CIF Northern California playoff basketball breakdown

Let's forget the controversy surrounding the new Open Division of the state tournament — please — and just break down the CIF Northern California championship. All divisions start Wednesday except Open, which begins Friday.

California boys state tournament brackets

Boys Open
Top seed: Salesian (Richmond) (30-3). Best first-round game: Newark Memorial (Newark) (23-7) at Mitty (26-4), 7 p.m. Saturday. Sleeper: No. 4 Sheldon (Sacramento) (25-5). Salesian has a 21-point win over No. 2 seed Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) (26-4) and the nation's No. 5 recruit Aaron Gordon. Would be a dream Bay Area match-up to have McDonald's All-Americans Gordon and Salesian's Jabari Bird go head-to-head for the title, but not nearly lock with teams like Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) (26-3) and defending Division I champion Sheldon in the way. Possible semifinal matchup between Mitty (Gordon) and O'Dowd (6-9 sophomore Ivan Rabb) also attractive.
Predicted Winner: Salesian — so much experience and confidence with wins over Mitty and Sheldon. Don't think it helps Salesian to have a week off before likely facing Sheldon, which has at least five Division I players and a bit of a chip on its shoulders.

Boys D1
Top seed: Deer Valley (Antioch) (24-6). Best first-round game: Palo Alto (23-3) at De La Salle (Concord) (24-4). Sleeper: No. 5 McClymonds-Oakland (21-7). No one can touch the one-two punch of Deer Valley McDonald's All-American Marcus Lee and point guard Kendall Smith, but second seed Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) (24-6) is more balanced. The Eagles are led by the potent and versatile trio of Malik Thames, Colfax Nordquist and Matthew Hayes. They were eliminated last year by De La Salle and would like nothing more than to return the favor. De La Salle, with Arizona-bound Elliott Pitts, wanted to play in Open and will play with chip on its shoulder. Winner: De La Salle — tough for Deer Valley to beat a Frank Allocco-coach teamed three times in season. The Wolverines beat De La Salle soundly 55-38 the first time the teams met in Dec., but the Spartans gave host Deer Valley all it could handle in a 51-48 loss in a NCS semifinal game last week.



Boys D2
Top seed: Dublin (24-6). Best first round: Rocklin (20-10) at El Camino (South San Francisco) (22-7). Sleeper: No. 5 Sacramento (24-6). With Serra (San Mateo) (25-5) and Newark Memorial moved to Open, this is wide open. Dublin should cruise to semifinals but Grant (Sacramento) (23-8) versus Sacramento winner will be tough. Winner: Antelope (25-6) — Experienced, well-coached, premier player (6-5 Gabe Bealer), battle tested and 15-game win streak point to title. Bealer, who has an offer from Davis, is averaging 19.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. He has high games of 31 points and 14 rebounds.

Boys D3
Top seed: Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) (18-11). Best first-round game: Campolindo (Moraga) (19-11) at Burlingame (21-8). Sleeper: No. 5 Drake (San Anselmo) (24-6). Considering what defending champion Sacred Heart Cathedral lost to graduation in June — All-State front-liners Taylor Johns and Josh Fox — coach Darrell Barbour should be given raise. Winner: El Cerrito  (22-10) — has physicality, depth and athletes to overtake Irish cohessiveness. Sophomore Tyrell Alcorn is star in the making and Marcellus Pippins is bound for Washington on football scholarship. 

Boys D4
Top seed: Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) (29-3). Best first-round game: Riverbank (24-4) at Marin Catholic (Kentfield) (23-8). Sleeper: No. 4 Soquel (22-7). With defending champion Salesian called up, another wide open field. Newman has nice duo of 6-1 guard Kenny Love and 6-6 Corey Hammell , but second-seed Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) has too much of everything. Winner: Riordan — WCAL pounding ground proves decisive here.

Boys D5
Top seed: St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) (22-11). Best first-round game: Head-Royce (Oakland) (24-5) at Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) (14-11, CCS champs). Sleeper: No. 3 University (San Francisco) (24-8). Winner: St. Joseph — experience, brawn, 6-7 Temidayo Yussuf and 6-5 Lamont Banks, tested (play in league with Salesian and El Cerrito) and great coaching with Don Lippi equal another title.

California girls state tournament brackets

Girls Open
Top seed: Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) (26-3).  Best first-round game: Miramonte (Orinda) (27-2) at St. Mary's (Stockton) (29-2). Sleeper: No. 4 St. Mary's (Albany). Tremendous talent including St. Mary's Berkeley junior Gabby Green and St. Mary's-Stockton sophomore Brijanee Moore, two of top guards in the country, but O'Dowd has beaten five of the seven teams by double digits including first-round opponent Brookside Christian (Stockton) (26-4) the defending Division V state champion, by 31. Winner: O'Dowd — At least six Division I college players including 6-4 McDonald's All-American Oderah Chidom make the Dragons just about unbeatable. With seven state titles, a brilliant system, great coach (Tom Gonsalves) and loads of talent, St. Mary's-Stockton could probably do better than 21-point loss it sustained to O'Dowd on Feb. 2, but it's doubtful it could close the gap all the way. 



Girls D1
Top seed: Monte Vista (Danville) (24-5). Best first-round game: Oakland Tech (21-6) at Lowell (San Francisco) (24-5). Sleeper: No. 12 Berkeley (18-11). This one is normally cakewalk for Berkeley, but this year Yellowjackets, without size or dominant point guard have struggled. Another team to watch is Gunn (Palo Alto) (19-6) which gave up a scant 63 points in three games en route to a CCS title. Gunn is fantastic on defense which gives them a shot against any team. Winner: Berkeley — surprise. Not a terribly deep or talented field, but the Yellowjackets do have at least two future college players in Rachel Howard and Desire Finnie.

Girls D2
Top seed: St. Francis (Mountain View) (21-8). Best first-round game: Alameda (20-8) at McNair (Stockton) (26-4). Sleeper: No. 6 McNair. Carondelet and Mitty moved up, opening this field to up to at least four potential champions. Winner: St. Francis — coach Brian Harrigan has won four state titles with Sacred Heart Cathedral and gives Lancers chance to win their first.

Girls D3
Top seed: Sacred Heart Cathedral (22-6). Best first-round game: Placer (Auburn) (25-5) at Campolindo (23-5). Sleeper: No. 4 Christian Brothers (Sacramento) (24-7). Like Barbour, Irish coach LyRyan Russell has done wonders to earn top seed. But can they beat second-seed St. Ignatius (San Francisco) (19-10) a fifth time? Winner: Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Girls D4
Top seed: Salesian (Richmond) (26-6). Best first-round game: Moreau Catholic (Hayward) (21-7) at Menlo (Atherton) (20-9). Sleeper: Menlo. With USC-bound Drew Edelman, a 6-5 post, Menlo can cause problems. But Salesian came within a sliver of being called up to Open. Three of its loses have come to St. Mary's-Berkeley, which it also beat. Winner: Salesian — just too much Mariya Moore, one of country's top juniors. She changes the game in so many ways and leads her team with averages of 18.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 3.6 steals per game. She led Salesian to a Northern California title last season.

Girls D5
Top seed: Eastside College Prep (East Palo Alto) (21-8). Best first-round game: Weed (21-9) at International (San Francisco) (28-4). Sleeper: No. 4 International. Lot of celebrating in East Palo Alto when Bradshaw Christian-Stockton was pulled into the Open. Can never ignore third-seed Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) (21-7), which has won five state titles under current coach Doc Scheppler. International features one of Northern California's top sophomore guards Shayna Mehta. Winner: Eastside Prep — As long as 6-foot senior Hashima Carothers is healthy.