North Dakota Preps

B-oldtimer wrote: I would like to see whole state tournament made up schools that only get state maybe once or twice in generation. I think state tournament should be something special not something that happens every few years.

So if a team is supposed to make it to state once or twice every 18 years. And 8 teams make it to state every year. Wouldn't that mean there should be at least 12 to 15 teams competing for each spot every year? What would a system like that look like?

I no longer advocate a three class system.

The system is fine. These are the best teams we have. It's what we do.

I say Rugby wins...no horses in the race either team

Since Old timer brought it the C class system up, I would like to reiterate the question as I did a year ago in another post on the Boys side, which had tons of replies. It even got to the point if their ever was a three class system, I had the following question, " Does anyone think that a stand alone Class C tournament would eventually be bigger than the current B tourney?" I can only imagine!

ReadyToPlay wrote:Since Old timer brought it the C class system up, I would like to reiterate the question as I did a year ago in another post on the Boys side, which had tons of replies. It even got to the point if their ever was a three class system, I had the following question, " Does anyone think that a stand alone Class C tournament would eventually be bigger than the current B tourney?" I can only imagine!

Bigger in what way??? Maybe bigger, but no way better...Best 3 day tourney has to include the big B's, co op to compete, privates, B's in close proximity to metro area, and the once in a generation true B teams. That is obvious.

Good or bad that is what has been created...

heimer wrote:
There was a team at state volleyball that absolutely didn't belong there, and there is at least one team at state basketball that doesn't belong there. What this tournament has done is tell schools to stop playing meaningful games in the regular season, run your record up, and get what you can. That's a setback for the game.

They ALL belong there. They played their district games, played their region games and won. I understand that the west regions (7 and are weaker regions but we don’t live next to big cities (i.e. Thompson) and we aren’t private schools. Some schools are consolidated...we are small town class B schools. We apologize if the games we play aren’t as exciting as you’d like but we’re (the players, fans, communities are excited) so maybe watch the games for a great play or two. But to suggest that there are teams that don’t belong? No

Also, no one bitc#es and complains about an all-west semifinal, because, in the east, we realize we will have to drive to get to actual games. But imagine the pain and heartbreak of the convoy that came up from Region 7 to see all of their west comrades in the sunshine half.

And those of us in the west don’t??

Thompson has a school district that exports as many students as transfer in, period. And yes, some are athletes. Look up the numbers and get back to us.

Thompson, Langdon, Kindred all played games outside of their region this year, and traveled to do it. You should not be rewarded for hiding in your region, claiming Rugby and Linton are your big gets, and taking a seed that belonged to Kindred.

Just because a team won a region doesn't mean they belong in a state tournament field. It means they get to be in a state tournament field. Big difference.

heimer wrote:Thompson has a school district that exports as many students as transfer in, period. And yes, some are athletes. Look up the numbers and get back to us.

Thompson, Langdon, Kindred all played games outside of their region this year, and traveled to do it. You should not be rewarded for hiding in your region, claiming Rugby and Linton are your big gets, and taking a seed that belonged to Kindred.

Just because a team won a region doesn't mean they belong in a state tournament field. It means they get to be in a state tournament field. Big difference.

Do you understand North Dakota geography at all? Thompson, Langdon, and Kindred can travel 1-2 hours and get high-quality opponents outside of their region. Trenton has to travel at least 2 hours just to get out of their region, let alone play a ranked team. What about Kidder County traveling out-of-region to play Grant County, last year's state champs? Is that avoiding out-of-region competition too?

Kidder County is getting quite a "favorable" review" today.

theman wrote:

heimer wrote:Thompson has a school district that exports as many students as transfer in, period. And yes, some are athletes. Look up the numbers and get back to us.

Thompson, Langdon, Kindred all played games outside of their region this year, and traveled to do it. You should not be rewarded for hiding in your region, claiming Rugby and Linton are your big gets, and taking a seed that belonged to Kindred.

Just because a team won a region doesn't mean they belong in a state tournament field. It means they get to be in a state tournament field. Big difference.

Do you understand North Dakota geography at all? Thompson, Langdon, and Kindred can travel 1-2 hours and get high-quality opponents outside of their region. Trenton has to travel at least 2 hours just to get out of their region, let alone play a ranked team. What about Kidder County traveling out-of-region to play Grant County, last year's state champs? Is that avoiding out-of-region competition too?

Thompson also played in Minot this year to play better competition. The fix is on you, not them.

And understand, I'm not saying Trenton didn't win the opportunity to be in the state tournament. That's our system.

I'm saying they do not deserve the 4 seed they got. Play whatever schedule you want. Don't complain when you are unseeded at 25-0.

Out of 106 teams, Hettinger-Scranton’s strength of schedule is 14th; Trenton’s is 29th.

Rugby (1), Langdon (3), Thompson (6), Kindred (7) and Shiloh (8) outrank the NightHawks in SOS.

https://classbbasketball.com/?s=rpi&y=2018&g=g

Admittedly those numbers improve with deeper runs in the postseason. Would’ve liked a peek prior to the state tourney.

Hettinger’s Region 7 is statistically the second strongest region. Region 8 is the weakest, weighing heavily on Trenton’s SOS number.

My first impression is that we're seeding to say we're doing it, but we're not really doing it.

I can understand the occasional, even annual, debate over who deserved 3 and 4, to get a draw or the 5.

But this is unacceptable. Strength of schedule was not used at all, and, for that matter, neither was head to head. In the Thompson/Langdon scenario, it doesn't matter 2 vs 3, as, all else being equal, they meet no matter what. But a win in the regular season is a win. Unless the team that won suffered a significant injury or suspension, that head-to-head win should count for something.

If we're not using strengh of schedule and we're not using head-to-head, we're not seeding.

Would you advocate all seeding being done by a predetermined formula (RPI), rather than a vote of the coaches?

I think a human element is necessary, but data needs to be part of the equation. It just wasn't this time.

So basically kids who don’t get to play sports in Grand Forks go to Thompson. They played Dickinson Trinity and New Town beating DT by 15 or so and NT by almost 50. Not better competition. We can travel up to an hour and some change just to play teams in our district much less our region. We play in and out of our region. So what would you recommend we do? If your suggestion is to have only the teams who belong in the state tournament be the ones who get to go then how many teams do we allow? 8, 16, 24? With a few regions being heavily stacked as they are the state tournament would be repeats of regional tournaments.

aNDkid91 wrote:So basically kids who don’t get to play sports in Grand Forks go to Thompson.

Thompson kids that don't get to play sports should go to Central.

Thompson loses athletes to Grand Forks, not gains.

The kids in the program are home-grown. I know them, well. Thompson sends wrestlers, state place-winners, to Red River. They don't import their talent, and the way the district is drawn, their north-end population is closer to Central than it is to Thompson. They lose plenty of kids that way.

Know something before you spew.

The seeding may not be perfect but would you rather they go back to picking all the teams from a hat? If you win three games you are the champs.

heimer wrote:Thompson loses athletes to Grand Forks, not gains.

The kids in the program are home-grown. I know them, well. Thompson sends wrestlers, state place-winners, to Red River. They don't import their talent, and the way the district is drawn, their north-end population is closer to Central than it is to Thompson. They lose plenty of kids that way.

Know something before you spew.

What exactly do you know about scheduling games, working as an athletic director, living in Southwest ND? Keep taking shots at Hettinger-Scranton. You’re showing a lot of class

I'm not taking shots against anyone. I'm taking shots at the idea that we can just seed to seed. If you feel that way, I'm taking shots against you. I said, and will say again: Schedule whatever you want. But don't expect a seed if you don't deserve it.

One more thing: If you're taking shots at Grand Forks hosting the tournament, or the building causing every problem in the world, I'm also taking shots at you. Quite frankly, after this tournament, the tournament should never leave.

The Betty is excellent. Now that Grand Forks has put its best foot forward, the only real question is what took so long…

Bisonguy06 wrote:The Betty is excellent. Now that Grand Forks has put its best foot forward, the only real question is what took so long…

State Leaders noticing and caring

The Betty looks pretty full. Did they have to turn any fans away?