This season is possibly the strangest year for 3A Boys Basketball Ever. With no clear number 1 team in the state and alot of decent to average teams, anything is possible each night. The clear leaders of the pack are Amity, Dayton, De La salle but outside of that core group everyone else is super inconsistent and can’t beat the teams they should be beating if they wanted to be apart of the “Elite” 3A teams this season.
This year is really strange as it feels anyone inside of the top 12 really could beat anyone in the state. No clear dominant team or favorite to win a ring. Which in some ways that makes everything more exciting for 3A fans as even #6 ranked Salem Academy has a shot at winning the State Title as they seem to keep improving each week and just topped Sutherlin the other day 58-49.
The Teams we think will make the state Tournament first round will be:
De La Salle, Riverdale, (Catlin Gabel At Large BID),(Oregon Episcopal AT Large), Dayton, Amity,( Salem Academy AT Large BID but a high ranked one), Rainier, Warrenton, Santiam Christian, Creswell, Harrisburg( AT Large BID)Sutherlin Cascade Christian, Nyssa, Riverside.
The team that essentially came out of nowhere was Harrisburg, we knew they had a new coach and he was a good one, but they only won 3 games in 2019 and somehow have already won 9 wins this season after an amazing upset of Santiam Christian last night.
The teams with the best chances to make Coos Bay in our opinion:
Dayton, De La Salle, Amity, Salem Academy,
Really outside of those four teams, it really appears the last four spots are up for grabs and could easily lead to a few upsets in the first round of the State Playoffs. We wanted to also include Sc in this discussion but with the recent loss to Harrisburg they could essentially finish even third in that league and be an AT large BID as Creswell, Harrisburg and Pleasant Hill are all quality teams.
The most competitive league will most likely be the Pac West Conference as we expect to see three teams from this conference alone get to Coos Bay. With this being said we expect to see three teams slug it out for seeding and watch out for Blanchet as they might take a game away from someone which can change the whole outcome of that league,