Volcano Vista boys, Hobbs girls lead the way in the Class 5A state tournament brackets

We now have our 160 state basketball playoff participants, and the fuse has been lit.

New Mexico’s postseason officially opens on Friday with 40 first-round girls games. In truth, it began Sunday afternoon as the 16-team fields across 10 brackets were unveiled by the New Mexico Activities Association.

All 10 brackets appear in Monday's Journal. For print edition subscribers, our paper is the single most efficient way to scour every one of the 10 brackets all at once, without having to alternate in and out of pages on your laptop or desktop. Just sayin’.

Boys

Don’t know if I’m in the minority or majority on this one, but I would posit that Volcano Vista coach Greg Brown has never done a better job of coaching a team than he has this particular Hawks’ bunch, which will start the Class 5A playoffs as a No. 1 seed.

Volcano Vista (22-5) emerged from the brutal nature of the three-team District 1-5A octagon to sit atop the bracket, which had Cleveland at No. 2 and Rio Rancho at No. 3.

Whenever you hear about program sustainability, you have to think about a team like this Volcano Vista group, which had more than a few questions to answer when this season began, and responded brilliantly almost every step of the way. Brown is the glue that holds this dynamic formation together. They are after a fifth straight blue trophy.

Has there been any season in which one district’s top three were so clearly the best three in an individual bracket? I’m not prepared to definitely say yes to that. Not prepared to say no to that, either. These three combined for 16 losses – a dozen of them were in their head-to-head matchups. It’s just difficult to conceive anyone from outside these three hoisting a blue trophy on March 14.

Cleveland falling to No. 2 puts the Storm in the bottom half of the bracket with No. 3 Rio Rancho, so Cleveland’s road automatically becomes more daunting.

No. 6 seed Sandia, which just saw guard Gad Harris return after missing nearly the entire season, remains a plausible wild card in that bottom half.

As is La Cueva in the top half as the 4 seed. The Bears are the only team from outside 1-5A to have beaten both Volcano Vista and Cleveland, and this certainly makes the Bears a compelling watch as the postseason begins for the boys on Saturday.

La Cueva could meet up with No. 5 Hobbs at the Pit in the quarters, which would be fascinating, since those two met in the first round of the metro tournament when the Eagles were not at full strength. But Hobbs will face a tough challenge first off in 12 seed Organ Mountain.

Highland appears quite ready to find its March stride, is the 1 seed in 4A, and opens against district rival Grants. All five members of the Hornets’ district are in the top half of the draw, oddly enough, plus a solid 23-win Taos outfit, and also a team I’ve long admired. No. 4 seed Del Norte unquestionably could play its way into the finals.

Artesia, the defending state champion, is seeded second, and this bottom half also features No. 3 Hope Christian and No. 6 Albuquerque Academy, though I would say the Huskies have a better chance to emerge as a state finalist from this half than the Chargers.

No. 2 Artesia’s path to the finals is somewhat more favorable than Highland’s.

St. Michael’s was the easy choice for No. 1 in Class 3A, but the Horsemen’s road in the top half could put them opposite either Navajo Prep or Santa Fe Indian in the semis, which would be daunting.

Tularosa, searching for its first blue trophy since 2012, is the 2 seed, and it’s worth asking if we’ll get a quarterfinal meeting in Week 2 between the Wildcats and No. 7 East Mountain. East Mountain is 25-0 against everyone on their schedule not named Bosque School. The sixth-seeded Bobcats face Cottonwood Classical Prep in the first round.

Defending champion Texico has the top seed in 2A, and the two-loss Wolverines are a formidable team. Something to watch: They could face Santa Rosa in the semis, and the Lions are the only 2A rival to beat Texico all season.

Menaul and Oak Grove Classical Academy are the 10 and 11 seeds, respectively.

Logan is after a second straight title in Class 1A boys, and the Longhorns are the No. 1 seed. Would be ideal if the top two seeds got all the way to the final here, as Logan and No. 2 Fort Sumner/House have split four meetings, and those four games were decided by a TOTAL of 16 points.

Girls

Can anyone get a stick into Hobbs’ spokes and force the Eagles to tumble? Cuz the 5A bracket is most certainly the Eagles’ to win or lose.

The tide turned at the start of the calendar year. Hobbs beat Kirtland Central in the metro tournament semifinals, then Albuquerque High the next night, and then the Eagles came back up here the next week and just obliterated Farmington on a neutral court. Hobbs is a clear No. 1.

However, the Scorpions did beat the Eagles in their other meeting, so there’s some meat on this uncertainty bone. Farmington and Rio Rancho were seeded second and third behind Hobbs, and those two could be headed for a major semifinal showdown. (Sidebar: There must be a large number of coaches pulling hard for Rams coach Lori Mabrey over the next two weeks. She has overcome much just to return to the bench for Rio Rancho this season.)

No. 4 Albuquerque High and No. 5 Sandia are on track to meet in the quarterfinals at the Pit. The Matadors have been sensational this season in defending their 2025 championship. The only teams to have beaten Sandia this season are Hobbs, Rio Rancho and AHS. 

Two days ago, I would have said I had little belief in any late-bracket suspense in the 4A girls bracket. And then, suddenly, on Friday night, Gallup — a team that lost two games in district to Kirtland Central by a combined 67 (!) points — stunned the Broncos 49-41 in the District 1-4A tournament final.

Can any one of the metro area’s solid 4A entries make headway in this bracket? No. 3 Albuquerque Academy is the most obvious possibility. I was in Gallup when the Chargers opened their season, and they led the Bengals 13-0 before eventually losing by 13 under an avalanche of fouls and free throws. They could meet once more in the semis.

Bernalillo is attempting to get to the Pit to fulfill a pledge they made to their cancer-stricken coach, Ashley Duran, that they would run down that ramp in March. The Spartans are a 6 seed, and must get past Española Valley to make plans for Week 2.

Before I step aside, we must, as always, mention the team facing the longest road trip of the 80 visiting teams in the first round. There are a few ginormous whoppers.

But no one will travel more miles in the first round than the Piedra Vista girls, 495 miles one-way to Hobbs.

This weekend can't get here soon enough.

James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.