As one observant blogger wrote about me tonight: “You couldn’t pick a two headed coin right in this section one championship.”

Sounds about right. The picture to the right is me in 50 years.

But I’m not alone, really. Five No. 1 seeds have taken the floor through the first three days at the County Center. Only one has won. The Blind Brook and Albertus Magnus boys and Briarcliff and Valhalla girls were all bounced in the semifinals. Martin Luther King, which got a bye in the D boys final, is the lone survivor.

How do you explain it? How do you explain four teams that had the best overall seasons in their respective classes, won an impressive number of games and came in with the most momentum, all losing before they could even get comfortable in the County Center? It’s really a case-by-case basis.

In the boys, it was a matter of a hot team running into even hotter ones. Blind Brook knocked off Valhalla in the season finale to capture the No. 1 seed in Class C. But it ran up against a North Salem team hardened by a grueling schedule and a few heart-breaking losses. It was the same with Albertus Magnus. The Falcons won 17 games against a very tough schedule but lost to a Lincoln Hall squad that turned the corner in the last month and is playing phenomenal basketball. What happened before February (see: 3 losses to Pleasantville) is ancient history.

The County Center can do funny things to teams. And it might actually be to blame for these No. 1 seeds going down.

Think about it: Albertus Magnus went 7-1 at home, losing only to rival Nanuet. Blind Brook went 8-0 at home, including wins over North Salem and Valhalla.

As much of a thrill as it was for these teams to play at the County Center, they might have been better off playing at home. Had Section 1, which initially canceled semifinal games at the arena because of budget cuts, not found a way to make the numbers work, these teams could be playing for championships.

Despite the scores, all four B and C semifinal games all came down to the wire.

• Blind Brook had a potential game-tying free-throw attempt with 1:45 left miss and North Salem held the Trojans to two points the rest of the way.


• Hamilton was down by only a point entering the fourth and was within four most of the way before Valhalla pulled away late


• Croton-Harmon was down two midway through the fourth quarter and were within reach until the end


• Albertus Magnus was down 52-50, with the ball, with under two minutes to play

Class C: No. 4 North Salem vs. No. 2 Valhalla, noon
Class B: No. 7 Pleasantville vs. No. 5 Lincoln Hall, 5:15 p.m.

We’ll find out the Class AA and A final matchups over the next two days. Those games will have a tough time living up to the ones already played.