Lavar Ball wrote:What if the NDHSAA decided to go to a sweet 16 format like South Dakota does for their playoff basketball. How i see it happening would be you play your region as a single elimination tourney.(super region format.) But you play it out till the championship game, you dont crown a region champ or have a region championship game. Each region gets 2 qualifiers to the sweet 16 you reseed them 1-16 and the winners advance just like a march madness tourney.
example would be:
Region 1- Wyndmere-Lidgerwood, Oak Grove
Region 2- Hillsboro-Central Valley,Grafton
Region 3-Carrington, Edgeley-Kulm-Montpelier
Region 4- St. John, Langdon/Edmore/Munich
Region 5- Shiloh, Standing Rock
Region 6-Bishop Ryan, Rugby
Region 7- Beulah,Dickinson Trinity
Region 8-Stanley, New Town
so now we would have to reseed these 16 teams 1-16 and play it out all the way.
not that our state tourney wasn't competitive as all games i felt were good games to watch.
but i feel this would give us a even better state tourney and have all 8 teams be the best 8 teams in the state. I am all for this format or everyone plays a super regional and that would be how we get our 8. call me old school but the district tourneys are a joke IMO. you can loose and still make the state tourney, cmon that is not playoff basketball. playoff basketball means you are fighting for another game one slip up and your done. Thoughts ?????
Lavars World
I am not a fan of this tournament structure. I also know a current coach in SD that can't stand it either. The reasons I feel it doesn't work:
-I believe a state tournament at the small school level should represent all areas of the state. Yes, some ND regions have historically tended to be weaker than others, but not outlandishly so. In the SD Class B tournament this year, White River is the only school included from what could be considered the western part of the state. Is that really what we want in ND?
-The logistics of the round of 16 don't work. Since you would have to wait to see who makes it and then determine the match ups, how do you then figure out where to play the games? If we had a final 16 format in ND this year, this would have been my estimate for match ups:
Hillsboro vs Standing Rock
St. John vs Trinity
Oak Grove vs Rugby
Stanley vs E-K-M
Minot Ryan vs Langdon
Carrington vs Beulah
Grafton vs New Town
Wyndmere vs Shiloh Christian
The average distance in those eight match ups 235 miles. How are you going to pick a midway point on short notice to play the games and have it be a tournament atmosphere?
-Schools that are among the top eight in the state will still get eliminated. Example: Carrington and Beulah were both obviously very worthy of playing in the state tournament this year but with the round of 16 match ups I came up with, one would have been eliminated.
-Regional rivalries lose their luster. Would the May-Port vs Hillsboro rivalry have been as intense if both could have made the state tournament in the same season? How about Dickinson Trinity vs Beulah or Four Winds vs North Star or Langdon vs Munich? Part of what has made Class B basketball great over the years is that it's hard to get to the state tournament and you know exactly who you have to beat to get there.
I do absolutely agree with you about the super regionals. I'm also a firm believer that once a team has entered tournament play there should not be any second chances.
Welcome to the board and please continue posting! Even though I disagree with you on this topic, it's still interesting to discuss!