Mater Dei’s boys basketball team beat Servite by 19 points, 95-76, on Friday.
Four days later, the updated CIF Southern Section computer-generated rankings had Mater Dei ranked at No. 32 among all CIF-SS boys basketball teams. Servite was No. 28.
What in the semi-wide world of high school sports is going on here?
That Mater Dei-Servite head-scratcher is one of a few anomalies in the rankings. Another is Santa Margarita at No. 3, two places above St. John Bosco, which defeated Santa Margarita on Friday.
In girls basketball, Orange Lutheran is No. 11 in the CIF-SS rankings. Fairmont Prep is at No. 12. Fairmont Prep beat Mater Dei by 15 points, 63-48; Mater Dei beat Orange Lutheran by 24 points, 58-34.
That Mater Dei-Orange Lutheran result was from Tuesday’s schedule and the most-recent release of the rankings were assembled before Tuesday. But that still offers a look at how the rankings might be inaccurate.
The CIF-SS rankings are based solely on current-season results. At the end of the regular season, those rankings will be used to place boys and girls basketball teams into CIF-SS playoff divisions and will determine how those teams are seeded in the divisions.
Edison athletic director Rich Boyce is on the basketball coaches advisory committee. Boyce, who was Edison’s boys basketball coach for 24 seasons through the 2023-24 season and previously was Estancia’s coach for 13 seasons, said the current playoff system is the best available.
Boyce especially likes that teams are being evaluated and placed in divisions according to current-season performance. Before, previous seasons were part of the formula for playoff placement.
Edison had a senior-heavy team when it advanced to the CIF-SS Division 2AA championship game in the 2015-16 season.
“We graduated everyone from that team,” Boyce recalled, “but we still had to play in a higher division the next season.”
Back to the the ranking for Mater Dei’s boys basketball team: The Monarchs have a stronger roster now than they did in the first half of the season. Zain Majeed, a 6-8 junior guard who is an All-Orange County candidate and might be the Monarchs’ best player, became eligible on Dec. 26. As disjointed as Mater Dei appeared Tuesday in an 85-64 loss to St. John Bosco, the Monarchs are a better team than several Orange County teams ranked above them like No. 31 Cypress and No. 28 Servite.
Boyce is confident that as the season progresses and more results are in the computer, and as more teams get it together and report all of their results, the accuracy of the rankings will improve.
There is no perfect system for the playoffs. When the CIF Southern Section and CIF-SS assistant commissioner Jerry De Fabiis, who is in charge of the section’s management of boys and girls basketball, release the basketball playoff brackets the weekend of Feb. 7-8, it could be as good as any method could be.
“We on the coaches’ advisory committee looked at adjusting the numbers,” Boyce said, “and it never came out correctly. I think CIF and Jerry are doing a great job of getting the right mix of numbers. Jerry presented to us a list of different scenarios and some were so far off that it was obvious that this is the best way to go.”
NOTES
• Nathan Cuevas, senior on the Valencia boys soccer team, has scored 21 goals in seven games. Valencia coach Barry Gardner’s summary: “Nate is a clinical goal scorer. He has all the weapons with both feet, good in the air, highly skilled and a great supporting cast around him that sets him up for good looks.”
• The Five Counties Wrestling Tournament is Friday and Saturday at Fountain Valley High School. It’s a great tournament, featuring many of the state’s top wrestlers. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for students and children; the finals Saturday are expected to start around 2 p.m. …
• At the Doc Buchanan Invitational wrestling tournament last weekend in Fresno, Hunter Juaregui of Fountain Valley lost in the 123-pound quarterfinals to eventual division champion Rocklin Zinkin of Buchanan by a 20-3 decision. Fountain Valley’s Vinnie Gutierrez, in the 141-pound division, lost to eventual division champion Moses Mendoza of Gilroy by technical fall. …
• A good nonleague boys basketball matchup Saturday: Fairmont Prep at Crean Lutheran at 7:30 p.m. Crean Lutheran is No. 2 and Fairmont Prep is No. 10 in the Orange County Top 25. …
• For mid-January, it’s quieter than usual in the football transfer world. All of the ineligibilities of this past fall could be making schools extra careful before accepting transfers. …
• Mater Dei senior Layli Ostovar was named girls volleyball player of the year in California by Gatorade. Ostovar, who signed with USC, was Orange County player of the year as a junior and senior. …
• Erik Terry resigned as Northwood football coach. He coached the Timberwolves for the 2025 season. He previously coached Irvine for nine seasons. Among the assistant coaches on the ‘25 Northwood staff is Stephen Barbee, who coached Long Beach Poly and St. Margaret’s to CIF-SS championships.