by Paul Teetor
The high school basketball season – which started way back in November – is finally over.
The last South Bay team standing was the Redondo boys basketball team, which battled all the way to the Division One Regional Final before losing a 74-68 nail-biter to Sierra Canyon, which then went on to win the state championship over Stockton Lincoln.
That’s how close the Sea Hawks were to making it to the state championship game: six points.
Looked at another way, however, their close loss in the regional final was a statement that the rest of the high school basketball world clearly understood: in his second stint at Redondo, Head Coach Reggie Morris is back in a big way.
Morris coached Redondo’s team for four years before leaving in 2017. During his first run as the Sea Hawk coach, the team won a state title and four Bay League titles – part of an incredible streak of eight straight Bay Leagues titles. While he was gone from Redondo, Morris had stops at Culver City and Fairfax, plus college assistant jobs at LMU and Pepperdine.
Morris left Redondo amid parent complaints that he was bringing in too many transfers that left too little playing time for local Redondo neighborhood kids.
Thus, it was a real shocker when Redondo announced in the summer of 2022 that he was returning after the Sea Hawk program had hit rock bottom in his absence. Apparently, the Redondo parents hated habitual losing even more than they hated seeing their local kids lose playing time.
Morris began immediately bringing in talented transfers again, and the move began to pay off last season, when Redondo won the Bay League title outright and made a deep run in the playoffs.
This season Redondo continued to improve, with an overall record of 28-6 while playing one of the toughest schedules in the entire Southland. And they were on track to win the Bay League again until the last game of the regular season, when archrival Mira Costa shocked them with a 69-68 upset on Redondo’s home court that gave the Mustangs a share of the league title along with Redondo. Both finished with 7-1 league records.
The Sea Hawks achieved Morris’s stated goal of making the Open Division playoffs, the toughest and best division in CIF. But they lost in pool play, and were sent down to Division One for the regional playoffs.
They had a chance to win the Southern Section Division One crown late in the regional final against Sierra Canyon, a basketball powerhouse noted for its habit of attracting the sons of NBA players, including most notably Bronny and Bryce James, sons of LeBron James.
Morris was philosophical after the tough, 74-68 loss.
“Both teams played well, both teams played hard,” Morris said. “It came down to which team could get more stops. They got a few more stops than we did. It’s always really hard to come close and not win. The kids put in a lot of work, the coaching staff put in a lot of work. Our goal was to make it to the state finals. When that doesn’t happen it stings a little.”
One big difference in the game came at the free throw line. Sierra Canyon attempted 33 free throws while Redondo only had 14.
Morris declined to comment when asked about the free throw disparity. He did, however, credit the Trailblazers for their aggressiveness in getting to the basket.
“We needed to get in front of the ball, but they kept driving the ball and getting to the basket and we didn’t make any adjustments,” he said. “Our hats off to them.”
Going into the fourth quarter Sierra Canyon led Redondo by one point, but senior Brayden Miner – the son of former USC star and NBA dunk champion Harold Miner — hit a tough 15-foot jumper to give Redondo a 56-55 lead with 6:47 to play.
That was the first of 10 lead changes in the quarter.
Sierra Canyon scored its next six points from the free-throw line to build a 65-62 lead with 3:15 to play. Redondo fought back with its defense as Miner got a steal which led to two free throws for Chace Holley to cut the lead to one. Less than a minute later another steal led to a breakaway dunk by S.J. Madison to give the Sea Hawks a 66-65 lead with 1:47 to play.
Sierra Canyon’s Maxi Adams got fouled inside and hit two free throws with 1:31 to play for a 67-66 lead. Hudson Mayes answered one final time for Redondo with a short jumper to give Redondo a 68-67 lead, its last lead of the game. Sierra Canyon scored the final seven points to take the game and leave Redondo just short of reaching its first state finals since 2013.
After the game, the Sea Hawk players knew they had missed a golden opportunity to play for a state championship.
“We didn’t do enough things that we needed to in order to win,” Miner said after scoring 14 points in the game. “We didn’t do the small details and that was the difference. This is hard for us because a lot of us are seniors and this was our last ride together.”
Mayes, who scored 19 points for the Sea Hawks, agreed.
“This was a tough way to end the season,” Mayes said. “We knew it would be tough in a hostile environment like it was tonight. We fought hard, but it just wasn’t enough.”
Happy trails to Cooper Kupp
Football is a brutal, violent, impersonal sport.
Only the strong survive to play another day.
But the business side of pro football is even more brutal, violent and impersonal off the field.
Just ask Cooper Kupp, the most beloved current Ram, a fan favorite for his hard work, great attitude and record-setting productivity.
Three years ago he led the NFL in catches, yards and touchdowns, the so-called Triple Crown of receivers. Then he went on to win the MVP award in the Rams Super Bowl win. That established him as the greatest Rams wide receiver since Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch back in the 1950s.
Since then, he has had a string of injuries and has been surpassed as the Rams top receiver by Puka Nacua.
But Kupp loved it here so much that last month he took the unusual step of revealing that the Rams had informed him they were trying to trade him. His hope was to spark a fan backlash against a trade.
But the revelation also tanked his trade value. Why would a team give up anything of value when he would probably be available soon as a free agent?
And that is exactly what happened this week. First the Rams released him after being unable to trade him, and two days later he signed with the Seattle Seahawks.
Remember this series of events the next time you hear some pro sports exec complaining about the lack of player loyalty to anything but the bottom line.
It’s a “what-have-you-done-for-me lately” world in pro sports — from both players and management.
Prediction: the Rams will come to regret this move.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com
Redondo parents ARE UPSET with Coach Morris bringing in transfers once again. Many current parents were unaware that this was the reason for his departure. Meanwhile, it’s the school that appears to be more focused on Redondo’s wins than on ensuring local kids have a fair opportunity. Just look at how well Mira Costa performed this season when they have very few transfers. As a result of this situation, many local Redondo students are either transferring to other schools, bypassing Redondo entirely, or leaving the program once they realize they aren’t being given the same opportunities as the incoming transfers. It’s a real shame.