Basketball Committee looks to ax margin of victory
The MIAA Basketball Committee was willing to follow the Tournament Management Committee’s guidelines regarding margin of victory as a necessary component in determining power rankings.
They decided to do it on their terms.
At Tuesday’s virtual meeting, the committee voted unanimously to recommend to the TMC that they would like to adjust the margin of victory component from a 10-point maximum to one. The obvious rationale is that a 1-point MOV essentially puts an extra emphasis on wins and losses, something many coaches prefer.
Another motion which easily passed was moving the state quarterfinal games to a neutral court. As presently constructed, the higher seed gets the home game until the state semifinals, something many disapproved of.
The committee also agreed to adopt the new National Federation of State High Schools Association ( NFHS) rule regarding a 35-second shot clock. Some members, including Tewksbury athletic director Ron Drouin, had their reservations, saying the game would be slowed down more.
Other topics on the table included a plea to look at the possibility of playing state championship games at the TD Garden, with the state semifinals held at the Tsongas Center.
Whitman-hanson boys basketball coach and athletic director Bob Rodgers feels all 10 games can be played on the parquet over a two-day stretch, with the games starting at noon.
Not surprisingly, many coaches would like to see the current system of how officials are assigned to postseason contests be changed. They would prefer a statewide or regional assigner to handle the duties as opposed to the league assigner delegating referees to the home team.