TSSAA should limit tourney to Final Four
In three weeks, 12 Tennessee high school basketball state champions were crowned as a culmination of 68 games played — 12 in Cookeville and 56 in Murfreesboro.
Whew, what a whirlwind.
It’s something that the TSSAA will likely — and needs to — take a hard look at during the summer. The Division I boys and girls state tournaments do not work as currently planned.
Look, this is nothing against an added fourth classification. It’s a bonus to see some teams get a chance to play for state championships that may not have in the past under the three-class system.
But four classes under the same format doesn’t work if the state is bringing 32 girls basketball teams to play at one site one week and then 32 boys teams the next.
Adding a fifth day to an already packed week of action is too much hoops.
“As far as the four-class plan for us, it did give some schools an opportunity to compete in postseason that hadn’t advanced at that level before,” TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said. “The negative for us is it just makes the tournament too long.
“And I feel like it would be a lot better tournament if we went to a final four, which would probably be hard to convince the schools to do that. I think it’d be a much better tournament if you had the first round of the tournament out in the communities. Then bring a final four to Murfreesboro. It’d be a much better competitive tournament than we saw in the first round.
An example: The 16 Division I girls basketball state quarterfinals were determined by an average of 15.2 points this season with just three games decided by single digits. Perhaps that is a fluke.
But the issue goes beyond state tournament action. It doesn’t work in what is now small district tournaments where virtually everyone advances to the region. Consider this: According to the TSSAA, 46 of 64 Division I basketball districts are compiled of four teams or five teams.
Thirteen districts have four teams, meaning everyone advances to the region. And 33 more advance all but one team.
Here’s how I’d fix it
This is a lot more difficult than what it sounds considering Tennessee’s basketball postseason history.
I spoke to several coaches about it over the past two weeks and threw out the idea of going to a final four format similar to Division II. It’s what the TSSAA staff proposed initially. However, fans will struggle to accept that change.
Two things came out of conversations with coaches about reducing the field that reaches Murphy Center. First, Murphy Center is a destination for teams, no matter if they walk off with a 20-point or more defeats.
Second, they aren’t considered a state tournament team without making it to the central site.
An example: Only the final four teams in Division II are considered as state tournament participants in TSSAA’S records.
But here is how I’d fix the postseason, starting at the beginning.
First, eliminate the district tournament. Combine districts for postseason and have a super regional. Either have all teams from both districts compete in a super regional, or take top four from the regular season and have a normal region tournament.
Top two teams advance to a sectional and have those teams reach what is an actual sub-state game, or simply call it a quarterfinal.
But consider this: Take those games and put all classifications together at one central geographic site for East, Middle and West Tennessee, preferably a college gymnasium. Perhaps hold it in cities that would like to one day bid on state tournaments, but may not have all the pieces in place to lure the TSSAA.
Let them make it special to these teams while also cutting down travel.
And then the winners advance to the Glass House — semifinals and finals. Problem solved.
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.