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After his team was blown out of the gym in the first half of its Holiday Classic Tip-Off Night Classic game Tuesday, Mission Bay Head Coach Marshawn Cherry challenged his team to play with toughness. The Buccaneers accepted that challenge and turned what would have been a blowout into a respectable loss to a very good Victory Christian squad. Since that game, the Bucs have found their stride, winning two games in the National Bracket of the Holiday Classic to advance to the s

On a night that saw three previous Open Division champions fall at The Holiday Classic Tip-Off Night, a fourth registered a big upset in one of the best games of the year. Torrey Pines, which came in needing a signature performance, got one in dramatic fashion, taking down No. 1 ranked Francis Parker 73-70 on a buzzer-beating triple by 2027 guard Jaylan Virgil in the final game of the four-game showcase. Virgil, a talented transfer from Laguna Creek, CA, has had an uneven sta

Certainly it's the weather, but for about a week, the greater San Diego region bursts at the seams with high school basketball fever, as hundreds of teams descend on America's Finest City to participate in no fewer than five tournaments. The biggest one, of course, is the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic, which is widely considered one of the biggest and most important post-holiday tournaments on the West Coast, if not the country. The five-division field boasts 90 teams from acr

For a few years there, the profile of the Coastal League - traditionally, one of San Diego's toughest - had taken a hit. The hurried and precipitous decline of Foothills Christian and Orange Glen, coupled with some down years from Francis Parker, Army Navy and Bishop's, and the league's outlook was precarious. That's changed this year, as right now, the Coastal League boasts the top two teams in the region. The last time the league had two teams in the top 3 rankings was the

Two birds are heading in different directions. It sounds like the beginning of a Robert Frost poem, but it aptly describes one of the emerging themes of the updated Top 10 rankings in SD. One on hand, you have Santa Fe Christian, my preseason No. 6 team, which has done nothing but top the No. 5 and No. 2 teams in my preseason rankings en route to a 7-0 start. The Eagles lay claim to the No. 2 spot in this week's Top 10 (more on why later). On the other hand, you have Torrey P

After a few days of dealing with my first cold of the cold & flu season, I've mustered up enough strength to recap the Thanksgiving Week that was. After two weeks of upsets involving Top 10 squads, it was Santa Fe Christian that made the loudest statement, running the table at the competitive Bucs Thanksgiving Classic. They dominated host Mission Bay in the championship game to claim the crown they lost a season ago to No. 1 team Montgomery. Across the 5 Freeway, Madison also

The prevailing logic coming into the 2025-26 season was that Montgomery, last year's Open Division champions, would take a significant step back after graduating their four leading scorers, the All-CIF quartet of JJ and Alek Sanchez, Devin Hamilton and Xair Mendez. In fact, I had them No. 34 in my preseason top 50. But after an opening night loss to Mission Bay, the Aztecs have registered two consecutive wins against Top 25 opponents, the latter of which, a 75-67 win over a M

Francis Parker's history has been loaded with great hoops talent, especially over the past 20 years. Tyler Bernardini Evan Fitzner. Tim Harrison. Kimo Ferrari. Camden McCormick. For the first time, however, the Lancers have something they didn't have in those players: the best player in the county. That's Tavid Lee Johnson, the 6-3 junior guard who enters the season as my pick for San Diego Section Player of the Year. In order to accomplish the feat, Johnson will have to get

San Diego high school basketball had a clear cut favorite or two when looking at the Open Division race over the first five years of the 2020s. Cathedral Catholic and Torrey Pines had epic battles in 2020 and 2021, then St. Augustine had a two-year reign atop the section as the clear and convincing favorite, followed by Carlsbad and Montgomery's clashes in 2024 and 2025. For the first time this decade, the Open Division race is wide open. Part of it is that, despite the 2026

We continue our dive into the Top 50 with the group of squads that rest just outside of the Top 10, which include a host of teams that have their sights on a push to the Open Division. Madison, Mira Mesa and Christian, three of the top 4 ranked Division 2 squads from a season ago, start things off at 11, 12 and 13, respectively. All three have good depth and playmakers in the post and perimeter. Rancho Buena Vista, which will rely heavily on superstar guard CJ Aldrich, and Bo