Postseason will have different look
Dates should be finalized soon for the BCIAA, district and champions-only PIAA playoffs
By the end of next week, the basketball playoff picture should look a little clearer.
The PIAA Board of Directors meets Wednesday and is expected to solidify dates for the state tournament. The District 3 Committee meets the following day and is expected to finalize its tournament dates.
For now, the BCIAA is targeting the week of Feb. 22 for the Berks Conference and Berks Girls Basketball League tournaments. It selected that week believing the District 3 playoffs will begin March 1 and the PIAA will begin its tournament March 16.
At this point, the boys quarterfinals are set for Monday, Feb. 22, with the semifinals on Wednesday and the championship game on Friday.
The girls playoffs are penciled in for the same dates, though the league may consider starting earlier so as not to directly overlap with the boys tournament.
Because Santander Arena won’t be used this year for the semifinals and championships games due to COVID-induced spectator limits and the cost of playing in the large arena, the BCIAA has the flexibility to play the boys and girls games on different nights.
All games will be played at the site of the higher-seeded team; spectator limits are expected to remain in place at the time.
By starting the girls playoffs on Saturday, Feb. 20, with semifinals on the Feb. 23 and the championship game on Feb. 25, the league can assure there won’t be doubleheaders at any site should the same school host a boys and girls game.
By staggering the two tournaments, the games will gain higher visibility and potential viewing conflicts for parents with both a daughter and son playing in the tournaments will be eliminated.
Because of COVID-related spectator limits imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf, most schools have established livestreaming services for home games.
The PIAA Tournament will look vastly different this season, as well. The Board of Directors voted during the fall to make it a champions-only tournament, reducing the field in each of the six classifications from 32 teams to between seven and 11, depending on classification.
In Class 6A there will be just seven qualifiers each in boys and girls: The champs from Districts 1, 3, 7, 11 and 12, plus the winners of subregionals between District 2 and District 4 and Districts 6, 8 or 10.
In Class 5A there will be eight qualifiers each in boys and girls: Six district champs, plus subregional winners from 4/6 and 8/9/10 for boys; six champs and subregional winners from 4/11 and 6/8/9 for girls.
In boys, there will be 11 qualifiers in Class 2A, 10 in 1A and 4A, and nine in 3A. In girls, there will be 11 in 2A, 10 in 1A and 3A, and nine in 4A.
The PIAA Tournament will have four rounds rather than five. If it starts with first-round games on March 16-17, quarterfinals would be March 19-20, semifinals March 22-23 and championships games March 25-26.
If those dates are approved, it’s expected the District 3 Tournament will start March 1 and conclude with championship games March 10, March 11, March 12 and possibly March 13. The district has not determined how many teams will qualify in each classification, or where championship games will be played. Early round games will be played at the site of the higher seed, as in recent seasons.
The BCIAA has established
Feb. 17 as the cutoff date for girls games to be counted toward the playoffs, and Feb. 18 as the cutoff for boys games. Only games completed by that date will count in the standings and power ratings.
The Berks playoffs were moved back one week in order to give schools more time to schedule games after the season was suspended by Wolf Dec. 12 in a COVID-19 mitigation effort. Teams can resuming practicing Monday, with at least four mandatory practice dates before contests can begin Friday.
Teams that don’t qualify for the league or district playoffs can continue to schedule regular season games through the end of the PIAA Tournament; teams can schedule additional games once they are eliminated from the district or state tournaments.
Those measures were enacted by the PIAA for the fall season to help teams make up for the delayed start.
At this point most Berks basketball teams have scheduled at least 15 games, and some have scheduled 20 or more. The PIAA maximum for regular season games is 22.