Basketball Committee planning 2021-22 state tourney

The MIAA Basketball Committee began laying the groundwork for what the 2021-22 state tournament could look like.

If all goes according to plan, the proposed cutoff date would be Feb. 24, 2022, with the seeding meeting the following day. Preliminary round games would commence on Monday, Feb. 26 with the round-of-32 contests slated to start on Thursday, March 3.

Quarterfinals are currently scheduled to be played from March 10-12.

State semifinals would go on March 15-16 with championships to be played on March 19 at a site to be determined.

Games would be played at the home of the higher seeds all the way through the state semifinals, when the Final Four contests would be held on a neutral site to be selected by the MIAA. The one caveat is that the home sites would have to be approved by the MIAA or else the home team would be responsible for finding a suitable venue.

Whitman-Hanson coach/ athletic director Bob Rodgers was quick to suggest the committee would be wise to establish some sort of parameters so that schools would know well in advance whether their gymnasiums would be considered viable to host tournament games. Leominster principal Steve Dubzinski threw out the idea that schools might want to consider limiting tickets for the visitors.

That issue has come up numerous times in the past as teams with a high seed would enter the postseason only to find out they couldn’t play at home because the MIAA deemed the facility unacceptable for a variety of reasons. Putting a number on the minimum number of seats a school would need in order to host a tournament game would solve a lot of issues.

The meeting started with MIAA Basketball Committee Chairman Jeff Newhall, the girls basketball coach and athletic director at St. Mary’s, talking about the previous season. He applauded the schools for their efforts in getting the kids back on the court.

“I thought the modifications worked well,” Newhall said. “Schools had their stoppages and they just picked up the pieces and moved on from there. A lot of kudos to the committee who worked day and night to try and get this done and it was great for the kids to get out and play games and have a league tournament. I think it went as well as anyone could have expected.”

Longtime O’Bryant girls basketball coaching legend Trudy Fisher echoed many of Newhall’s sentiments. She said the importance of getting back out there should never be overlooked. “It really made a great difference to them,” said Fisher, whose team played in the Boston City League final. “To give them a chance to compete as well as the social component was very important. The committee did an excellent job with the modifications.”

The committee will meet again on April 13, at which time things will need to be finalized in order to get them to the Tournament Management Committee in time for the May 1 winter sports deadline.