We have a SRValley player on our roster. Bet she is happy. They walloped Accalanes.

Puff Morris struggled against Ontario Christian in a 65-63 loss -- but so did her counterpart, sophomore superstar Kaleena Smith.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/03/02/the-stars-aligned-san-ramon-valley-girls-dominate-acalanes-to-capture-first-ncs-open-title/

I'm an Acalanes grad. Pleased they got that far. Back in my day they didn't even have a girls basketball team.

A little perspective ...

When Stu and I were at Acalanes, girls' sports was one day a year: Something called GAA.

Last night, at Campolindo, Acalanes played San Ramon Valley and the place was packed. Little, if any, room in the stands.

And though the Dons got embarrassed -- losing in fine, but by that margin? -- the fans stayed until the end.

SRValley doesn't have a senior on the team.

And they have an elite freshman coming in.

Ella Gunderson, a soph this year, is their best player. Might not quite be ACC level, but maybe ...

I looked at the brackets in the NCS section and curious how the teams are grouped into divisions. Before it was based on the size of the school. Looking at the Boys bracket Albany was div 1, SMB div 2, and Berkeley Div 3. Just looking at these 3 schools Berkeley is probably has an enrollment -3 or 4 times the size of of SMB & ALbany. So the division is no longer based on school size? I know it changed a while ago where if a team had won 2-3 times in a row, they had to move up a division but none of these 3 have been success for awhile. Clay?

There were always small schools who weere projected upwards. St. Joes when Jason Kidd was there was a division IVschool by attndance but was Division i when playing basketball.

It's all competitive equity -- that is, teams are rated by their performance this season, and then assigned divisions based on their achievements rather than enrollment.

Naturally, it results in some unusual bracketing, but there isn't a good system.

ClayK said:

---

It's all competitive equity -- that is, teams are rated by their performance this season, and then assigned divisions based on their achievements rather than enrollment.

Naturally, it results in some unusual bracketing, but there isn't a good system.

---

So SMB (girls) win NCS Div 3 and doesn't go to state (MOC). Before 1 & 2 plc went to MOC but looks like that has changes too. SMB wasn't good team but..... doesn't seem fair to win and not get invited. One of the teams they beat in NCS does get to go, Fortuna (63-36).

St. Mary's of Berkeley chose not to go because they had some kind of student activity planned.

I think a lot of their seniors/upperclassmen went on a trip to Greece. Their baseball team doesn't have a game for 2-3 weeks

Wow it Enrichment week Mar 10-15. Many students are off traveling or staying to do community work. I guess the SMB basketball team with only 8 (?) on the roster was not expecting to win their division.

Unlike section playoffs, with a significant number of weak teams in the bracket, NorCals are pretty much a war every game -- especially after the first round. By then, no bad teams are left. Yes, there are heavy favorites, etc., but there are no guarantees, especially in the lower divisions.

So nobody, even Mitty (minus Woliczko), can "plan" on getting to the NorCal finals or state. It's a hard, hard road.