Thanks to the “Killer Bs” — Bagley, Bol and Ball — high school basketball fans in Southern California are about to experience an excitement few others can equal.
Marvin Bagley III, a 6-foot-11 junior; Bol Bol, a 7-1 junior, and the Ball brothers, senior LiAngelo and sophomore LaMelo, are attracting so much attention that not even TMZ can keep up.
It has inspired the CIF Southern Section to make a large financial commitment to play the Open Division semifinals Feb. 24 at USC’s 10,280-seat Galen Center even though there’s no guarantee the top four teams — Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, Chino Hills, Santa Ana Mater Dei and Torrance Bishop Montgomery — will make it.
But if they do and Bagley, Bol and the Balls are on the court, it’s going to be a party-like atmosphere before a near sellout, with fans celebrating the opportunity to watch two great games for the price of one. Courtside tickets that cost $40 go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday. They’ll be scooped up as fast as a Bruce Springsteen concert.
“Let’s put in this this way, I’m excited it’s at Galen Center so I can get a seat if we’re not there,” Northridge Heritage Christian Coach Paul Tait said.
Of course, upsets happen. The Southern Section released its 16-team Open Division playoff pairings Sunday, and the favorites better be ready for their first-round games Friday or they’ll leave lots of fans disappointed. It has been shown in years past that the Open Division requires total focus or teams get beat.
“There’s three or four other teams that can beat anyone on a given night,” Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said.
No. 1-seeded Sierra Canyon, led by Bagley and 6-7 UCLA-bound Cody Riley, drew Heritage Christian. No. 2 Chino Hills, with the Ball brothers, plus 6-9 sophomore Onyeka Okongwu and 6-5 Loyola Marymount-bound Eli Scott, will host San Juan Capistrano JSerra. No. 3 Mater Dei, with Manute Bol’s son towering over everyone, takes on Santa Monica Crossroads, with Arizona-bound Ira Lee and Shareef O’Neal, the son of Shaquille. And No. 4 Torrance Bishop Montgomery, which won the Open Division two yeas ago and returns all five starters this season, hosts dangerous Oak Park, which has several top underclassmen.
The top four seeds separated themselves during the regular season but that doesn’t mean they’re simply going to dominate in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Mater Dei knows all about looking ahead. It almost lost to Montebello Cantwell-Sacred Heart in an opener three years ago in overtime.
Eastvale Roosevelt, La Verne Damien, Mission Hills Alemany and Long Beach Poly are all eager to show they can compete against anyone. Crossroads led at halftime over Sierra Canyon last week.
“It’s an incredible honor,” Tait said of taking Heritage Christian to its first Open Division tournament.
When the Open Division was created, there was talk of some schools losing on purpose to avoid being one of the 16 teams selected. Not anymore.
“You want to play in the NIT tournament or the NCAA tournament?” Tait said. “The guys are excited. We’ve talked about those four top teams. If we can pull an upset, you can go down in the history books. If not, you have great practice to try to win a Division I or II state title.”
Fans have their fingers crossed hoping for the Feb. 24 doubleheader for the ages. If all goes as planned, it would be Chino Hills versus Mater Dei and Sierra Canyon versus Bishop Montgomery. Someone should invite Dick Vitale to drop by.
He would shout, “Look at those Diaper Dandies.”
eric.sondheimer@latimes.com
Twitter: latsondheimer
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