Cooler heads prevail in CCS seeding meeting

“The (league) reps probably couldn’t be honest with their coaches sitting there. They couldn’t say, ’This team is not really good.’”

Times have changed, however, and the CCS seeding process is much more streamlined. The CCS boys’ and girls’ basketball bracket were seeded in the organization’s San Jose offices Wednesday. Carion, whose Bearcats earned the No. 6 seed in the Division II bracket, said it used to take upwards of four hours.

“The last two years, we’ve gotten out out of there in 2 hours and 45 minutes,” he said.

Now, only the league representatives are allowed in the seeding room and while it still takes time to wade through dozens of teams that qualified, Carion said the process now goes a lot smoother.

Unlike sports like football and soccer seedings, which are based on power points, the teams and seeds in basketball are completely subjective. It is imperative that the league and division reps know the teams in their leagues.

Carion said that they all put in a lot of work to ensure the brackets are as competitive as they can be.

“We have reps who put in a lot of work. They know these teams,” Carion said. “I’m well aware of all our teams (in the PAL). I know their best wins, their tough losses, their head-to-heads. I’m in constant conversation with [PAL coaches].

“Our No. 1 goal is to seed the best bracket. I feel everybody goes in there with that intention.”

Carion said the first order of business is to first determine which teams qualified for the playoffs. A .500 or better record in either non-league or league play is the prerequisite.

Once that is established, the seeding committee will identify the top eight teams and seed them into the Open Division. Carion said they had a hard time deciding on the seventh- and eighth-seeded teams Wednesday, eventually selecting Alisal as the No. 7 seed and PAL Bay Division champ Half Moon Bay getting the No. 8 seed — instead of the No. 1 seed in the Cougars’ division of enrollment, Division IV.

Giving the Cougars an even bigger challenge? They begin Open Division Pool A play against No. 1 Mitty (22-2). By making the Open Division, all teams are guaranteed three games and automatic spots into the CIF Northern California regional tournament.

The winners of Pool A and Pool B will meet for the Open Division title.

“There are some obvious (Open Division teams),” Carion said. “The MaxPreps CCS rankings are a starting point.”

After the Open Division bracket is set, the committee will move on to the rest of the divisions. It will round up all the Division I schools, based on enrollment, and then have to whittle that number down to 16 teams, which are then seeded.

But just because a team qualified for CCS, doesn’t mean it gets to play. The Sequoia girls, despite having a qualifying record, was not seeded into the Division I bracket. The committee then used the same process for the rest of the division brackets — six in total.

“Seeding takes a while. We look at overall record. Head-to-head is really important and when you played is important. … A lot of it comes down to, ‘Who did you beat?’ and bad losses hurt you. Some years, schedule is (a very strong fact0r). This year, being a league champ carried a lot of weight,” Carion said. “I think Sequoia deserved to be in it. They’re playing their best basketball right now. … Unfortunately, in the preseason, they didn’t have that quality win.”