"We’re happy with where we’re at," coach Ken Shaw said at the bracket show. "Obviously, there’s some road blocks in the way, which you expect."
That’s for sure. In fact, the draw wasn’t kind to Regis when it came to the No. 2 in its quadrant. That’s Arapahoe (Littleton), at 20-3 probably the deadliest team outside the top four. With defending champion Regis clearly tops among the top seeds, why did the Warriors get stuck in the Raiders bracket?
Regis’ only loss came in double overtime to a Los Angeles team at a Sacramento tournament. The Raiders didn’t look so good in the second half in a late-season win against Chaparral, but otherwise cruised through their schedule.
"It’s a long season. You always have your ups and downs," Shaw said. "But I’ve been very happy with our guys’ resiliency and how hard they work. We’ll be ready. We’ll be ready for the playoffs and playing our best basketball."
The Raiders depend on the scoring and rebounding of 6-foot-6 Bud Thomas. Shaw gets another boost with the return to health of guard Joey Ptasinski, who jammed the fingers on his shooting hand against Chaparral. He played without incident in the season finale against Douglas County.
Ptasinski is now casting a wary eye on the pitfalls in Regis’ quadrant.
"Not too much of a shock there (at being No. 1), but obviously there’s not going to be an easy way to get there (with) our 2 and 3, Arapahoe and East," he said. "(East) always plays well in the tournament, like really well. Arapahoe could have been a 1-seed maybe."
Rampart coach J’on St. Clair drove from Colorado Springs to the airport-area Holiday Inn & Suites and was well-rewarded with a No. 1 seed in the upper-left quadrant, ahead of Lincoln, Doherty and Chaparral. The Rams faltered a bit at the end with a loss to co-league champion Fountain-Fort Carson, also 21-2, but St. Clair noted that it was a close loss.
"Down the stretch, we just didn’t make enough plays in the end," he said. "We had a one-point lead with like four minutes to go. I felt if we would have had a three- or four-point lead, then we would have won the game. Both teams played hard, played good defense."
On the positive side, Rampart has scored more than 100 points three times, plus 99 against Fruita Monument, a No. 4 seed. Those Rams losses were to teams with a combined 38-8 record, plus Rampart did beat both Palmer and the Trojans in their first go-round and shared the league title with FFC.
Fountain-Fort Carson and Montbello (Denver) landed No. 1 seeds alongside Regis and Rampart. Aurora Central coach Ian Calvert was hoping to get a No. 3 seed, but are fourth seed in Fountain-Fort Carson’s bracket.
"We’re playing pretty well," Calvert said. "We’ve won eight in a row. We really are two possessions away – one overtime against ThunderRidge and one overtime against (Lincoln) – two possessions from being a No. 2 seed."
The Trojans are strengthened by the return of Joseph Abrams and his 19 points a game. He sat out a half-dozen or so games for personal reasons. That allowed Dese Lee, Shawn Banks and Auberee Prickett to score more freely, so the Trojans might be at their best now that the playoffs are here.
Show gaining popularity
The Holiday Inn site was the biggest yet for the bracket party and 250 coaches, players and fans made the trip. The CHSCA was looking for more input from 5A and 4A coaches for its all-state games in the summer and handed out nomination ballots at a table.
A different Class 4A
There is not much argument about the four No. 1 seeds in the 4A boys tournament: Pueblo East (21-1), Sierra (Colorado Springs) (21-2), Longmont (21-2) and Sterling (21-2).
But the second round is now hosted only by teams seeded first or second. That concerned Jefferson coach Grant Laman. TJ plays in the Denver Prep League, so it is at a disadvantage for seeding because of 5A state powers Montbello, Lincoln and Denver East.
"Any league where you’re split 4A-5A like the Denver Prep you (still) have to outright win your league," Laman pointed out. "We’re kind of always a third seed. That’s the one thing I’d like for them to take a look at. There’s a lot of schools now that split classifications in their league."
Laman did acknowledge that TJ and Lincoln both won two consecutive 4A titles without being DPL champions, saying that perhaps gave them more fuel. He did dislike the format change of just two host schools for the second and third rounds.
"The way they did it this year, it means even though we’re not playing a first-round match, we’re playing the winner of Greeley West and Englewood, we’re playing at Glenwood Springs," he said. "We don’t get the home game."
Even if no changes are made for teams from split leagues, Laman did see an equalizer.
"One side of it is, if you don’t like it – win."
School pride from the correct school
Regis and Skyview (Thornton) brought the largest player contingents to the bracket show and the Wolverines were the most vocal upon finding out they got the No. 12 seed in Sterling’s region.
Unfortunately, a report in a Denver daily newspaper said those cheers came from Frederick, seeded one spot ahead of 11-10 Skyview. The blunder didn’t bother Wolverines coach Mike Beach, still feeling the effect of a positive regular season.
"We had more wins this season than in the previous three years – combined," Beach said. "We won 11 games and were 8-60 the last three years."
