Typically, this day is spent working the phones, listening to one upset coach after another vent. There was some of that, but mostly for my mock seeding not the PSAL’s official brackets. The seeding committee – are you ready for this? – did an exemplary job.
I have a few issues you will read about below in both Class AA and A, but they are minor quibbles. The league set us up for a remarkable month of postseason hoops. It was fair, for the most part consistent and creates tremendous matchups.
Below are the ‘AA’ seeds:
1. Lincoln
2. Boys & Girls
3. Wings Academy
4. Cardozo
5. Thomas Jefferson
6. Wadleigh
7. South Shore
8. Forest Hills
9. Robeson
10. John F. Kennedy
11. McKee/Staten Island Tech
12. Bayside
13. Eagle Academy
14. Curtis
15. Campus Magnet
16. Gompers
17. Beach Chanel
18. Manhattan Center
19. Thurgood Marshall Academy
20. Transit Tech
21. Lehman
22. Thomas Edison
23. Martin Van Buren
24. Truman
Amazingly, our top seven are identical. This has never happened. I love a handful of possible matchups, most notably South Shore-Boys & Girls in the quarterfinals. The Kangaroos won the first meeting, 69-59, on Dec. 2 and the two never played again. The Vikings can match Boys & Girls’ versatility, depth and quickness, which few teams can. The second-round matchup of Wadleigh-MSIT will be a track meet – so many good guards my head is spinning. I love the Seagulls’ chances since their one weakness – lack of size – isn’t a Wadleigh strength.
I’ve been told the one hang up in the top seven was the third seed, deciding between Wings Academy and Cardozo. Both went undefeated in their respective divisions and won their borough tournament by comfortable margins. In the end, I’m sure the committee felt The Bronx was better than Queens and rewarded Wings, a just and accurate decision.
The part I disagree with the committee is at eight and nine. Forest Hills didn’t deserve to be so high; the Rangers didn’t even make the tournament final in an extremely down year for its borough. I had them 14 in my mock seeding, which is probably a little low, but eight is way too high, even though Forest Hills did have quality wins over South Shore and Robeson. Speaking of the Eagles, they are as well too high.
Other than hailing from Brooklyn and blowing one fourth-quarter lead after another, what did Robeson do to deserve the ninth seed? This sets up for Lincoln very well – I see an unbelievably easy quarterfinal game against either Robeson or Forest Hills for the Railsplitters.
McKee/Staten Island Tech, the newly crowned Staten Island High School League champion, deserved to be higher. Sure, it lost a handful of non-league contests to Brooklyn foes, but all those were on the road, it did knock off Gompers and is a different, far more explosive team now that senior guard Josh Good is back from academic ineligibility.
Additionally, I don’t understand why Bayside was seeded so low, either. The Commodores reached the Queens final for the first time in seven years, beating Forest Hills in the process, and is stuck at 12. It’s like the message is being sent the borough tournaments don’t carry much weight; if that’s so, why have them?
CLASS A
1. Midwood
2. Long Island City
3. Columbus
4. Grand Street Campus
5. Graphic Communications
6. Bedford Academy
7. Acorn
8. Smith
9. Brooklyn Collegiate
10. Bayard Rustin
11. HS For Construction
12. Queens HS of Teaching
13. South Bronx
14. Harry Van Arsdale
15. Bronx Science
16. Norman Childs
17. Evander Childs
18. New Dorp
19. Port Richmond
20. Grover Cleveland
21. Tottenville
22. A.P. Randolph
23. Banneker
24. New Utrecht
25. John Adams
26. Jamaica
27. Springfield Gardens
28. Walton
29. DeWitt Clinton
30. Environmental Studies
31. Canarsie
32. Newtown
33. Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy
34. Fort Hamilton
35. FDA
36. Telecommunications
37. Global Studies
38. Martin Luther King Jr.
39. Far Rockaway
40. Beacon
41. Murry Bergtraum
42. Stuyvesant
43. Hunter College HS
44. Washington Irving
45. Economics & Finance
I was pleased to see the commitee reward Midwood, Long Island City and Columbus with the top three seeds and it did a good job giving Brooklyn Collegiate the ninth seed, as I proposed in my mock seeding. The Lions finished just 8-6 in Brooklyn A East, but five of those losses were forfeits for using an ineligible player. It would’ve been unfair to a top 10 team to have to face Brooklyn Collegiate in the second round.
Now for a few seeds that made me refresh my computer a few times. How is Grand Street the fourth seed? Brooklyn A West was way down, the Wolves were bludgeoned by No. 12 Queens HS of Teaching in non-league and didn’t exactly hold their own in the boroughs, getting crushed by Lincoln, 101-50. South Bronx, seeded No. 13, will beat Grand Street in the second round by double figures. Write it down.
Also, why is Acorn chosen for the boroughs ahead of Bedford Academy, yet seeded behind them in the city playoffs? There is no logic there whatsoever. Also, the two teams both finished 11-3 in Brooklyn A East, yet South Bronx and Smith were both 16-3 in Bronx A East, yet separated by five seeds.
CLASS B
1. Frederick Douglass Academy III
2. Pathways College Prep
3. Eleanor Roosevelt
4. Medgar Evers
5. East Harlem Pride
6. Cobble Hill
7. Teachers Prep
8. August Martin
9. Bushwick Leaders
10. Newcomers
11. Network Technology
12. Robert F. Kennedy
13. Fannie Lou Hamer
14. Applied Communication
15. Onassis
16. Leadership Institute
17. Leon Goldstein
18. Banana Kelly
19. Metropolitan
20. Life Sciences
21. Lab Museum
22. Manhattan Village
23. Pace
24. Law Enforcement & Public Safety
25. American Studies
26. Brooklyn College Academy
27. School of the Future
28. East Side Community
29. Queens Vocational Tech
30. South Bronx Prep
31. Health Professions
32. Townsend Harris
33. Leadership Academy
34. Info Tech
35. East New York Family Academy
36. Millennium
37. Bathgate
38. Foundations Academy
39. New Explorations
40. Environmental Science
41. Math, Science & Engineering
42. Chelsea
43. Robert F. Wagner