Dick’s Nationals field could feature powerhouses
The Dick’s Sporting Goods High School Nationals are March 30-April 1 in New York, but if the event were held today, for the first time it would include eight teams in the USA TODAY High School Sports Super 25 boys basketball rankings, including five teams in the top 10. All four girls teams would be Super 25 teams, led by No. 7 Miami Country Day.
The postseason event, showcased on ESPN networks, is slowly growing in acceptance. Five primary state high school associations allow teams to compete: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Utah and Washington. However, since the event began as the National High School Invitational in 2009, independent teams and independent state associations also have allowed teams to compete from, among others, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Texas.
On Wednesday, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) paved the way for the No. 1 Super 25 boys team, Nathan Hale (Seattle), to participate in Dick’s. Nathan Hale still has to win its state title to ensure the trip. If not, another Washington team could take its place, if it were ranked highly enough.
“I think the positives are the fact it gives teams some exposure and it gives them a chance to be involved in other opportunities,” said Mike Colbrese, executive director of the WIAA. “Paragon (Marketing, the event organizer) does a great job, and the event is a really strong educational experience. The downside is it does extend the season for those players, and for those involved in a spring sport, it can impact that.”
If held today, the boys teams invited would include: Nathan Hale; third-ranked La Lumiere (La Porte, Ind.), which was the Dick’s runner-up last season; No. 5-ranked IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.); plus three former event winners in No. 6 Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.), No. 7 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) and No. 11 Montverde (Fla.) Academy. It would also include two other unbeaten teams besides Nathan Hale in No. 12 Shadow Mountain (Phoenix) and No. 16 McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.).
There’s another intriguing potential team: No. 4 Memphis East. While no team from Tennessee has played in the event, this would be the year for it. Memphis East has a high-profile coach in former NBA player Penny Hardaway and has played one of the top schedules.
On the girls side, the No. 1ranked Super 25 team is unbeaten Riverdale (Murfreesboro, Tenn.). For either team to be cleared, however, it would take a push similar to what happened a few years back to allow Georgia teams to play in the event.
“We’ve had teams invited to the event before and our board has denied those requests,” said Bernard Childress, executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. “It’s not likely they would approve a team to advance past state championship games because our bylaws say that a team’s season is over once they have won a state championship or lost in earlier rounds of state play.”
Four of the likely teams, Nathan Hale, Oak Hill, IMG and Findlay Prep, will also have to prepare without a key player, or in La Lumiere’s case, two key players, who will be playing at the McDonald’s All American Games. Those players will then have to take an early-morning flight the day of their team’s first game in the tournament.
But the biggest challenge is beating three ranked teams in three days.
That means teams can’t afford to take a quarter off.
“At that time of the year, a big thing we always try to articulate is limit the ‘ my bads,’ ” La Lumiere coach Shane Heirman said. “A team that doesn’t say ‘my bad’ as much has a great chance to win. It takes a pretty cohesive effort and togetherness.”