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Cabrillo men make state basketball playoffs

The Cabrillo College men’s basketball team, under the guidance of first-year coach Tony Marcopulos, made the state playoffs for the first time since 1995.

And, get this, the Seahawks aren’t the No. 32 seed in Northern California.

At 8-21 overall, Cabrillo earned the No. 29 seed and takes on No. 4 Columbia (21-8) in Sonora on Saturday at 7 p.m.

"It’s a good step for us," said Marcopulos, a former point guard at Columbia from 1982-84. "We want to get better next year and the year after that and pretty soon we’ll be the No. 4 seed."

After losing to perennial power West Valley 69-52 in the Coast Conference finale on Friday night, it was unknown if the Seahawks had a shot to make the playoffs.

If they did, No. 32 was a seed they would likely assume. But Siskiyous (4-23) took the final spot, earning a meeting with top-seed Skyline (28-4).

Cabrillo had less wins than No. 30 College of the Redwoods (10-21) and No. 31 Yuba (9-21), but moved ahead in the seeding for several reasons — strength of schedule and a non-conference victory over Diablo Valley College (23-9), a team that earned the No. 8 seed.

"We played one of the best schedules in the state," Marcopulos said. "And because we were so competitive in those games, other coaches looked at our program with respect."

Fourteen of Cabrillo’s games came against top 20 teams.

"It’s kind of neat for our guys to go back and play," Marcopulos said.

The winner of the Columbia-Cabrillo game faces the winner between No. 20 Merritt (15-18) and No. 13 West Valley (17-11) in the second round next Wednesday.

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