Statistics from Wildcat Classic can be found here.
This write-up contains only the top four varsity and junior varsity teams.
Please note that individual scoring ranks are not separated by division (varsity and junior varsity individual results were compiled).
VARSITY
1st place – Saratoga
Senior Bruce Lou solos and takes both first place team and individual at 146.25 PPG (once again nearly double that of the second-place scorer) with an expectedly impressive statline of 59/31/5. His PPB of 23.33 reaffirms the depth and breadth of his knowledge, and he even managed to hit 26.67 in his game against Amador A, his closest of the day with a 365-360 win. In no game did he power less than 6 tossups, and his first game against “Guilder” A saw him go 9/1/0. That game, however, was only determined by 50 points (365-315), and he had another close game against Bellarmine A (370-315), which goes to show that – in light of Cal Cup #2 results and given some serious improvement by the opponents – an upset might be possible, but appears more and more unlikely as Bruce continues to improve. If any more proof was needed of Bruce’s domination of the circuit, this was it. Expect similar performance through the rest of the season.
2nd place – Davis A
Missing usual lead scorer junior Anthony DiCarlo, the remainder of Davis A stepped up well, capturing second place under sophomore Eliot Williams (tournament 5th at 60.56 PPG, notably without negs), closely followed by senior Jayanth Sundaresan (10th scorer with 46.67 PPG). They lost by only 50 to Bellarmine A in their first game (260-310) and managed to upset them in their second round, winning 360-295. Their only loss of the day came at a 110-point margin to Saratoga, while they defeated “Guilder” A and Dougherty Valley A (usually their B team) by sound margins (415-210 and 510-5, respectively). Hitting a maximum PPB of 25.45 in that game against “Guilder” A, they averaged around a 22.78, an improvement over Cal Cup #2. Overall, their finish was a solid performance that reaffirms Davis A’s rightful place among the top teams of the circuit (interestingly, they outscored Saratoga in raw points [61/48 to 59/31] but their 19 negs to his 5 landed them in 2nd place).
3rd place – Bellarmine A
Three-man Bellarmine A by senior Jarek Jankowski (3rd scorer at 79.5 PPG) goes 7-3, dropping games to “Guilder” A, Davis A, and Saratoga. Their loss to “Guilder” A came in their first game, 275-430, while they managed to rally and narrowly defeat them 316-280 in their last game of the day, and the opposite happened with Davis A, Bellarmine A defeating them 310-260 first and later losing 295-360. Taking into account the absence of Bellarmine A’s normal fourth player senior Abhishek Aditham, future rounds between these teams aren’t likely to be as close. Bellarmine A would certainly benefit from having Abhishek (or even other players) present at more events, given they saw a nearly 3-point drop in PPB as a partial team, even though they did manage to hit 24 at one point (notably in their game against Dougherty Valley C that they won 725- -5). Since both teams were lacking a crucial member, it’ll be interesting to see Davis A and Bellarmine A face off when they are both at full strength (notice that Bellarmine A outscored Davis A in terms of raw points, going 69/52/11 to Davis A’s 61/48/19).
4th place – “Guilder” (formerly Homestead) A
Regaining their lead scorer senior Karthik Srivatsan (7th scorer at 52.22 PPG), “Guilder” A drops games to Davis A, Bellarmine A, and Saratoga twice. Their loss to Davis A came at a pretty large margin (415-210), as did one game against Saratoga (300-435), but the others were close (280-315 against Bellarmine A, who they had earlier defeated, and 315-265 against Saratoga). Karthik’s presence had a clear impact on PPB, raising it from 19.03 at Cal Cup #2 to 23.26, even managing 25+ in three rounds. Their best game of the day came against Valley Christian A, a 570-75 win in which they finished 10/6/0. They have a little bit of a negging problem, still, but only in the sense that it is not sustainable on the number of tossups they are correctly answering. With the increase in number of correct tossups or a little neg curbing, that should be taken care of.
Junior Varsity
1st – Bellarmine B
Lead scorer freshman Atul Saha (tournament 8th with 48.33) with main supports sophomores Hieu Nguyen and Kevin Chang (both 36.67) lead Bellarmine B to an undefeated finish to win the junior varsity division of the tournament. In addition to the highest PPB of their division (18.2, managing at one point to hit 25 against Davis B), they also had one of the lowest numbers of negs (tied with three others for 2nd lowest at 7), which were confined to only three of their nine games. Not once did they score lower than 265, which they did in their closest game of the day, a 25-point win over Davis B. The team has large shoes to fill next year, but with steady improvement they stand a chance at seeing similar results by most of their senior years.
2nd – Archbishop Mitty
Archbishop Mitty’s junior Siddharth Kulkarni once again leads his team, this time as the tournament’s 4th scorer with 70.62 PPG. Their PPB of only 15.32 highlights some weak spots in his knowledge that isn’t being adequately supported by his teammates, but they are answering tossups, so he isn’t completely on his own. They averaged about a neg per round, and managed to score more than 300 points in every round they played except for their game against Bellarmine B, a 130-390 loss. Other than that, their closest game was a 365-170 win over Davis B, demonstrating that there is a clear divide between these two top teams and the rest of the teams in the circuit. Ideally they’ll move on to varsity as their players get ready to graduate, but whether they will or not remains to be seen.
3rd – Davis B
Davis B finishes 5-3, dropping games to Bellarmine B (240-265), Archbishop Mitty (170-365), and Bellarmine B once more (160-295), all by significant margins. Freshman Ethan Skinner once more leads the team with 57.86 PPG (6th scorer), followed closely by 8th grader Daniel Zhu (42.86). Their PPB is two lower than Archbishop Mitty’s, averaging 13.16 with a high of 17.5. As expected from a junior varsity team, their power ratio could be improved upon, but they seem to manage their negs pretty well, usually getting two a game. Ethan and Daniel both demonstrate that they will without a doubt be names to watch over the next few years, a testament to the potential within Davis’s impressively deep bench.
4th – Davis C
Tournament 9th scorer sophomore Roland Li (46.88) leads Davis C to a 4-4 finish, supported mostly by sophomore Dante Yasui (28.75 PPG). They dropped two games to Archbishop Mitty and a game each to Davis B and Bellarmine B by large margins, as expected. Their PPB took another 2 point drop from the team above them, averaging just 11.11, although they did manage to get 16.67 in their round against Davis B (also Davis B’s highest PPB round). To their credit, their closest game of the day came in their first loss to Archbishop Mitty (145-330), while their best game saw them finish 225- -5 over Dougherty Valley E. Given that Roland usually plays for Davis B, the C team has a while to go before they are at the caliber of the former.
Thanks from all of us at the NCQBA to those who staffed and played!
