With the basketball season quickly winding down it’s time to switch over to Projections instead of if the playoffs started today. In Class 3A the 1st and 2nd place teams from each league automatically qualify and the League Champion hosts only if they are in the Top 16 of the RPI. For my projections I will use the current league standings plus some projections. The RPI will be used to predict the rest of the field of course because it’s way to hard to predict what the RPI will do. Also teams that are sitting outside the Top 45 are probably all but eliminated from making the Post-Season tournament without an automatic berth.
Class 3A
The playoff format for 3A goes as follows; Districts Determine own seeding Criteria for the district tournament, Seven Districts each qualify two teams to the state brackets, with the remaining 18 teams determined by RPI, Qualifiers advance to a 32 teams regional/state brackets where the districts champions plus the next highest RPI finisher will host the regions, Seven District Champions and the 1st highest RPI qualifier will be placed on bracket in order 1-8 and will host the first round and sweet 16 games; seeds 9-32 will be placed on bracket in RPI, avoiding league/district opponents in the first round when possible, Seeds 24-32 may be moved to accommodate geographical considerations, District Champions must finish in the Top 16 to host!
League Champions ()=RPI
Confluence League: DSST-Green Valley Ranch (36) (Will Not Host)
Frontier: DST-Stapleton (16)
Intermountain: Alamosa (2)
Metro: Kent Denver (4)
Patriot: Sterling (1)
Tri Peaks: Vanguard (5)
Western Slope: Coal Ridge (3)
Will Host but not League Champions: Manual (6), Grand Valley (7)
Automatic Qualifier
Weld Central, Pinnacle, Bayfield, Manual, Platte Valley, Colorado Springs Christian, Roaring Fork
At Large Teams
Grand Valley, Strasburg, Resurrection Christian, Faith Christian, Arrupe Jesuit, Delta, Colorado Academy, Lutheran, Cedaredge, La Junta, Centauri, Pagosa Springs, Brush, Jefferson, Montezuma-Cortez, Estes Park, Manitou Springs, Salida
First Four Out
Brush, Frontier Academy, St. Mary’s, Pinnacle
Top 8 seeds based on RPI:
#1 Sterling
#2 Alamosa
#3 Coal Ridge
#4 Kent Denver
#5 Vanguard
#6 Manual
#7 Grand Valley
#8 DSST-Stapleton
Remaining Seeds Based upon RPI:
9 Platte Valley, 10 Bayfield, 11 Strasburg, 12 Resurrection Christian, 13 Roaring Fork, 14 Faith Christian, 15 Arrupe Jesuit, 16 Delta, 17 Colorado Academy, 18 Lutheran, 19 Colorado Springs Christian, 20 Cedaredge, 21 La Junta, 22 Centauri, 23 Pagosa Springs, 24 Pinnacle, 25 Brush, 26 Jefferson, 27 Montezuma-Cortez, 28 Estes Park, 29 Manitou Springs, 30 Salida, 31 DSST-Green Valley Ranch, 32 Weld Central
Bracket: District Matchups will be avoided in first round and 24-32 can be moved due to geography. I will not move teams due to geography this week and will look more into that next week. Also no consolation bracket will be played only Championship and 3rd place game.
Bracket
*#1 Alamosa vs #32 Weld Central
#16 Delta vs #17 Colorado Academy
*#8 DST-Stapleton vs #25 Brush
#9 Platte Valley vs #24 Pinnacle
*#5 Vanguard vs #28 Estes Park
#12 Resurrection Christian vs 21 La Junta
*#4 Kent Denver vs #29 Manitou Springs
#13 Roaring Fork vs #20 Colorado Springs Christian
*#2 Alamosa vs #31 DSST-Green Valley Ranch
#15 Arrupe Jesuit vs #18 Lutheran
*#7 Grand Valley vs #26 Jefferson
#10 Bayfield vs #23 Cedaredge
*#6 Manual vs #27 Montezuma-Cortez
#11 Strasburg vs #22 Pagosa Springs
*#3 Coal Ridge vs #30 Salida
#14 Faith Christian vs #19 Centauri
*= Regional Host
MileHigh Prep Report 