Without Saint Mary’s College as a venue, NCS basketball title game sites are a scramble

There is some grumbling in high school basketball circles regarding scheduling for the North Coast Section playoffs in that games are too spread out and at sites which aren’t seen as rewarding enough for teams playing their championship games.

The problem? The NCS was unable to secure a more glamorous venue with Saint Mary’s College unavailable for the second year. The Gaels are home Saturday night against Oregon State, but have nothing scheduled Friday.

Meanwhile, the Central Coast Section upper-division title games will be at Santa Clara University, Sac-Joaquin Section title games are at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, the Central Section title games at Fresno State’s Selland Arena and the Southern Section title games are at the Toyota Center in Ontario.

The lone place where a high school hoops junkie can see multiple games championship in a day is Saturday at San Leandro High, which has opened a new gym. Piedmont faces St. Vincent-St. Patrick at 3 p.m. (Division IV boys), Cardinal Newman plays Moreau Catholic at 5 p.m. (Division II boys) and California faces Bishop O’Dowd at 7 (Division I girls).

Here is how NCS commissioner Pat Cruickshank responded to questions about where games are being played and why:

Q: Have game sites been an issue/problem without Saint Mary’s as a possibility?

Cruickshank: Saint Mary’s is one of the first sites we reach out to every year. They’re not specific about why it’s not available to us, but it’s just not. It’s unfortunate, Acalanes is the No. 1 seed in the Open girls and De La Salle is No. 1 for the Open boys. Saint Mary’s is an absolutely perfect place for us to be. Cal wasn’t available. Short of that, we have to find a spot that’s in the geographic region of the higher seed. That’s why games are where they are.”

Top-seeded Acalanes (28-1) will play No. 2 San Ramon Valley (26-3) at Campolindo High for the open girls title. No. 1 De La Salle (26-4) will face No. 2 Salesian (27-2) at Dublin High for the open boys title.

Q: Why aren’t there more games stacked at Dublin High instead of as opposed to single-game venues?

Cruickshank: It has to do with the site being in the geographic area of the higher seed. De La Salle is in that geographic area (near Dublin). We’d like to keep those open games together but Acalanes said they’d like to be a little closer to home, and Campolindo was willing to host their sister school. It played out that way in a lot of different circumstances.

Q: And that would be why the Open boys, Division I boys and Division II boys are all on the same night at three different sites?

Cruickshank: Yes.

Q: After Saint Mary’s there are no other options available, such as Cal State East Bay?

Cruickshank: They’re not a factor. We’ve reached out to them in the past. Most colleges have Thursday-Saturday games and then there’s an opening on Friday when we slide in there. Saint Mary’s let us do that for years. I don’t know what goes on in those sites now. All we can do is ask, put in our application, have our insurance right and then they come back to us and say yes or no. We’ll have to see moving forward.

Q: The CCS got Santa Clara on Friday with their women’s team playing the following afternoon . ..

Cruickshank: I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. I don’t know (why Saint Mary’s isn’t available). I just don’t.

Q: Back in the day the Oakland Arena was the site for the Tournament of Champions. It’s not available and does it cost too much?

Cruickshank: Yes on both counts.