RPI numbers have been updated for both Class 1A boys’ and girls’ basketball clubs so now we provide a cleaner look at how the state tournament pairings may look like. Official pairings for both divisions will be released tomorrow with first round action set for Thursday at UNC in Greeley.
In setting up the brackets, the CHSAA committee can use more than just RPI standings. Head to head results and common opponents are also factors again this year. With that in mind, we try to piece together where the 1A clubs may end up.
GIRLS
As we suggested in our first look at the pairings before the RPI was updated, the discussion for spots one through four will be difficult. Springfield, South Baca and Briggsdale can all lay claim to the number one overall seed and Fleming has a legitimate argument to be involved as well. We just believe that the two losses to Briggsdale will eliminate them from the top three spots plus they’re #4 in RPI.
There are some head-to-head results to factor in. Springfield beat South Baca on the road in conference play but then the Patriots grabbed the district championship with a neutral court win over the Longhorns. RPI has Springfield #1 with South Baca #3 (Briggsdale in-between) and we believe the committee will use those numbers to break the “tie”. As a result, we believe that Springfield is the top seed with Briggsdale #2 and South Baca #3. Fleming would then be the four. This order also keeps league rivals on opposite sides of the bracket.
In our first look at the bracket, we had Sangre De Cristo in at the number five position but they slipped below Shining Mountain in RPI. That could cause us to change the order of those clubs but we keep Sangre De Cristo at #5 because they haven’t lost to a 1A club this year. All of their losses were suffered to quality 2A opponents. So we then leave Shining Mountain at #6 followed by Cotopaxi and McClave.
Our bracket now looks like this:
- #1 Springfield vs #8 McClave
- #4 Fleming vs #5 Sangre De Cristo
- #3 South Baca vs #6 Shining Mountain
- #2 Briggsdale vs #7 Cotopaxi
BOYS
RPI standings were updated late Saturday night (11:15pm) and the order did not change from the rankings in place before the regional tournaments began. We list the qualifiers in order.
- Kit Carson
- Mile High Academy
- Walsh
- DeBeque
- Briggsdale
- Merino
- Evangelical Christian
- Ouray
Since there are very little head-to-head results and common opponents to factor into the decisions, RPI probably becomes the focus of the seeding the committee. The lone change would have Merino bumping ahead of Briggsdale since they easily won a head-to-head contest earlier in the year. Kit Carson also beat Walsh but otherwise none of the teams faced off during the regular season. So we make the change with Briggsdale-Merino to come up with our bracket.
- #1 Kit Carson vs #8 Ouray
- #4 DeBeque vs #5 Merino
- #3 Walsh vs #6 Briggsdale
- #2 Mile High Academy vs #7 Evangelical Christian
