UPDATE:  New RPI standings were issued at 10:15pm Saturday night but did not affect our projections below.
With district tournaments complete and RPI standings updated on Saturday, we can now get a very good feel for the regional tournament pairings in 1A girls’ basketball.  Three regions will take place next week with eight state tournament teams coming from those brackets.
Please note these pairings are unofficial and are based on projections by Colorado Preps.  Official pairings will be announced on Sunday.
 

WESTERN REGIONAL

This is an easy bracket to lay out as the District 1 champions plays the runner-up from District 6 and then champ from District 6 meets the second place team from District 1.  Games are set for next Saturday at Gunnison High School.

  • Sangre De Cristo vs De Beque
  • Dove Creek vs Cotopaxi

 

SOUTHEAST REGIONAL

A little different seeding process is in place for this bracket which combines the top three teams from Districts 2, 3 and 7.  District champs are given first round byes and seeded one through three based on RPI.  Runner-up teams are then placed in the bracket with the highest district champion placed together with the lowest ranked second place team not in their district.  Once that happens, then the rest of the bracket easily falls into place.  Third place clubs are not really seeded as they’re placed in the three-team pods to avoid having two teams from the same district grouped together.
District champions are seeded in order with South Baca #1, Genoa Hugo #2 and McClave #3.  The second place teams are seeded by RPI with Springfield #4, Kiowa #5 and Eads #6.  Eads is placed with South Baca but Kiowa cannot be placed with Genoa Hugo since they’re from the same district.  That moves Springfield down to #5 and Kiowa up to #4.  So the brackets are projected in this order.

  • #6 Eads vs #7 Elbert (winner plays #1 South Baca)
  • #5 Springfield vs #8 Kit Carson (winner plays #2 Genoa Hugo)
  • #4 Kiowa vs #9 Kim/Branson (winner plays #3 McClave)

The champion of each three-team pod advances to the state tournament.
 

NORTHEAST REGION

The same nine-team format is used in this region but teams are placed simply by RPI with district finishes having no bearing of where clubs are seeded.  Using the RPI from Saturday night, we have these pairings projected.

  • #6 Merino vs #7 Front Range Baptist (winner plays #1 Briggsdale)
  • #5 Lone Star vs #8 Haxtun (winner plays #2 Fleming)
  • #4 Flatirons Academy vs #9 Stratton/Liberty (winner plays #3 Shining Mountain)

We could see the committee exchange spots with Front Range Baptist and Haxtun to avoid having two teams from the same district pair up in round one (Lone Star-Haxtun).