As the “second season” begins on Saturday around the state, a few bits of randomness about these brackets.
–For the most part (and it’ll never be exact) the seedings at the top of Division I are pretty spot-on. Or, at least, there are good arguments to be made that Basha (No. 1), Red Mountain (No. 2), Xavier (No. 3), Gilbert (No. 4) and Horizon (No. 6) are worthy of their spots. Xavier might be the biggest question mark of those given the Gators’ late-season slide after dropping three of their last …

The state tournament brackets are set, so it’s time to further dissect the baseball playoffs. Here is the primer that ran in the paper on Friday. However, the seeds weren’t set before our print deadline, so for all you loyal online readers here’s a more in-depth breakdown. As I said in the outlook, the randomness of the matchups is going to play a big role in how the playoffs play out, and that looks to be the case. Here are my thoughts on what will happen in the first two …

This is it:  The last of the regular season matchups. All teams vying for playoff positions, “bubble teams” trying to get into the top-24, and jostling for one of those top 8 seeds (especially in Div. I and Div. II) have until Wednesday evening to determine whether summer vacation begins early.
The top 4 teams in each Section (based on power points) are automatic entrants, with the remaining 12 spots based solely on power points.
We’ll update the state tournament brackets as soon as they’re posted late this week.
Let’s get to it.
(All …

And then there were two. As in, two weeks of regular season action left before the softball state tournaments begin in earnest on April 28.
The playoff push begins now, because teams who wait until next week to try and make a move could easily be left on the lurch.
(All games are 4 p.m. unless otherwise noted. All records are power point games as of Monday morning):
Xavier at Basha (Tuesday):  The Gators took last week off for their (late) spring break, and are No. 1 in power points at 13-0. The …

Firmly entrenched in the power point season again, let’s cut to the chase with plenty of really good softball matchups this week (of course that’s easy to come by when it’s 3 or 4 games per week for most schools).
(All games at 4 p.m. unless noted; All records are power point as of Monday, April 2):
Red Mountain at Gilbert (Tuesday):  Probably the biggest game of the week and another preview of Div. I state tournament semifinals or even championship game the way these two schools have been playing. Gilbert won …

Spring Break and big-time tournaments highlighted most of the past two weeks. That’s especially true for those who played in the Desert Mountain tournament, with Mountain View beating Paradise Valley for the championship.  Practically everyone there Saturday felt their team was significantly better having gone through that week’s worth of competition.
Now, however, the party is over. With most schools dealing with three- and four-games per week this week and through the month of April, it’s back to power point contests in-full.
Here we go (all records are power point games only …

The Mesa Summer PrimeTime tournament, featuring eight of the top boys basketball teams in the state, will take place June 22-23 at Red Mountain.
The first game for each team will be an exhibition, with the last three bracket play. The championship game will be the final game of the tournament. Last year, the exhibition game was played as the last game of the day, but tournament director Marc Beasley found that anticlimactic, so he switched the schedule.
Here are the teams, in order of seed:
1. Pinnacle – The Pioneers made the …

The softball schedule is a little more muddled and unpredictable this week with a few tournaments going on (namely the Marcos de Niza-McClintock Spring Break tourney), but here’s a smattering of (mostly) power point games worth watching around the East Valley this week.
(All records are power point games as of Monday):
Tuesday
Gilbert vs. Desert Ridge (10 a.m. at Marcos de Niza H.S.):  Desert Ridge got off to a strong start in the Red Mountain tournament early this season, then lost to Red Mountain, but beat Mountain View in PP games. A …

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 …