Each Tuesday, I make an appearance on Travis Turner's sports talk show on WOFC (AM-1130) in Murray, and this week the subject drifted to a change in the high school basketball postseason that we would each like to see.
In our view, the current district-regional tournament format has, in some ways, become obsolete. In many cases, it forces some of each region's top teams (in the stronger districts) to decide their fate in the first game of the postseason, while some teams of lesser quality skate through easier brackets in less competitive districts.
As a basketball fan, I'm all for a format that allows us to get as many of the best teams we possibly can to the regional tournament, and I feel this proposal helps do the trick.
Here is the nuts and bolts of my proposal for a change in the regional tournament format, followed by an example of how it would work.
For starters, keep the existing four districts intact. Let each district determine its champion with regular-season play, and then use those results to seed the regional tournament.
This year, the four No. 1 seeds on the boys' side are Carlisle County, Paducah Tilghman, Graves County and Marshall County. The No. 2 seeds are Fulton City, Lone Oak, Mayfield and Calloway County.
We start by awarding the top four seeds to the district champions, with the order of seeding determined by a vote of the region's coaches. For argument's sake, let's say the voting plays out like this:
1. Paducah Tilghman
2. Marshall County
3. Carlisle County
4. Graves County
Now, the No. 2 seeds:
5. Calloway County
6. Lone Oak
7. Mayfield
8. Fulton City
The rest of the field is seeded from 9-16:
9. Murray
10. Heath
11. St. Mary
12. Fulton County
13. Ballard Memorial
14. Community Christian
15. Hickman County
16. Reidland
Then we match up teams in the first round based on seeding, with one caveat — each of the No. 1 seeds host two games, their own plus the teams that they could meet in the second round. In effect, they become district tournament hosts as the reward for earning the No. 1 seed.
That leaves us with these pairings:
(at Carlisle County)
Carlisle County vs. Community Christian
Lone Oak vs. St. Mary
(at Paducah Tilghman)
Paducah Tilghman vs. Reidland
Fulton City vs. Murray
(at Graves County)
Graves County vs. Ballard Memorial
Calloway County vs. Fulton County
(at Marshall County)
Marshall County vs. Hickman County
Mayfield vs. Heath
The first-round games are played early in the week ... let's say the girls on Monday and the boys on Tuesday. The championship games are played on Thursday and Friday.
Again, for argument's sake, let's say the "district finals" play out this way:
Lone Oak over Carlisle County
Paducah Tilghman over Murray
Calloway County over Graves County
Marshall County over Mayfield
Those eight teams advance to the regional tournament and the draw is conducted so that teams that just played each other will be placed in opposite brackets. Just as always, the winners will meet the losers in the first round.
Let's say the draw goes like this:
Calloway County vs. Murray
Marshall County vs. Carlisle County
Lone Oak vs. Mayfield
Paducah Tilghman vs. Graves County
The regional tournament then proceeds as always.
Now let's look at the girls' seedings
District champions
1. Calloway County
2. Ballard Memorial
3. Paducah Tilghman
4. Hickman County
District runners-up
5. Marshall County
6. Mayfield
7. Lone Oak
8. Fulton County
The rest of the field
9. Murray
10. Community Christian
11. Graves County
12. Heath
13. St. Mary
14. Carlisle County
15. Reidland
16. Fulton City
That gives us these sites and pairings
(at Hickman County)
Hickman County vs. St. Mary
Marshall County vs. Heath
(at Paducah Tilghman)
Paducah Tilghman vs. Carlisle County
Mayfield vs. Graves County
(at Ballard Memorial)
Ballard Memorial vs. Reidland
Lone Oak vs. Community Christian
(at Calloway County)
Calloway County vs. Fulton City
Fulton County vs. Murray
Let's say the "districts" play out like this:
Marshall County over Hickman County
Paducah Tilghman over Mayfield
Ballard Memorial over Community Christian
Calloway County over Murray
And suppose the draw works out like this:
Ballard Memorial vs. Murray
Marshall County vs. Mayfield
Paducah Tilghman vs. Hickman County
Calloway County vs. Community Christian
There are plenty of arguments against such a change. For starters, district tournament are generally money-makers because of the proximity of the schools and the established rivalries. And there is the time-honored tradition of district tournaments.
On the other hand, the regional tournament is the showcase event of the season. It just makes sense to use a format that allows the best teams to get there.
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1 comment:
This is an idea whose time has come. Though some might say that it favors the bigger schools, it also gives a smaller school with a good team playing in a strong district a better chance. No matter what, though, upsets will always be a part of tournaments, and considering how the game has changed over the years, I don't think there is any particular significance to district tradition. If that were the case, someone needs to explain all the changes in district makeup over the years and also tell me if they can find all of a school's district championship trophies over the last, say 30 years. I would guess that the schools who have won most of them probably cannot even find them, because of storage issues. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.
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