This is a strange week for high school boys basketball teams.
Sunday night, the IHSAA announced the pairings for the 64 sectionals around the state that begin next week. All 403 teams entered now know their path through sectional and regional play on their road to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where the state finals will be played on March 24.
There is, however, a small problem – these teams still have at least one more game left in their regular seasons.
The games on the schedule this week are mostly what we would call “friendlies.” The conference games are over and what takes place this week is considered “tune up work” or “final chances to get better” or maybe even a “dress rehearsal” for next week.
For some, they could be previews of coming attractions. Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley could face each other in the championship game on the first Saturday of March. Given their seasons it isn’t likely, but then no one thought the Wawasee girls were going to play for a sectional title either, and the Lady Warriors were tied with eventual regional champ Fairfield with two minutes remaining in the sectional final.
Wawasee hosts Valley Friday, as the two teams look for momentum knowing that they only need one special week to make the season memorable. A number of times in recent years they’ve played each other in the first round just days after playing in the regular season finale … but that’s for another article coming soon.
Warsaw goes to Carroll Friday night, a stern challenge for a team that has had more than their fair share of them this season.
Manchester hosts a sub-.500 Eastern (Greentown) team Friday, while Whitko gets Heritage in South Whitley Friday to wrap up the regular season.
Triton concludes its regular season Friday with a home-away-from-home game at Plymouth against Knox.
It’s been a strange season for basketball here in our area, hasn’t it? We normally have a couple of really good girls teams and a couple of really good boys teams who all have hopes of making long runs in the tournaments. But we don’t have that this year. Only Warsaw, LCA and Manchester made it to 11 wins on the boys side heading into the final week. But, as we like to say, “this is Indiana.”
Next week, all 403 teams that are entered in the state tournament will have an equal chance to play in and win a sectional game – no wins, 5 wins, 11 wins or more than that. Even those who don’t like their draw have a chance to hit shots they have not hit, get a big game from an unlikely source, and advance.
I know, I know, there are sectionals where the traditional blind draw have left the brackets uneven. The best teams find themselves on the same side of the bracket, which means the best two teams might run into each other before the championship game.
Some see that as a problem needing a solution.
In a perfect world, the best two teams in each sectional would be aligned opposite each other so they have the best chance to play in the championship game Saturday night. Some would go so far to strongly suggest that the sectionals be seeded. Some models would seed all of the teams, and I have seen others that would only identify the top two teams and would blindly insert the rest of the field.
But, let’s say you seed the whole field – try to rank the sectional at Elkhart’s North Side Gym, for example. Warsaw and Northridge seem to be the best two teams, but Memorial beat Warsaw by 13 in the same venue where the sectional will be played and Northridge lost to Warsaw at home and to Plymouth (now also in the field at NSG) by 25. Goshen, Memorial and Plymouth all have the ability to get hot over the course of a week and win that sectional. Seeding Warsaw and Northridge Nos. 1 and 2 in whatever order you wish only puts them in opposite brackets to start the tournament.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever guaranteed once it starts.
And that thought alone will keep all 403 head coaches sleepless until there are only four of them – one state champion from each class – that are blessed in Indiana basketball immortality.
That sleeplessness has started already, which makes this week’s games so interesting.
What do these last games mean? Anything? Is there anything that could happen in the 21st or 22nd game of a season that might allow a coach to glean some morsel of information that they had not already known?
Many wake up in the middle of the night with their pillows soaked in sweat – what if a key player twists an ankle or gets hit with an elbow and is put into concussion protocol this week?
“If we take it too easy we could lose our edge, and if we go too hard we could be worn down in our biggest moment” they ponder.
Oh yes, this week before the sectional is a study in coaching, but more so in psychology and people management. It’s about when to pull hard on the reigns and when to kick heals and charge.
In my view, it should be about tending to the matter at hand, which is the practices and games this week.
