SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONAL TOURNAMENT : Division I : Mater Dei Unhappy on the Road : McKnight Prefers to Be Anywhere but Fresno Tonight

When Gary McKnight, Mater Dei High School basketball coach, learned that Fresno Hoover had been seeded ahead of his team in the Southern California Division I regional playoffs because it had a better won-loss record, his first response was, “Who has Hoover played?”

Good question. Hoover (26-1) won its first Division I title in the Central Section by defeating perennial power Fresno Edison four times. Hoover has 28 straight victories in the North Yosemite League over the past three seasons.

Washington Union, the second-seeded team in the Division IV playoffs, handed Hoover its only loss, 49-46. Since then, Hoover has won 17 straight games against competition in the Fresno area.

McKnight, who has a 168-14 record in six seasons, and the Monarchs have to travel to Fresno City College to open the regionals against Hoover tonight at 7:30.

Mater Dei, defending state Division I champion, has won four consecutive Southern Section 5-A division championships. The division is considered an elite group of 16 teams. Yet the Monarchs’ reward was a four-hour bus trip with the winner meeting top-seeded Crenshaw in the second round.

“We’re leaving at 10 a.m. on Tuesday to go to Fresno, and we’ll come home after the game and arrive at school about 3 a.m.,” McKnight said. “If we win, the kids will go to school all day and then we have one day of practice to prepare for the state’s No. 1 team (Crenshaw). Do you think that’s fair?”

McKnight was particularly angered that Manual Arts (23-3), runner-up to Crenshaw in the City Section, was seeded third and received a home game in the first round.

“Manual Arts loses to Crenshaw by 15 points (actually by 16 points, 83-67) and they’re seeded third?” he said. “When was the last time the Southern Section’s 5-A champion wasn’t seeded first or second in the regionals?”

Mater Dei has been seeded second in the regionals the past two years, upsetting top-seeded Fairfax last season en route to the state title and losing to top-seeded Crenshaw in double overtime the previous season.

Nonetheless, about 19 buses holding 50 Mater Dei supporters each are expected to travel to Fresno for the game, which means that the Monarchs will have a rooting section of at least 950 or so. And if they do win, McKnight said Mater Dei has secured the Bren Center at UC Irvine for its semifinal game Thursday.

The Monarchs figure to have their hands full against Hoover. Forward Pat Riddlesprigger, 6-feet 5-inches and 215 pounds, averages 19.5 points and 11 rebounds. Riddlesprigger has signed with Fresno State.

Left-handed off-guard Ray Barefield averages 12.5 points, and 6-2 senior Marcus Allen runs the offense. Coach Ron Moore is 64-14 in three seasons at Hoover, which has an open-enrollment policy.

Mater Dei (21-7) is playing its best basketball of the season. Point guard Mark Ramstack has averaged 24 points in playoff victories over St. Bernard and Bishop Amat.