The basketball crush has taken priority for the past few weeks, but we will begin unfurling spring sport previews on Friday.
The majority of local baseball teams have played in preseason tournaments over the past few days, so here is an early look at what’s been happening. Power point games begin this week for most programs.
* Queen Creek captured the Laveen Baseball Classic title by defeating Douglas, 6-5, in the championship game. The Bulldogs went 4-1 in the tournament and Chad Leonard was named MVP after finishing 2-0 on the mound …

The choice for the East Valley’s boys hoops Player of the Year a season ago was – pardon the expression – a slam dunk.
Without Nick Johnson or Matt Carlino around to complicate the process, Mesa point guard Jahii Carson was the best basketball player by a wide margin and garnered the award.
This year looks tougher.
There are a handful of very good players, but not the one elite standout like Carson or a Jerryd Bayless.
Corona del Sol’s Calaen Robinson must be in the discussion, and could be the front-runner if he …

The Mountain View boys basketball team hasn’t been given any favors in its quest to repeat as state champions.
The Toros were the No. 2 seed in the Division I, Section III boys tournament last week, but a scheduling quirk put them in No. 7 seed Desert Mountain’s gym in an eventual first round loss.
The early defeat, coupled with an alleged power points flaw, dropped Mountain View all the way to No. 12 in the state tournament bracket and took away a first-round bye.
The Toros began the state tournament on Thursday, …

Before the football season began, I wrote a column advocating the use of a selection committee to seed the brackets. It’s become an even bigger issue now because of an alleged power point flaw which has left as many as nine teams out of the basketball postseason. If I were a member of a selection committee this season, this is how I would have seeded the Division I boys basketball tournament compared to how it turned out:
Current Division I seeding
1. Corona del Sol
2. Pinnacle
3. Red Mountain
4. Gilbert
5. Desert Vista
6. Cesar …

Here is my stab at predicting the Division I state basketball tournament from start to finish. My Division II predictions can be found here.
Division I
First round:  No. 17 Boulder Creek over No. 16 Desert Mountain; No. 9 Brophy over No. 24 Cienega; No. 12 Mountain View over No. 21 Rincon; No. 20 Cibola over No. 13 Lake Havasu; No. 19 Mountain Pointe over No. 13 Ironwood Ridge; No. 11 Buena over No. 22 Chaparral; No. 10 North over No. 23 Perry; No. 18 Dobson over No. 15 Hamilton.
Boulder Creek …

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 …

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 dust still hasn’t completely settled from last weekend’s melee between the Mountain View and Skyline boys soccer teams.
The two schools played a regular season match on Saturday, where several red cards were issued to Skyline players (and a couple fans) from the early stages of the match. A red card is an automatic ejection from that match and subsequent one-match suspension.
With Mountain View leading 3-1 late, the match was eventually called by the officials with approximately 15 minutes left because red cards were prohibiting Skyline from fielding enough players.
That’s …

It’s the final week of the regular season as all final matches take place Thursday night. With the new division/section alignment, 9 automatic qualifying spots for the state tournament (top 3 in each section based on power points) and seven other at-large bids based on PP, it’s going to be a wild finish with many schools playing 2-3 matches this week, and a lot of really good teams will be left out to dry.
(All records are power point matches only as of Monday afternoon):
Notre Dame at Cactus Shadows (Monday); vs. …