DI Connecticut Boys Basketball State Tournament Outlook & Predictions

Notre Dame-West Haven is the defending DI state champion.

The New Britain Golden Hurricanes and Northwest Catholic Lions boys basketball teams are two of the 16 DI playoff basketball teams. / Dan Heary

The Connecticut high school basketball state tournaments tip off this week and the CIAC has officially released the pairings for the first-round matchups. 

In Division I, all 16 teams in the bracket are in the playoffs, with there being no first-round. The second round tips off on Monday, March 10 with eight games taking place. 

In arguably the toughest division in the state, seeds 2-6 all have 17-3 records. Four of the 16 teams have losing records; Manchester enters the tournament winless at 0-20.  

Let’s take a look at everything we need to know about the DI state tournament:

Defending Champs: Notre Dame-West Haven 

The Notre Dame-West Haven Green Knights defeated St. Bernard 68-56 in last year’s DI state championship. Though they enter the tournament as the sixth seed, they’re one of the top contenders in the division. The Green Knights recently defeated Fairfield Prep to win its fifth-straight SCC title. 

Top Seeds: Staples, West Haven, East Catholic 

The Staples Wreckers earned the top seed in the loaded DI bracket, going 20-0 in the regular season. West Haven and East Catholic are two of five teams in the bracket with 17-3 records and earned seeds two and three respectively. 

Staples is currently 22-0 and faces Ridgefield tonight for the FCIAC conference title, looking to repeat as conference champions. While Staples has run through the FCIAC and picked up out-of-state wins, they do not hold a win over a top-five team in the state. 

East Catholic, however, has multiple wins against top-10 teams (Windsor, Northwest Catholic) and comes from a more loaded conference than Staples. 

Dark Horses: West Haven, Southington, Ridgefield 

Basically any public school in this division is a dark horse to win the tournament. While the top two seeded teams are public schools, seeds 3-6 are arguably the four best private school boys basketball teams in the state. 

West Haven finished its regular season with a 17-3 record; both losses were to Notre Dame-West Haven. They suffered a third loss to them in the SCC Tournament. Southington (No. 10) has hung with the best in the state, suffering just a five-point loss to Windsor and a 10-point loss to Northwest Catholic. They also avenged a loss against a talented Platt team in the CCC Tournament. 

Ridgefield (No. 7) has suffered some bumps-and-bruises in the FCIAC this season, but when they’re on, they’re on. 

Top Players: Abdou Toure (Notre Dame-West Haven), Josh Charlot (Notre Dame-Prep), Sincere Folk (East Catholic), Drew Darrgati (Northwest Catholic), Sam Clachko (Staples), Jordan Sutton (Stamford), Aaron Johnson Jr. (West Haven) 

Prediction: Notre Dame-West Haven 

Who is going to stop Abdou Toure, the state’s best basketball player and company? The Green Knights are a perfect 20-0 against Connecticut high school basketball teams this season and have only had one of those 20 games decided by less than 10 points. They will be in a bracket with better Connecticut teams than they’ve faced all season, so we’ll see if any of the teams that NDWH is unfamiliar with can give them a challenge.