Basketball: Looking Ahead to Region II - Trying to Explain How Things Works - Might Work!

By Dan Sousa, VivaLoudoun Editor
with special analysis by Jeremy "Hoops" Huber
(Feb. 14, 2012) - My wife said please don't get her anything special for Valentine's Day so I'll put that effort I would have spent shopping into (trying to ..) explaining how the Region II Division 3 and Division 4 girls and boys basketball tournaments will be seeded.

Before proceeding, you might want to have following handy: calculator, pocket protector, Thermos of coffee, graduate degree from M.I.T., Magic 8 Ball, butcher paper, box of 64 Crayons, graphing paper and the DVD of Good Will Hunting ...

For starters, like football ... basketball awards separate regional and state championships based upon division (3 and 4) for AA. Same for A but not for AAA (please do not ask about the logic of AAA not doing it too ...).

For region II the 9-team Dulles District is pretty much all Division 4 with seven of the nine schools D4 except for 2nd-year schools Woodgrove and Tuscarora. Since there are only 12 teams in D4 -- a majority of the region IS Loudoun: Briar Woods, Dominion, Heritage, Loudoun County, Loudoun Valley, Park View, Potomac Falls.

The other three districts are the Jefferson (by Charlottesville) and Evergreen and Northwestern (which are down Fauquier way and out in the Winchester area). The Jefferson has only six schools (Fluvanna, Monticello, Western Albemarle, Charlottesville, Louisa and Powhatan) and the Evergreen and Northwestern combined only have 10 schools with each five - Evergreen (Liberty, Fauquier, Warren County, Brentsville, Kettle Run) and Northwestern (Handley, Sherando, Millbrook, Skyline, James Wood).

Divisional Splits:
D4: 7 Dulles schools from above plus Sherando, Louisa, Powhatan, James Wood, Millbrook
D3: 2 Dulles schools from above plus rest of region above

How they seed the postseason region tournament:
Basketball:
-Division 3, 4 – 8 teams qualify per Division
-Division 3, 4 – No byes

The following criteria will be used to rank the divisional teams for the purpose of qualifying for and seeding the Region II Tournament:
Seed Criteria District designed
#1 #1 seeds from All Districts
#2 #2 seeds from All Districts
#3 #3 seeds from Large Districts
#4 #3 seeds from Medium Districts
#5 #4 seeds from Large Districts
#6 #3 seeds from Small Districts
#7 #4 seeds from Medium Districts
#8 #5 seeds from Large Districts
#9 #5 seeds from Medium Districts
#10 #4 seeds from Small Districts
#11 #6 seeds from Large Districts
#12 #7 seeds from Large Districts
#13 #6 seeds from Medium Districts
#14 #8 seeds from Large Districts
#15 #7 seeds from Medium Districts
#16 #5 seeds from Small Districts

Teams that qualify on the same seed criteria line will be seeded according to the following tiebreaking criteria:
Tiebreaking Seed Criteria
#1 Head to Head results
#2 Regular season winning % in District games only
#3 Winning % versus common opponents
#4 Overall winning %
#5 Total wins

With me so far? A key thus far is the Jefferson a year ago was in the medium district category of 7-8 schools (9 or more is larger) but this year falls into the small district category of 6 schools or less.

Local sports fanatic Jeremy Huber -- what else are we going to call a guy who spent time putting this together -- researched the hoops picture around the region last week and came up with this -- keep in mind it is hard to track down some of the records out of Loudoun because not everybody has a VivaLoudoun :) (yes we just tooted our own horn ... assuming anybody is polite enough now days to actually toot their horn instead of blasting it ...)

Boys
Dulles
Loudoun Val. 14-2
Briar Woods 13-3
Pot Falls 11-5
Loudoun Co. 9-7
Woodgrove 8-8
Heritage 8-8
Park View 7-9
Tuscarora 1-15
Dominion 1-15

Evergreen
Liberty 7-1
Fauquier 7-1
Warren Co. 3-5
Brentsville 1-6
Kettle Run 1-6

Jefferson
Fluvanna 9-1
Monticello 7-2 (melee)
#3 W. Albemarle 6-3
Charlottesville 3-6 (melee)
Louisa 2-8
Powhatan 1-9

Northwestern
Handley 6-2
Sherando 5-3 (S-Mill)
Milbrook 5-3
Skyline 2-6
James Wood 2-6

Girls
Dulles
Woodgrove 15-1
Loudoun Co. 15-1
Heritage 10-6
Tuscarora 9-7
Dominion 8-8
Briar Woods 7-9
Pot Falls 5-11
Park View 3-13
Loudoun Val 0-16

Evergreen
Liberty 8-0
Warren Co. 6-2 (?)
Brentsville 2-6
Kettle Run 2-6

Jefferson
Powhatan 9-1
Monticello 8-2
W. Albemarle 4-4
Charlottesville 3-6
Louisa 3-7
Fluvanna 1-8

Northwestern
Milbrook 8-0
Sherando 6-2
Handley 4-4
Skyline 1-7
James Wood 1-7

While a lot has to play out in the playoffs ... heading into the district tournaments ... Jeremy was able to pull these from his special basketball playoff tea leaves and the assumption was no upsets of lower seeds so Woodgrove boys already threw that off for one! (all UNOFFICIAL and please no wagering on this ...)

Playoffs - POSSIBLE Match-ups for Region II
Division 4 - Boys
#1 Loudoun Valley - #8 Park View
#2 Briar Woods - #7 Heritage
#3 Sherando - #6 Millbrook
#4 Potomac Falls - #5 Loudoun County

Division 3 – Boys
#1 Fluvanna – #8 Woodgrove
#2 Liberty - #7 Warren Co.
#3 Handley - #6 W. Albemarle
#4 Fauquier - #5 Monticello

Division 4 – Girls
#1 Millbrook - #8 Potomac Falls
#2 Powhatan - #7 Briar Woods
#3 Loudoun Co. - #6 Dominion
#4 Sherando - #5 Heritage

Division 3 – Girls
#1 Liberty - #8 Brentsville
#2 Woodgrove - #7 W. Albemarle
#3 Monticello - #6 Handley
#4 Warren Co. - #5 Tuscarora

Bottom line is that Jeremy is predicting that as many as 14 (!) of the 18 Dulles District teams make Regionals this year ... now I open the floor for any old-timers to talk about basketball teams from 20 years ago that won  20 games but didn't make the playoffs because you had to win your district to advance back then!

Times have changed ... now where is my after-article snack I was promised ... that is the only reason I wrote this dang thing!