Boys hoops playoffs picture still murky in some districts

With the girls high school playoffs under way this week, the boys season winds down with the regular season finales on Tuesday. And we’re probably not done either.

Teams from District 5-6A (Keller, Keller Timber Creek and Northwest Byron Nelson) have their playoff positions determined, with Denton Guyer at the top of the standings at 11-2. However, the playoff seeds are not.

Keller (10-3) still had a chance for the district championship. But the Indians could also find their way into a three-way tie for second with Timber Creek and Byron Nelson.

Nelson and Timber Creek were tied for third with 9-4 records. Nelson played at Denton Ryan, Timber Creek played Keller Fossil Ridge and Keller played Keller Central. Nelson had the more daunting task because it had the more difficult opponent.

Any kind of tie between either two or three teams and then the weekend would possibly be needed for games to determine playoff seeds. Nelson split its two meetings with Keller and Timber Creek. Keller swept Timber Creek.

What neither team wants is to come out with the fourth seed. That means a date with District 6-6A champion and the state’s No. 1 team Plano West. That team features pretty much an all-star cast with Texas A&M-signees D.J. Hogg and Tyler Davis.

Allen is locked into second place. But that district also had a logjam for third and fourth between Lewisville, Hebron, Flower Mound, Flower Mound Marcus and Plano East.

District 7-6A unsettled

It really wasn’t clear if that district was going to find its answers on Tuesday. All that’s known is that Richland is the district champion.

But then there is the potential of having the most extraordinary logjam. If the unthinkable happened from Tuesday’s play, Euless Trinity, Colleyville Heritage, Carroll and Coppell would finish with 6-6 records.

Colleyville Heritage (6-5) played at Richland. Had the Panthers won, they would clinch a berth. Coppell (6-5) faced a similar scenario. It had to beat Haltom to clinch. Because the district has two byes, Euless Trinity already finished the regular season at 6-6. Carroll (5-6) faced the most pressure as it needed to beat Hurst L.D. Bell.

Coppell was favored to beat Haltom and Richland was favored to beat Colleyville Heritage. So if that happened along with Carroll beating Bell, then there’s a three-way tie between the Panthers, Dragons and Trojans.

District 8-6A has its playoff teams settled between DeSoto, Cedar Hill, Duncanville and South Grand Prairie. But not everything was settled for seedings in that district either.

District 6-5A

This one is a little easier. In his final season before moving to take an assistant principal position at Colleyville Heritage, Grapevine coach Kevin Starnes stayed true to his word, directing the Mustangs to the playoffs. The Mustangs likely were going to finish third as they closed the regular season against district leader Fort Worth Dunbar. They were one behind second place Birdville, which was heavily favored to beat Fort Worth Carter-Riverside.

Still, this was a nice turnaround for the Mustangs who missed the playoffs last year. They were likely going to face White Settlement Brewer in the bi-district round.

Etc.

Keller Central product Joel Bolomboy is one of the great success stories among players who have moved on to play in college. Now a junior at Weber State, the 6-9 power forward is blowing up. He’s averaging a double-double this season at 13 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. He’s also coming off a huge performance in a 61-54 loss to Northern Arizona over the weekend where he scored 23 points and grabbed 17 rebounds.

But making the postseason is going to be a challenge. Weber State (10-14, 5-8) is now in eighth place in the Big Sky standings. It will have to win the conference postseason tournament to make the NCAA tournament.

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Boys hoops playoffs picture still murky in some districts."