I've been so caught up in wrestling this weekend that I haven't had much of a chance to mention basketball. That's not acceptable, so let's get right down to business:

— Congratulations are in order to three Central Section champion hoops teams. Stockdale's girls won the Division I championship with a long-awaited victory against Clovis West. The Mustangs turned the tables on CW by making their own second-half run to win by double digits.
Garces' boys had lost thrice to Liberty this year, all in very similar games. Throw in the fact that star wing Stephon Carter had a beat-up (maybe broken) hand, and I just couldn't see a way the Rams could win, especially not by double digits. How's 91-78 Garces for you, for the Division II championship? Carter threw down 33 points and 19 rebounds. Kid's simply amazing.
Another incredible individual performance from Bakersfield Christian's Marcus Hall, who had 36 points and 11 rebounds in BCHS' rout of Kingsburg for the Division II title. That's the premier private schools in town moving up divisions and still emerging champions.

— More congrats to section runners-up, just for getting to Selland. First of all Liberty, which was the best boys team in Kern County on every night except the one where that type of thing is decided. The Patriots, lose or no, still had a year they won't soon forget. Garces' girls went 29-1, then ran into the buzzsaw known as Hanford in the D-II girls final. The Rams could have won D-III or D-IV. And Ridgeview's boys had their first run to the section final come up short of a championship as they lost to Hanford West.

— All six Kern finalists are still playing, though, since the CIF lets in two Central Section teams to the state playoffs. Three play tonight in first-round games, where a win gets you into the Southern Cal quarterfinals. The other three — Garces boys, Bakersfield Christian and Ridgeview — are already in the SoCal quarters and play Tuesday night.

Do yourself a favor and get out to one of the home games — Stockdale and Garces girls tonight if you can make it, or Garces boys and Bakersfield Christian at home tomorrow.

Here's the complete schedule:
Monday (all winners play again Tuesday)
Division I girls
No. 10 Woodland Hills-Taft at No. 7 Stockdale, 7 p.m.
Division II girls
No. 10 El Sereno-Wilson at No. 8 Garces, 7 p.m.
Division II boys
No. 10 Liberty at No. 8 Reseda, 7 p.m.

Tuesday
Division II boys
No. 6 Lawndale-Leuzinger at No. 3 Garces, 7 p.m.
Division III boys
No. 8 Ridgeview at No. 1 North Hollywood-Harvard-Westlake, 8 p.m.
Division IV boys
No. 5 West Hills-Chaminade at No. 4 Bakersfield Christian, 7 p.m.

I don't know a whole lot about those SoCal teams, except that if they came through the Southern or L.A. Sections, they're usually pretty good. We'll see how Kern stacks up. I'd love to see some teams make some noise and see how far they can take it — teams that win tonight play Tuesday, teams that win Tuesday play Thursday, and teams that win Thursday play Saturday in the SoCal finals — which are at Pauley Pavilion for Divs. I-III and at Cal State Fullerton for D-IV and V. Here a link to the CIF page with complete brackets.

One more rant to go before I'm done, and it has to do with all-league teams. I love the idea of giving recognition to the best players in a given sport at the end of the year. It's wonderful to get praise, we all know that, and it's what drives you to keep working sometimes. But this is getting out of control.

I'm going to pick on the Southeast Yosemite League girls basketball team because it's a good example, but this sort of thing is by and large true across the board. The SEYL honored an MVP (Garces' Caitlin Bernardin) two rookies of the year, nine first-team players, nine second-team players and a whopping 16 honorable-mention selections. Add it up, and that's 37 girls with some sort of all-league recognition. There are seven teams in the league, which means 35 starters.

There are more all-league selections than starters in SEYL girls basketball.

Garces has 10 players, two full teams, given all-league recognition. Golden Valley, which finished third in the league and was a middle-of-the-pack team section-wide, has eight. Liberty, which finished with a losing league record, has seven.

Nothing against the girls picked; many of them deserve it and none of them are going to be singled out here. But 37 is waaaaaay too many. Heck 27 would be way too many. Let's keep the honors for the truly special, coaches.

Your thoughts?