The PSAL has published the 2016 boys basketball AA division playoff brackets. The top four seeds, in order, are: Cardozo (1), Jefferson (2), Wings (3) and Lincoln (4). Assuming the seeds hold up (which, as with any basketball tournament, is assuming a lot), the PSAL semifinals would pit top seed Cardozo against Lincoln and have Jefferson face Wings at St. John's University on Saturday, March 5th.
Cardozo
As the top seed, Cardozo won both the regular-season PSAL Queens AA Division title and the Queens Borough Championship and lost only two games the entire season. One of those losses came on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by C.J. Kelly against Queens High School of Teaching in a PSAL league game on January 19th, and the other was a lopsided affair against Long Island Lutheran at the Apparel Challenge at Christ the King on January 30th. Cardozo's season was also adorned with the historical triumph of Head Coach Ronald Naclerio becoming the PSAL's all-time leader in wins, as well as Cardozo's second straight SNY Invitational Championship.
Jefferson
Jefferson was the regular-season PSAL Brooklyn AA Division Champion and the Brooklyn Borough runner-up. They lost three PSAL games this season, two of them coming to rival Abraham Lincoln and the other cominig in the season-opener against Queens High School of Teaching. Jefferson's first loss to Lincoln stirred up some controversy, as Head Coach Lawrence Pollard sat his starters in the game, but both teams were at full strength in the second loss, when Lincoln prevailed 87-77 in the Brooklyn Borough Championship Game. Bear in mind that Jefferson did beat Lincoln in their first meeting on January 9th.
Wings
Wings has the distinction of being the only PSAL team to go undefeated in PSAL play. Wings ran the proverbial table, winning the regular-season PSAL Bronx AA Division title and the PSAL Bronx Borough Championship. However, we need to drop a footnote here because only one of these wins came against a team seeded on the top ten: 9th-seeded WHEELS in a game that Wings came back to win 56-49 after trailing by seven at the half.
Lincoln
On the one hand, Lincoln lost five PSAL games this season, the most of any team in the top four. On the other hand, Lincoln closed the season strong, winning its last five games, including two wins against the 2 seed Jefferson, the most recent of which was for the Brooklyn Borough title.
Analysis
Few can quarrel with Cardozo getting the top seed, but some may question the order of the rest of the top 4. While the order of the 2, 3 and 4 seeds may seem like splitting hairs, the distinction has significance because whoever draws the 4 seed must get past Cardozo to advance to the championship game. Although some may argue that Jefferson is not deserving of a 2 seed since it lost the Brooklyn Borough title game and lost to Lincoln two weeks earlier (albeit without its starters), the fact remains that Jefferson had only one PSAL regular-season loss in the grueling Brooklyn AA Division. We don't think Wings was more deserving of the 2 seed, since it had no wins against the top five seeds and only one against the top ten. Lincoln did finish strong, but the five PSAL losses make for a difficult case that it should have been awarded a 2 seed. If anything, perhaps Wings and Lincoln should have been flip-flopped, but making Wings a 4 seed when it went undefeated in PSAL play doesn't seem fair either. Our conclusion here is that, all factors being considered, the PSAL's seedings were sound. We can only hope that the seeds hold true and that we get to see these four teams battle at Alumni Hall on March 5th.