North Dakota Preps

I thought I liked it for the first couple of years in R2 but in the end it hasn't done anything to enhance the game and all the focus is on a couple 3 programs and I have a feeling it always will be.....

winner-within wrote:I thought I liked it for the first couple of years in R2 but in the end it hasn't done anything to enhance the game and all the focus is on a couple 3 programs and I have a feeling it always will be.....

how do you fix it?

winner-within wrote:I thought I liked it for the first couple of years in R2 but in the end it hasn't done anything to enhance the game and all the focus is on a couple 3 programs and I have a feeling it always will be.....

What? Please explain...........

Flip wrote:

winner-within wrote:I thought I liked it for the first couple of years in R2 but in the end it hasn't done anything to enhance the game and all the focus is on a couple 3 programs and I have a feeling it always will be.....

how do you fix it?

thats a good question....because The SR thing was supposed to fix a flawed District thing

so I'm brainstorming

Flying Wallenda wrote:

winner-within wrote:I thought I liked it for the first couple of years in R2 but in the end it hasn't done anything to enhance the game and all the focus is on a couple 3 programs and I have a feeling it always will be.....

What? Please explain...........

the argument or lets say the fun part of debate used to involve 4 districts and now its 2 Regions up and down the Valley and a lot of teams from middle to bottom of the Totem pole are getting zero recognition.....

for the players on those teams, I'm sure they would love to go back to playing some teams 3 times maybe even 4 just to have an opportunity to improve their records..... and they I'm sure they really miss the District tournament where there at least was some recognition regardless of record

winner-within wrote:

Flying Wallenda wrote:

winner-within wrote:I thought I liked it for the first couple of years in R2 but in the end it hasn't done anything to enhance the game and all the focus is on a couple 3 programs and I have a feeling it always will be.....

What? Please explain...........

the argument or lets say the fun part of debate used to involve 4 districts and now its 2 Regions up and down the Valley and a lot of teams from middle to bottom of the Totem pole are getting zero recognition.....

for the players on those teams, I'm sure they would love to go back to playing some teams 3 times maybe even 4 just to have an opportunity to improve their records..... and they I'm sure they really miss the District tournament where there at least was some recognition regardless of record

I'm not sure I buy into the perception of less recognition - without question the schools located near the "metro" areas get more press - but haven't they always? I sat through a pile of 1 vs 8 games in the district in gyms that were empty. Getting to have more home games, host a playoff game, and have 13-16 conference games which all have post season implications instead of 6-9 district games and 10-13 non-conference games makes the super region a big winner in my book.

Super Regions - have to win all games to earn trip to State; win or go home.
Districts - Allowed teams to lose and still make it through to state instead of the ‘upset’ meaning something.

Just my take

scc wrote:It was a huge mistake to get rid of the districts in regions 1, 2, and 7.

What should have been the fix:
Go back to the way it was only a decade earlier, which was a single-elimination district tournament. The worst thing they ever did was make it double-elimination.

What is not the fix:
Getting rid of districts.

There would be a lot of "championship games" in the semi final round if you ask me.

scc wrote:It was a huge mistake to get rid of the districts in regions 1, 2, and 7.

What should have been the fix:
Go back to the way it was only a decade earlier, which was a single-elimination district tournament. The worst thing they ever did was make it double-elimination.

What is not the fix:
Getting rid of districts.

I was looking back also and I really liked the single elim D-tourn

I also believe that if it is going to be a super region than all teams have to play 2 times....or all teams only play one time

scc wrote:

Flip wrote:

scc wrote:It was a huge mistake to get rid of the districts in regions 1, 2, and 7.

What should have been the fix:
Go back to the way it was only a decade earlier, which was a single-elimination district tournament. The worst thing they ever did was make it double-elimination.

What is not the fix:
Getting rid of districts.

There would be a lot of "championship games" in the semi final round if you ask me.

Let me rephrase. Go back to the way it was only a decade earlier, which was a single-elimination district tournament in the first round. The top 4 teams still moved on to the region tournament.

Agreed

winner-within wrote:I also believe that if it is going to be a super region than all teams have to play 2 times....or all teams only play one time

Why? It feels like you're complaining just to complain. In region 2 that would be 24 games if you made everyone play twice.

I don't think that Super Region's are bad by any stretch of the imagination. It make every regular season game against a regional opponent mean something. I also prefer it over single elimination districts because in some parts of the state there are regions that have one strong district and one weaker district.

I do understand why teams that are traditionally weaker don't like the SR format. A lot of those kids will never get to experience a tournament atmosphere (especially if they don't play the play in games at the tournament floor).

South Dakota actually went away from the single elimination district tournaments (they only had the district champs advance and a 1 game regional). They are playing a super region format down to the top 2 and then those 2 are seeded 1-16 across the state and they play state tournament qualifying games.

Flip wrote:

winner-within wrote:I also believe that if it is going to be a super region than all teams have to play 2 times....or all teams only play one time

Why? It feels like you're complaining just to complain. In region 2 that would be 24 games if you made everyone play twice.

I'm not worried about how it feels flip.....and I realize playing 2 times is not feasible.... but if teams are going to play 2 times from the old districts of 3 and 4 than just have districts....

winner-within wrote:I'm not worried about how it feels flip.....and I realize playing 2 times is not feasible.... but if teams are going to play 2 times from the old districts of 3 and 4 than just have districts....

That's more of the north district in R2. The south district does a lot less of the playing the old district teams twice. I don't think Thompson plays anyone twice.

Flip wrote:

winner-within wrote:I'm not worried about how it feels flip.....and I realize playing 2 times is not feasible.... but if teams are going to play 2 times from the old districts of 3 and 4 than just have districts....

That's more of the north district in R2. The south district does a lot less of the playing the old district teams twice. I don't think Thompson plays anyone twice.

Thought they play HCV twice

boys yes, girls no

Flip wrote:

winner-within wrote:I'm not worried about how it feels flip.....and I realize playing 2 times is not feasible.... but if teams are going to play 2 times from the old districts of 3 and 4 than just have districts....

That's more of the north district in R2. The south district does a lot less of the playing the old district teams twice. I don't think Thompson plays anyone twice.

that makes way more sense....to do it like that

From what I’ve heard in District 8 is that as long as we have at least 6 teams we will keep the district tournement. The way I see it is that SJ, Rolla, Rolette, North Star, Langdon, and now Dunseith has a lot of history and districts sort of bring us as all together much better than a single elimination play in game featuring Langdon at Harvey or Dakota Prairie at Dunseith ever could.

The district 8 tournement has been packed on championship night every night since we’ve moved to 6 teams. I hope districts never go away. Every team gets a tournement atmosphere before the single elimination Regional. Langdon is a great venue for a district tournement and in Dunseith they bring the best High School band in state from Belcourt in to town they get the gym rockin.

I am in favor of keeping the District Tournaments. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense to have a 3 day tournament to eliminate 2 teams (in some Districts), but let the players get to play in the tournament atmosphere. (Besides, if we eliminate all the things that don't make sense half of the NDHSAA would be gone.)
The two District Tournaments in my Region are always well attended on the last two nights and it is a fun atmosphere for the kids. If you ask the players, I bet the vast majority would like to have a District Tournament.

I would be for calling either district or a sub region...getting rid of the region tourney other than a neutral court game of the district champs to get the region champ.

The arguments would be likely be to we play the district games at higher seed, or neutral court??? back to back nights, or over a two week period???

Basically what has been done in MN mid/larger classes for years

woodchuck10 wrote:From what I’ve heard in District 8 is that as long as we have at least 6 teams we will keep the district tournement. The way I see it is that SJ, Rolla, Rolette, North Star, Langdon, and now Dunseith has a lot of history and districts sort of bring us as all together much better than a single elimination play in game featuring Langdon at Harvey or Dakota Prairie at Dunseith ever could.

The district 8 tournement has been packed on championship night every night since we’ve moved to 6 teams. I hope districts never go away. Every team gets a tournement atmosphere before the single elimination Regional. Langdon is a great venue for a district tournement and in Dunseith they bring the best High School band in state from Belcourt in to town they get the gym rockin.

never knew this....would be very fun to listen to and watch!

I liked the Districts too simply for the athletes to get to that tourney at the end of the year. What do they work for if not the tourney. No other feeling like it for a young athlete. Instead of getting blown out on a four seeds home court. Just my two cents.

If we were to dissect it a bit and look at the teams from a District 3 & 4 of old, I think it narrows down what could actually take place

top 8 teams right now (and this line up could change a bit in the next week)
HCV 12-0 18-1
Thompson 10-2 16-3
Grafton/St. Thomas 11-3 15-3
Hatton/Northwood 10-4 15-5
Park River/Fordville-Lankin 9-4 12-5
May-Port-C-G 6-7 10-8
Cavalier 9-6 10-9
Midway/Minto 8-7 11-8

there are 4 teams from the old Dist. 3

#1 HCV
#2 Thomp
#3 HN
#4 MPCG
and of course 4 from the old dist. 4
#1 Grafton
#2 PRFL
#3 Cavalier
#4 MM
Interestingly only 2 of the 8 are non-co-op (just pointing that out) and Thompson having some luxury's of being close to a Metro....but anyways!

I think when you look at it from this perspective you see that there are not just 3 teams that are, lets say "flat out favorites"...with some serious Regional play to go down in the next week and then the play-in's
I still see, come the first week in March, being quite the challenge for any of these 8 to go to Bismarck..

What if instead if the super region format we had a “Sub-Region” tournement before the Region tournement. The top 4 teams would be in the regional automatically but could still play each other in a 4 team sub-Region tournement for the top four seeds. The remaining 8 or 9 teams could play a sub-region tournement using the current district tournement format to get 4 qualifying teams for the regional.

Using region 2 as an example.

Tournement at highest seeds home court (if they hold enough people to host), In this case at Hillsboro. Friday and Saturday.
#1 HCV vs #4 Hatton-Northwood
#2 Thompson vs #3 Grafton

This would have a championship game deciding first and second seeds and a third place game to decide the third and fourth seeds for regionals.

Play in game
#13 Drayton/V-E @ #12 FSHP

Tournement at highest seeds home court (if they hold enough people to host), in this case at Park River. Friday, Saturday, and Monday.
#5 Park River vs play in winner
#8 Midway-Minto vs #9 Larimore
#6 May-Port-CH vs #11 North Border
#7 Cavalier vs #12 Griggs County Central

This would be exactly like the district tournement with loser out and region qualifying games. Top four move on to regions. I don’t think you would need to play every team in your region during the regular season with this either. Just require at least 10 different region opponents on schedule. This would give teams that tournement atmosphere and feel like they have a chance to make regions better than a single play in game.

That's a very interesting idea, one I have never thought about. NDHSAA has told regions that they will not allow them to play the final 3 days of a regional tournament (quarters, semis and final) at different locations.