Give Tim Haley another assist. It was the fourth-leading all time assists man in Chico State history, now an assistant coach with the Wildcats, who cleared my clouded mind late Saturday night with his explanation of why the Chico State men’s basketball team is guaranteed its second straight trip to the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament with two regular season games still left to play.

I said so on www.chicowildcats.com. Then I held my breath, along with the Wildcats coaching staff and players. I exhaled 36 hours later when, on Monday morning, the CCAA office finally confirmed that belief with an ‘x’ that marked the Wildcats’ postseason spot.

With two games remaining on the regular season schedule of all 12 conference teams, the various scenarios still to be played out can be quite confusing. But all that’s left to be decided for the Wildcats now is whether they’ll be the No. 6, 7, or 8 seed and who they will be traveling to play on Tuesday in the first round of the CCAA Championship Tournament, the winner of which earns an automatic berth in the NCAA Championship Tournament.

The Wildcats are on the road to face Cal State Monterey Bay Thursday and San Francisco State Friday. Both games are scheduled to tip at approximately 7:30 PM.

Following are Chico State’s seeding scenarios:

• The Wildcats will be the No. 6 seed if they win two games this weekend and Cal State L.A. loses two.
• The Wildcats will be the No. 8 seed if they lose two games this weekend and Cal State Stanislaus wins two OR if they lose two games this weekend, Cal State Monterey Bay wins two, and no other teams finish at 9-13 along with that pair. (The Wildcats win any 3-or-4 game tiebreakers including Cal State Monterey Bay, but lose the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Otters.).
• The Wildcats will be the No. 7 seed barring any of the above scenarios.

Just whom the Wildcats will match up against is another question.

• If the Wildcats are the No. 6 seed, they will travel to face either Cal State San Bernardino or San Francisco State.
• If the Wildcats are the No. 7 seed, they’ll travel to face Cal State Dominguez Hills.
• If the Wildcats are the No. 8 seed, they will face Humboldt State.

The first-round winners will be re-seeded with the highest remaining seed facing the lowest remaining seed and the second highest remaining seed facing the second lowest remaining seed in the semifinal round, which takes place along with the finals at Cal State East Bay’s Pioneer Gymnasium March 4-5.

But seeding isn’t all that’s on the line in this week’s games. The Wildcats can guarantee themselves a plus-.500 record with one more win. They’ll have a chance to end Cal State Monterey Bay’s playoff hopes with a win Thursday night. They’ll be out for revenge against a San Francisco State team that beat them 83-70 earlier this season in Acker Gym.

On an individual note, Wildcats senior Roderick Hawkins will be attempting to become just the third player in Chico State history to reach the 1,000-point and 500-rebound plateaus. He already ranks ninth in school history with 534 career rebounds and could move all the way up to sixth with 12 boards this weekend. And he’s just 15 points shy of becoming the 11th Chico State player to score 1,000 career points.

A bit of advice in closing: When the courts clear late Friday night and you want to know who and where the Wildcats will be playing Tuesday night, make your way back to www.chicowildcats.com. It may be a while before the CCAA site is updated, and I promise to have Tim Haley’s number on speed dial.