No seating squabbles foreseen at finals
Steve Arrison chuckled when someone said “the ghost of Malik Monk” hangs over the 2017 Arkansas high school basketball championships, starting today.
Arkansas’ most highly recruited basketball player in decades twice played before a packed house in the state finals at Bank of the Ozarks Arena. The 2015 Class 7A title game, played at 11 a.m. on Day 3 of the tournament, featured Monk’s Bentonville Tigers vs. a North Little Rock squad boasting future college players KeVaughn Allen (Florida) and K.J. Hill (Ohio State). North Little Rock, after vacating the 2014 title, won a Hot
Springs final for the third consecutive year.
Monk played his final game for Bentonville last March in Hot Springs against a Cabot squad coached by Hot Springs native Jerry Bridges. Having signed with Kentucky the previous November, Monk had many in the crowd cheering his every miss. Despite a rooting section including Gov. Asa Hutchinson, whose son played for the Tigers, Bentonville lost.
That March Friday night will be remembered for what Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, host of the state basketball finals, called a “perfect storm” of events that conspired against Hot Springs Convention Center.
Bank of the Ozarks Arena was packed before the scheduled 8:45 p.m. tip-off between Bentonville and Cabot. An overflow crowd estimated at
6,500 was announced for the last three games, the first two involving boys and girls from the state’s smallest classification (1A). Fire marshals were called in to clear aisleways at halftime of the 7 p.m. Class 1A girls game between Kirby and Nemo Vista.
Arrison estimated that 100 to 150 ticket-purchasing fans were turned away after 5:30 p.m., when the arena in effect hung a “no vacancy” sign in the door. Those holding Arkansas Activities Association coaching passes also were denied entrance, he said.
“We just didn’t have any more room,” said Arrison.
Arrison foresees no such conflicts on Championship Weekend 2017, marking Hot Springs’ fourth consecutive year as host and the 10th time in 11 years that the tournament has been held in Bank of the Ozarks (formerly Summit) Arena.
Afternoon tip-offs are scheduled for two boys games involving University of Arkansas basketball signees or recruits. Two future Razorbacks, Little Rock Parkview’s Khalil Garland and Little Rock Mills’ Darious Hall, are matched in the Class
5A boys game at 5:15 p.m. today.
In perhaps the most highly anticipated game of the weekend, El Dorado and Jonesboro meet at
3:30 p.m. Friday for the 6A boys title. El Dorado is led by Razorback signee Daniel Gafford, a 6-10 center, and nationally ranked Jonesboro (31-0) by junior guard Desi Sills, who is verbally committed to Arkansas.
Some criticism of the early starting times for the 5A and 6A boys games has been voiced on social media and talk radio since the Arkansas Activities Association announced the schedule Sunday.
“We didn’t have anything to do with making the schedule,” Arrison said this week. “Our position is that each game (14 in all) is a state-tournament game played by Arkansas kids. We want to help make the tournament grow.”
Hot Springs has hosted the tournament since 2007 with the exception of 2013, when the city had a scheduling conflict with the Sun Belt Conference (which has since moved its men’s and women’s tournaments to New Orleans). Hot Springs signed a contract with the AAA in 2015 to host the championships through 2021. Little Rock’s Barton Coliseum, which held the 2013 championships, was the only other bidder then.
As for the seating problems at the 2016 tournament, “We’ve only had this happen twice in the 10 years it’s been here,” Arrison said.
Two Pulaski County schools play back-to-back games this week, Parkview’s girls against Watson Chapel in today’s 3:30 opener. North Little Rock opposes Fayetteville’s girls and Fort Smith Northside’s boys in the first two games Saturday, starting at 11 a.m.
“That’s for the convenience of the school’s fans,” Arrison said. “Better than having them make two visits.”
Small-school finals between Bay and Wonderview’s girls (Class 1A) and Earle and Marked Tree’s boys (Class 2A) follow the Parkview doubleheader today.
Friday’s last three games match Hoxie and Valley Springs’ girls (Class 3A) at 5:15 p.m., followed by Baptist Prep and Pea Ridge’s boys (Class 4A) and Marion and Sheridan’s girls (Class 6A).
The Class 2A girls final, Quitman vs. Hector at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, like the Earle-Marked Tree boys matchup, is a rematch of a February region final. Tradition-rich Guy-Perkins plays Shirley for the 1A boys title at 4:15 p.m. Saturday, followed by Pocahontas and Pottsville girls (Class 4A) and Episcopal Collegiate and Tuckerman boys (Class 3A).
Advance tickets are available only from participating schools, Arrison said. All championship games are televised live on KLRT (Resort Channel 8) with up-to-the-minute scores and stats available at the AAA website (http://www. ahsaa.org).