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1. 

   Playoff basketball thoughts

   BY ZACH EWING Californian staff writer

   Monday, Feb 20 2012 02:52 PM

   With all of this past weekend's wrestling festivities and a holiday weekend, I never did get around to posting here about basketball seedings. My apologies — hopefully you were able to follow some of the thoughts on Twitter (and if you're not on Twitter, honestly, what are you waiting for?).

   But I do want to go through each of the five playoff divisions for boys and girls hoops. There are a couple of play-in games tonight and tomorrow, but boys action begins in earnest with tomorrow night's first round. The girls' first round is Wednesday.

   It all leads to perhaps the biggest prep sports weekend of the year: March 2-3, when the section basketball finals are contested in Fresno's Selland Arena while the CIF State Wrestling Championships are here in Bakersfield.

   So who gets to Selland? Let's take a look at each division.

   DIVISION I BOYS (bracket)
   Seeding second-guessing: Bullard and Buchanan were clearly the top two seeds; the decision worth your attention is Bakersfield getting a No. 3 over Central and SWYL champion Liberty, which fell to a No. 5. The Drillers benefitted from non-league victories over both the Grizzlies and Patriots. They then split with Liberty in SWYL play, so despite losing the title, Bakersfield gets the nod for No. 3. The other interesting part about this bracket is who's not in it: Stockdale, which gave Liberty trouble twice but won't participate because of a school rule that requires the Mustangs to be .500 in league to reach the playoffs.
   Must-see matchups: There are six legitimate title contenders here, and while Bullard and Buchanan will be heavily favored to reach the semifinals, the other two spots will be up for grabs to the other four contenders. That means we get two great quarterfinals on Thursday: No. 5 Liberty at No. 4 Central and No. 6 Clovis West at No. 3 Bakersfield. After that, anything in the final four will be great stuff.
   My final four: Bullard, Central, Bakersfield, Clovis West
   At Selland (8 p.m. March 3): Bullard 71, Bakersfield 62. The Drillers are rolling and have the goods to become the very first Kern County Division I boys team to reach Selland in the eighth year the arena hosts the finals (hard to believe in and of itself) but a home-court edge and the prolific Armstead brothers, who moved from Chicago last summer, swing this one in the Knights' favor.

   Read More

2. Wrestling live blog: Yosemite Divisional finals

   Yosemite Division finals
   132: Matt Gay, Clovis, dec. Martin Sandoval, Porterville, 11-5
   160: Adrian Salas, Clovis, dec. A.J. Fierro, Bakersfield, 5-0
   106: Miguel Martinez, Madera, dec. Adrian Camposano, Central, 13-6
   HWT: Nick Nevills, Clovis, dec. Rudy Amaya, Foothill, 6-4
   120: Daniel Gaytan, Clovis, maj. dec. Brandon Rodriguez, Clovis West, 11-3
   220: Cortes Morales, Clovis West, dec. Arnold Salinas, Fresno, 5-2
   126: Michael Knoblauch, Clovis West, dec. Vicente Hernandez, Clovis, 10-9
   182: Nikko Reyes, Clovis West, dec. Ryan Davies, Clovis, 2-1
   195: Dakota Gordon, Clovis, pinned Jack Murphy, Frontier, 4:53
   138: Natrelle Demison, Bakersfield, maj. dec. Racelis Cardenas, Buchanan, 9-1
   170: Zach Nevills, Clovis, dec. Silas Nacita, Bakersfield, 6-3
   145: Maxx Ramirez, Bakersfield, dec. Osamuyimen Osunde, Lemoore, 12-7
   152: Isiah Martinez, Lemoore, dec. Kyle Perreault, Clovis East, 12-5
   113: Jonas Gaytan, Clovis, dec. Mason Pengilly, Porterville, 5-0

3. Wrestling: Yosemite Divisional live blog, Day 2

   UPDATED, 3:58 p.m.: The rest of the medal-round results, including a fourth meeting in 11 days between Frontier's John Popek and Centennial's Carson Crawford, this one with third place at heavyweight on the line. Popek won them all, this one a tight 4-2 decision.
4. 

   Wrestling: Yosemite Divisional live blog, Day 1

   UPDATED, 8:51 p.m.: Here are team scores after Day 1:

5. The recyling center deaths examined on Californian Radio

   Executive Editor John Arthur is the host on "Californian Radio" Friday. His guests will be staff reporters John Cox and Zach Ewing.

6. Pot, prisons and preps on Californian Radio

   Executive Editor John Arthur is the host on Californian Radio Friday.

7. Leftover Signing Day notes

   I realize the landscape around here has been a little barren in the past week or so, but I assure you that has more to do with our blog transition and the business of covering National Signing Day than with any plan on my part to hold back content.

9. New blogging system; update your bookmarks

   It's happening bit by bit, but you might have noticed bakersfield.com is switching over to a new blog platform. That's why any comments you've tried to leave today aren't working; all previous posts under this old system will be available to read but not to comment on.

10. New blogging system; update your bookmarks

    It's happening bit by bit, but you might have noticed bakersfield.com is switching over to a new blog platform. That's why any comments you've tried to leave today aren't working; all previous posts under this old system will be available to read but not to comment on.

11. A Monday mixer

    Nothing terribly earth-shattering, but lots of odds and ends, most having to do with national signing day approaching Wednesday. Read on; you'll find something interesting:
12. 

    Arena Bowl draft results

    As promised, I have the full results from the inaugural player draft for this year's Arena Bowl. But before we get to the seniors who will be playing in the 10th edition of Kern County's annual high school football indoor all-star game, a couple of notes need to be mentioned:
13. 

    Arena Bowl draft! (plus coaching news)

    One of Kern County's most fun high school sporting events just added a new layer. This is like adding a layer to a birthday cake. You can't go wrong here, provided the new layer doesn't have coconut bits in it. Those things are just gross.
14. 

    Central Section girls soccer rankings, Jan. 25

    At long last, here are rankings of the final winter sport (for wrestling rankings, I'll defer to the excellent site The California Wrestler).