There’s just two weeks left in the high school basketball season. No more pool-play. No more waiting around. It’s win or go home.
The CIF State playoffs are here.
All of the sectional finals up and down California are complete, including the Southern, City, San Diego and Central Sections — which make up most of the SoCal regional playoffs. The CIF State pairings were released Sunday, revealing where teams would fall after their respective sectional playoffs.
There were shocking placements.
Some teams will look to take advantage after being placed in a lower division in the CIF State tournament than their sectional playoffs. Other teams are scratching their heads because they were pulled up into a higher division after sectional playoffs.
Here are the Top 5 storylines heading into the CIF State Southern California regional playoffs.
(All CIF State boys basketball brackets at bottom of page)
Geographically, it makes sense. Santa Maria St. Joseph is much too far south to represent the ‘North’ in the CIF State playoffs. But because the CIF State office has placed St. Joseph in the North before, we are all left wondering what they’ll do each year.
St. Joseph represented the North in 2023 when it lost to Harvard-Westlake in the CIF State Open Division final.
The South is loaded enough — Roosevelt, Notre Dame, Harvard-Westlake, St. John Bosco — well, it’s more loaded now with St. Joseph, led by Tounde Yessoufou, placed in the South as the No. 2 seed.
Three McDonald’s All-Americans will now compete in the CIF State Open Division SoCal regional playoffs, and just one will be left standing on the night of March 15.
Sierra Canyon, Redondo Union, Santa Margarita and JSerra were all dropped into the Division I bracket after competing in the Southern Section Open Division.
It’s likely that one of those four teams will find its way to a CIF State Division I final in Sacramento. The last three Division I state champions have come from the Southern Section’s Open Division: Damien (2022), Notre Dame (2023) and St. John Bosco (2024).
The City Section Open Division finalists — Westchester and Chatsworth — were expected to be seeded in the Division I tournament, especially with stars like Tajh Ariza and Alijah Arenas, respectively.
But both will be in Division II, where a deep run is very possible. Last year, Chatsworth dropped to Division IV and made it to the CIF State final. The Chancellors are much better this season.
Chatsworth will host Palmdale Pete Knight and Westchester will host La Jolla Country Day of the San Diego Section Tuesday night.
The biggest example of teams being pulled into a higher division is the Southern Section Division 2AA finalists, Fairmont Prep and Pacifica Christian of Orange County. They’ll both play in the Division I tournament.
Fairmont Prep was seeded No. 12 (of 16 teams) and will be on the road to No. 5 Carlsbad after winning a section title. Pacifica Christian is the No. 14 seed and will be on the road to Redondo Union.
Knight won Division 3AA and will be on the road in Division II at Chatsworth.
Keep an eye out for City Section teams that’ve dropped to lower divisions in the CIF State playoffs.
Division I City champions Sun Valley Poly, with stars JD Wyatt and Quian Khawaja, could make a deep run in the Division IV state tournament. The Parrots are the No. 3 seed and will host Tri-City Christian of Vista, Calif. Tuesday night.
Open Division participants in the City Section, Palisades and Fairfax, are in Division III and IV, respectively.
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