Division II

Bracketology: Division II boys basketball

The regular season is in the books and the Division II boys basketball tournament is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

But the pairings won't be released by the NHIAA until Monday, so here's a look at which 16 teams are in the tournament, and where they should end up. Nothing here is official.

Top Four

Portsmouth (18-0)
Lebanon (18-0)
Manchester West (16-2)
Milford (15-3)

The Clippers get the No. 1 seed because they finished the year with a higher rating than Lebanon (4.0566-4.0). Why did Portsmouth have a higher rating? Because it got an extra point for playing up a division and beating Pembroke, which finished the year 0-17 in Division I. So Portsmouth gets the No. 1 seed, Lebanon is No. 2 while West is No. 3 and Milford is No. 4.

Next Four

Bishop Brady (12-6)
Hollis Brookline (11-7)
Souhegan (10-8)
Coe-Brown (10-8)

Nothing complicated here, as Bishop Brady is the fifth seed and Hollis Brookline takes the No. 6 spot. Souhegan gets the seventh seed over Coe-Brown based on the head-to-head win in the regular-season finale on Thursday.

Four-way tie

Timberlane (8-10)
Windham (8-10)
John Stark (8-10)
Hanover (8-10)

Now it starts to get interesting. Timberlane gets the ninth seed because, like Portsmouth, it has a win over a Division I team (Concord), giving the Owls a higher rating than the other teams. That puts the other three in a three-way tiebreaker. Head-to-head is out since Windham played neither team. The next tiebreaker is rating against playoff teams, which puts the Jaguars ahead and in the 10th spot. Since John Stark and Hanover split their two games, and both had the same rating against playoff teams, the tiebreaker goes to the next one, which is quality of wins against playoff teams. John Stark holds the advantage there and gets the 11th seed, while Hanover is 12th.

Bottom four

Goffstown (7-11)
Kennett (7-11)
Oyster River (6-12)
St. Thomas (6-12)

Goffstown ends up at No. 13 as it wins the second tiebreaker, rating against playoff teams, with Kennett, which ends up at 14. That left three teams in a tie for the final two playoff spots. Plymouth didn't play Oyster River or St. Thomas, so it goes to the second tiebreaker, rating against playoff teams, and Oyster River and St. Thomas finish ahead of Plymouth for the final two spots.

On the outside

Plymouth (6-12)
Merrimack Valley (4-14)
Kingswood (2-16)
ConVal (1-17)

First-round matchups

Here's what the playoffs should look like when they get underway on Wednesday. These matchups are not official; the NHIAA will announce seedings on Monday.