East County Sports

PCAC gets worst of CCCAA bracket

2019 COMMUNITY COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL

East County Sports staff report

SACRAMENTO (2-26-2019) – It’s well-known that the California Community College Athletic Association is not the biggest fan of Pacific Coast Athletic Conference schools, especially after San Diego City College shocked the state by capturing the 2017 men’s basketball state championship.

And the governing body’s displeasure was evident in this season’s Southland Regional playoff brackets, as most PCAC schools were placed into the same quadrants, guaranteeing an early exit by most of the schools since they are forced to play each other.

In the first- and second-round playoff pairings announced Monday (Feb. 26), South Division champion Southwestern gained the most egregious assault.

Placed in Quadrant 1, the Jaguars (24-4) may be ranked third in Southern California, yet only gained the No. 8 seed. The slap-in-the-face is coupled with a second-round home game with PCAC North Division titlist San Bernardino Valley.

The Wolverines (22-6) are rated No. 4 in the most recent poll, yet were placed No. 9 in the tournament seeds – they didn’t even gain a home game.

The other half of the draw featured top-seeded Fullerton. The Hornets (25-3), co-champions of the Orange Empire Conference, will meet the winner of a play-in to be hosted by Allan Hancock, which means another PCAC club got screwed as San Diego Miramar needs to travel to Santa Maria to face the Bulldogs in one of the longest possible road trips in the Southland.

Gee, thanks, CCCAA.

But it gets worse.

Quadrant 3 received two additional PCAC schools in Mt. San Jacinto and San Diego City, which both finished as runners-up in their respective PCAC division.

The Eagles (22-5)  are ranked eight, but seeded 10th, thus forced to plat on the road at Riverside, their in-county arch-rivals.

Meanwhile, the Knights (16-12) barely made the field at No. 18. They travel to Santa Monica to meet the Corsairs.

The remaining quadrants are completely void of PCAC schools.

First-round games will be held Wednesday (Feb. 27). Second-round contests are slated for this weekend (March 1-2).

The complete brackets are

here:https://www.cccaasports.org/sports/mbkb/2018-19/files/2019_MBK_SoCal_-updated-.pdf

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