money.”
She went 13-13 her first season, and joked that she was too intimidated by her first boss to quit at the time, so she did it …

The day before the Chaparral boys basketball team concluded the regular season, coach Damin Lopez didn’t think his team had a prayer of qualifying for the state tournament.
But a well-known face from a local competitor told him differently.
Chaparral defeated Tolleson, 81-73, on Feb. 2, and Lopez went to dinner with his father, David, and brother, Eli, after the game. David Lopez is the former coach of St. Mary’s and is now assisting Eli at Mountain Ridge.
Damin originally thought a Jan. 24 loss to Desert Mountain ended his team’s postseason hopes, …

Mountain View boys basketball coach Gary Ernst is one win away from passing Tucson Sahuaro coach Dick McConnell for the most wins in Arizona history.
Both coaches have 774 wins.
The Toros will play Desert Mountain in the first round of the Division I, Section III tournament on Wednesday at Desert Mountain. Mountain View is the No. 2 seed and the favorite to win that game.
Ernst has the majority of his wins at Mountain View, where he took over in 1985. Ernst led the Toros to the 5A Division I state championship …

The boys basketball sectional tournaments begin Wednesday for the higher divisions, and some great matchups are on the horizon. Here is how I think the East Valley-centric Division I and II sectionals will shake out (with apologies to the lower divisions, which I didn’t see enough to make an educated guess).
Division I, Section II (at Mesquite)
First round: No. 1 Corona del Sol over No. 8 Dobson; No. 5 Gilbert over No. 4 Buena; No. 6 Red Mountain over No. 3 Ironwood Ridge; No. 2 Basha over No. 7 Hamilton.
Corona shouldn’t …

The moment of truth regarding the alleged power points error is getting closer.
As I said late last week, it looks like the Perry boys basketball team may get squeezed out of the state tournament because of the alleged flaw exposed by a local engineer.
The Pumas did not qualify for their section tournament, and currently sit No. 22 in the power points. Normally, it would leave Perry with a very good chance to qualify for state, but the alleged mistake now makes it more perilous.
Here’s why:
Desert Mountain (No. 24 overall), Chaparral …

There is a very interesting story on our website today in which a local engineer and power points guru exposes an alleged flaw in the power points system.
If his allegation is correct, then teams that play more power point games are inadvertently rewarded for simply playing the extra games. Wins magnify the problem more, but if the claim holds true, even losing the extra game is likely to benefit a team.
This is very important because it may alter the landscape of the boys and girls boys basketball tournaments.
There are several real-world examples …

Pinnacle boys basketball forward Cody McDavis sprained his ankle on Friday night against Sandra Day O’Connor and will miss the next two-to-three weeks, coach Charlie Wilde said.
There was a concern that the ankle was broken or dislocated, which would have likely ended McDavis’ season, but an MRI showed it was only a sprain. He is averaging 13.0 points and a team-high 9.0 rebounds per game this year.
“He lucked out,” Wilde said.
McDavis will miss the final week of the regular season and most likely the sectional tournament, but Wilde is hoping …

It’s the final go-round of regular season games for girls basketball. Everything wraps up Friday night and Sectionals from each Division begin next Tuesday, with semifinals set for Thursday night and championship games on Friday night, Feb. 10  (Division IV girls are Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday).
The top eight teams in each Section advance to the Sectional Tournament, which is single elimination. If a team wins its first game in the Sectional Tournament it should advance to the state tournament.
(All games are 7 p.m.  and records are PP games only through Monday).
Pinnacle at St. …

The last week of the regular season is here. The format for the postseason has changed, so before looking at the East Valley basketball bubble teams, here’s a refresher course:
- Eight teams make each sectional. A first round victory automatically gets the team in to the state tournament. Each sectional tournament game counts in the power point rankings, which will cause plenty of movement after the regular season concludes.
- Twenty-four teams will make each division’s state tournament. Twelve teams will automatically get in by winning a section game, and the …