Archbishop Riordan, De La Salle and Salesian can sleep at night knowing that they won’t have to face the greatest scorer in the history of California high school basketball in the NorCal playoffs.

For the entire season, there was uncertainty whether St. Joseph-Santa Maria, led by California’s all-time leading scorer Tounde Yessoufou, would be placed in the NorCal regional.

But that didn’t happen.

On Sunday, the CIF selection committee put the Knights back in SoCal for this season and the foreseeable future.

“We just felt that the area that they are coming from, it makes more sense for them to play in the South than it does to play in the North,” CIF associate executive director Brian Seymour told the Bay Area News Group.

Two years ago, St. Joseph was placed in the NorCal Open Division playoffs and ran through Dougherty Valley and Modesto Christian to reach the state championship game.

Last season, St. Joseph was put in the South, falling to Roosevelt-Eastvale in the Open semifinals.

Now, with Sunday’s decision by the committee, the field is more open than previously thought.

Riordan is the top seed with De La Salle as the No. 2 and Salesian at No. 4. Riordan (27-1) has been dominant all year. The Crusaders have absolutely demolished everyone in the West Catholic Athletic League and won the Central Coast Section title by 26 points on Friday over St. Ignatius.

The San Francisco powerhouse will have a bye into the semifinals. The Crusaders will play the Salesian-Modesto Christian at home on Saturday.

De La Salle, the No. 2 seed, is playing its best basketball, but Oklahoma commit Alec Blair suffered a scary right-ankle sprain during Saturday’s North Coast Section championship game. The Spartans won’t play until they host No. 3 seed Folsom on Saturday in the semifinals.

Salesian is the reigning NorCal Open Division champion, and though the Pride suffered a blowout loss to De La Salle on Saturday in the NCS Open Division final, the Richmond school cannot be counted out. Carlton Perrilliat, Elias Obenyah and Co. still have one of the deepest teams in the bracket.

The Pride begin NorCal play on Wednesday against No. 5 seed Modesto Christian at Albany High. These teams played earlier this season at the NorCal Ultimate Challenge at San Leandro High, with Salesian winning 80-70 win.

GIRLS OPEN DIVISION STORYLINES >> Top-seeded Archbishop Mitty is aiming for a fifth consecutive NorCal Open title and a sixth in 10 appearances since the Open’s inception in 2013.

A Mitty championship victory is no virtual guarantee, unlike the past few years.

The Monarchs have been without superstar forward McKenna Woliczko since early January, when she tore her right ACL. As Pinewood showed in a close 59-51 loss in the CCS Open Division title game on Friday, Mitty might not be unbeatable.

Of course, the Monarchs are still the top seed for a reason. Hall of Fame coach Sue Phillips has adjusted her scheme to fit her new and more athletic personnel.

Ze’Ni Patterson is a terrific three-level scorer, guard Tiera McCarthy overwhelmed Pinewood with her burst and center Maliyah Hunter showed off range and shot-blocking in Woliczko’s absence.

San Ramon Valley was given the No. 3 seed after demolishing Acalanes 76-43 in the NCS Open title game on Saturday. Despite not having a single senior on its roster and graduating every starter from last year’s team, the Wolves seem even more formidable now.

Guard Ella Gunderson and forward Alyssa Rudd headline a group that starts four players who are all capable of scoring 20 points in a game if required. “It’s going to be some great competition, and we’re excited for it,” Rudd said. “We’re ready to play some really tough teams.”

Rudd is 100% correct about that, because SRV’s first opponent at home on Wednesday is sixth-seeded Pinewood, which very well could have been two spots higher after outplaying Mitty for the final three quarters of the CCS Open Division final.

Pinewood, led by longtime coach and shooting guru Doc Scheppler, was the last non-Mitty team to win the NorCal Open, going back-to-back in 2018 and 2019.

High-volume shooters such as Vallory Kuelker, Jolyn Ding and Katherine Garr make the Panthers one of the most unpredictable teams in the bracket.

The Pinewood-SRV winner will travel to No. 2 Clovis West (32-0) for a semifinal Saturday.

For fourth-seeded Acalanes, the question is which Dons team will show up when the Lafayette school plays host to No. 5 McClatchy? The team that scored 80-plus points at will with an up-tempo offense led by senior stars KK Lacanlale and Dulci Vail? Or the squad that looked overwhelmed by SRV?

The game on Wednesday will mark Acalanes’ first-ever NorCal Open appearance.

BUZZER BEATERS >> The Dougherty Valley boys breezed through the NCS Division I playoffs and was rewarded well by the CIF. The Wildcats were given the No. 6 seed in D-1. ... The Los Gatos girls were the top seed in the CCS Division I playoffs and captured the section crown over Menlo-Atherton, but the ‘Cats were still seeded No. 12 in Division II.