PROJECTED 2A STATE PAIRINGS (GIRLS)

RPI standings for 2A girls’ basketball were updated at 3:15pm Saturday afternoon and there was little change and we do not expect much change before the numbers are finalized on Sunday morning.Â We use the numbers from today and regional results to project our first state tournament bracket.
The notes below are for projection purposes only and the opinion of Colorado Preps.Â The official bracket will be released on Sunday by CHSAA with first round games set for Thursday at the Events Center in Loveland.
RPI is not the sole factor in laying out brackets this year.Â The committee has some freedom to move teams based on head-to-head results, common opponents and previous district results.Â They will avoid placing teams from the same league/district in a first round matchup.
There aren’t many head-to-head matchups that will play a role in determining team placement.Â The most notable involves Sanford and Del Norte as the Southern Peaks rivals have split a whopping four matchups this year.Â Del Norte won the first two and Sanford the last two in the season series.Â Wray and Yuma also split their two meetings with the Indians grabbing the league victory later in the year.Â Limon also has a win over Swink.
With those items virtually even, we believe RPI will be the dominant factor for deciding the bracket.Â Limon will be our pick for the number one seed as the Badgers are unbeaten against 2A teams and sit number one in RPI.Â Yuma and Meeker is 2-3 in the standings and we believe they will stay in that order.Â The only common opponent between the Indians and Cowgirls is Holyoke and both teams have wins over the Dragons.Â So, we keep Yuma #2 and leave Meeker at #3 based on RPI.
Another argument to move Meeker up is overall record as the Cowboys have just one loss compared to three for Yuma.Â The Indians’ lone in-state loss is against Wray with two other setbacks coming against larger schools from Kansas and Nebraska.
Fourth place could be a tough decision as Wray and Del Norte are in a tight race there.Â Wray has the slightly higher RPI but their margin of victory over Ignacio was smaller compared to Del Norte.Â Wray beat Ignacio in overtime in the regional final while the Tigers cruised to a 22-point win.Â CHSAA normally doesn’t worry about margin of victory so again we believe they’ll keep the teams in the same order. Â About the only difference in spots four and five is which color uniform a team wears in the opening round.
The rest of the seeds will likely be determined by RPI so we have Swink, Heritage Christian and Sanford in 6-7-8 spots.Â Our bracket;

#1 Limon (22-1) vs #8 Sanford (19-4)
#4 Wray (19-3) vs #5 De Norte (22-2)
#3 Meeker (23-1) vs #6 Swink (22-2)
#2 Yuma (20-3) vs #7 Heritage Christian (23-1)

The bracket though could do in a different order based on results from Sanford — Del Norte.Â That’s the most difficult part in laying out the bracket; what to do with the Tigers and Indians.
There could be discussion about moving Sanford ahead of Del Norte in the pairings as they’ve won the last two meetings between the two including a district final.Â But Del Norte is also four spots higher than their conference rival in RPI and that could even out the two most recent battles.
But if the committee decides to move Sanford up, the pairings could be in this order;