It’s our second week of predicting post-season basketball brackets for Class 2A and 3A girls’ basketball.  We expand our horizons a bit and pick up runner-up teams in Class 2A and extend seeding order to the top 16 in each class.
 

CLASS 2A

Most teams are at or near the midway point of the regular season so we’re starting to get a good idea of which clubs can contend for a district championship and earn the right to host a regional tournament. As we did with the boys division, we’ll project district winners and also the runner-up team as well.

District 1:             #1 Del Norte, #2 Sanford

District 2:             #1 Yuma, #2 Wray

District 3:             #1 Ignacio, #2 Dolores

District 4:             #1 Limon, #2 Denver Christian

District 5:             #1 Soroco, #2 Vail Christian

District 6:             #1 Swink, #2 Fowler

District 7:             #1 Highland, #2 Clear Creek

District 8:             #1 Simla, #2 Calhan

Some of the more contested standings include District 2 where Holyoke and Haxtun could easily push for a top two finish.  Yuma is the choice at #1 as they have a win over Wray.  The Eagles get the nod over Holyoke as they topped the Dragons last week.  Holyoke also has a win over Haxtun.  Several of the league leaders play again so the projections could easily change.
District 4 could be a three-team race with Burlington also in the mix to challenge Limon and Denver Christian.
Several teams could push for the District 5 championship. We have Soroco and Vail Christian one-two and they square off on Tuesday but other clubs such as Rangely and Meeker could push for the crown.
In District 8, Simla and Calhan are the picks for the top two spots at this point, but Ellicott and Colorado Springs School are also off to good starts.
RPI standings will be used to seed the district champions one through eight and the first official numbers are to be released on Tuesday.  The same standings will be used to place the remaining qualifiers in the bracket in spots 9-32 with the final eight slots (25-32) possibly moved for geographic and travel purposes.
Here are the top eight seeds for Class 2A.  Remember, only district champions qualify for these spots.

#1 Yuma

#2 Swink

#3 Del Norte

#4 Simla

#5 Soroco

#6 Limon

#7 Highland

#8 Ignacio

Now we take the runner-up teams from each district and place them in the bracket 9-16.  More than likely, third and even fourth place finishers in the deeper districts will be placed ahead of them as RPI standings will push those clubs higher up the seeding ladder.  But for now, we’ll use the runner-up squads.

#9 Wray

#10 Vail Christian

#11 Denver Christian

#12 Calhan

#13 Fowler

#14 Sanford

#15 Clear Creek (drops to 2A for the post-season)

#16 Dolores

Squads that could easily crack into the top 16 include Holyoke, Haxtun, Meeker, Rangely, Burlington, Ellicott, and Colorado Springs Christian among others.
 

CLASS 3A

The top two teams from the seven districts automatically qualify for the state tournament.  The seven district winners and the top non-champion according to the final RPI standings earn the right to host the first two rounds.  RPI will then be used to seed the bracket 9-32 with again the final eight spots available for movement (25-32) for geographic purposes.
Most of the same clubs occupy the top two positions in each league as results from last week did not alter the standings.  The Patriot, Metro and Tri Peaks conference are the most difficult selections as several teams could easily end up with one of the guaranteed spots from their district.  Sterling and University make the cut in our Patriot league, but the deep conference also includes Resurrection Christian, Liberty Common, Brush and Eaton.  In the Metro, we go with Lutheran and Kent Denver again this week, but Colorado Academy, St Mary’s Academy and Jefferson Academy are also strong contenders.  Over in the Tri Peaks, Lamar is the defending state champion but right now we have them behind St Mary’s and Colorado Springs Christian in that race.

Frontier:              #1 Bennett, #2 Academy

Patriot:                 #1 Sterling, #2 University

Metro:                  #1 Lutheran, #2 Kent Denver

Tri Peaks:            #1 St Mary’s, #2 Colorado Springs Christian

Intermountain: #1 Centauri, #2 Pagosa Springs

West Slope:        #1 Cedaredge, #2 Delta

Confluence:       #1 Weld Central, #2 Eagle Ridge Academy

 
RPI standings released tomorrow may indicate a completely different order, but our seeds 1-8 shape up like this.

#1 St Mary’s

#2 Centauri

#3 Colorado Springs Christian (highest RPI for non-champion)

#4 Cedaredge

#5 Sterling

#6 Lutheran

#7 Weld Central

#8 Bennett

In looking at the next eight seeds, we believe that at least the third-place teams and possibly a fourth place squad from the Patriot, Metro and Tri Peaks will move in ahead of the runner-up clubs from the Western Slope, Frontier and Confluence districts.  With that in mind, here’s the next eight seeds.

#9 Lamar

#10 Pagosa Springs

#11 University

#12 Manitou Springs

#13 Kent Denver

#14 Resurrection Christian

#15 Liberty Common

#16 Vanguard

 
Colorado Preps will continue projections for the 2A and 3A post-season each week of the regular season which ends on February 17th.  Post-season pairings will then be announced on February 18th.