What’s Your Tourney Choice?
Now that bouncing basketballs are limited to television, maybe we can remember everything we saw the past month and even some from past years.
We are trying to figure out what format works best for Washington high school state basketball tournaments.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has used several different schedules in recent years, and we can’t seem to agree which one we like best. We understand we aren’t always the best judges. Because we’re usually in the front row, dealing with deadlines, we don’t notice some of the things that are important for fans.
We’re hoping you’ll tell us.
Of particular interest is the schedule for state tournaments, especially on the second day.
It’s quite possible the best schedule for a Tacoma tournament is different for the B in Spokane or anything in the Kingdome.
In the past, the second-day schedule would have had two consolation bracket games, two quarterfinal games, intermission, then go loser-winner-winner-loser for the night session. Believe us, that makes sense to tourney veterans.
Now that all tournaments are in buildings that can accommodate simultaneous boys and girls play, there has been some tinkering with the schedule.
The most common schedule has all the losing teams from the first day playing in the first session the second day and all four quarterfinals in the evening session. The night is considered prime time. The negatives include the fact that the early session lacks the energy and intensity winners bracket games bring, plus a quarterfinal starts extremely late at night.
What they tried at the State AAA this year was running all eight of the quarterfinal games on one court, the losers brackets on the other. It alternated from two girls games to two boys games on one court, going the other way - boys-girls - on the other. That meant there was a 9 a.m. quarterfinal (where in the past that would have been a noon game, or a 5 p.m. game at other tournaments) as well as the late, late game. Fans had a choice: all winners bracket games or change seats and follow all the girls or all the boys.
There also are two ways to schedule semifinals. The first is to have the boys and girls play at the same time. The plus is the night doesn’t get so late, the negative is sitting in a seat from which you can’t see both games. The other way is to run the four semis consecutively.
We also want to hear if AAA fans would like to get out of the Kingdome, even if that would put the girls back in Mercer Arena for most games while the boys play in Key Arena.
If you have suggestions about what is right or wrong with state tournaments, please e-mail us at: davet@spokesman.com, call 459-5501, or fax 459-5098.
Reardan atones for behavior
Reardan coach Dan Smith offered a written apology to tournament director Clayton Dunn regarding his team’s demeanor after a loss to Republic in the boys State B title game March 8.
Reardan players, defeated 38-36, refused to shake hands with their Republic opponents. Most of Reardan’s players also balked at accepting the second-place trophy.
One Reardan player destroyed the door to an Arena fire hose. The WIAA will pay about $150 to fix the door, then bill Reardan.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TOURNAMENT ATTENDANCES Tourney 1966-97 1995-96 Diff. AAA 61,141 65,740 -4,599 AA 42,434 49,826 -7,392 A 46,837 44,709 +2,128 B 42,842 46,373 -3,531 Totals 193,254 206,648 -13,394