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Class Basketball Yay or Nay??

  • Saw on twitter they were heading to Ft. Wayne last night for a town hall with the locals regarding this topic. I'm all for going back to the old way. Don't believe we should see the better schools playing in first round of playoffs, which seems to happen way to often.

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  • I would like to see no classes. While it would make it hard for the small schools it could be done.

    OldOaken247 on twitter..... I say a lot of stuff you wont care about.

    Oaken

  • I've always been for a single-class tournament. Let's line them up and see who is the best. It might be harder for small schools to win a title, but is the tournament designed to determine which team is the best or to make more players feel happy about the end of their season? If they want to stick with a class tournament, make it so that each class is its own regional with the four winners of the class tournaments meeting to play a Final Four to determine the best team in the state. That way, smaller schools have a better chance, and there still is a single winner.

    My two cents.

    Ken Bikoff

  • Ken Bikoff said...

    I've always been for a single-class tournament. Let's line them up and see who is the best. It might be harder for small schools to win a title, but is the tournament designed to determine which team is the best or to make more players feel happy about the end of their season? If they want to stick with a class tournament, make it so that each class is its own regional with the four winners of the class tournaments meeting to play a Final Four to determine the best team in the state. That way, smaller schools have a better chance, and there still is a single winner.

    My two cents.

    I like Ken's idea.

    Someone can check me on this if I'm wrong, but I was once told that the last team not from the largest classification in the state to win an all-classificiation state title was Milan in 1954. That was from a report put together by a grad school classmate, so forgive me if I'm off the mark there.

    But if that's true, I think it speaks to the idea that the all-class tournament would still be very much slanted toward bigger schools, which doesn't thrill me. I'm not for handing out participation medals, but class basketball has produced some great stories that never would have happened in the old system. The most recent one to come to mind is that of Indianapolis Metropolitan, which won a small-school state title two years ago and had an incredible, inspiring story to tell. Read the story below if you don't believe me.

    So I like Ken's system. In the grand scheme, it's the best of both worlds, because it doesn't take away the opportunity for small schools to have their day against even, fair competition, but it also offers the chance for a team like Yogi Ferrell's Park Tudor (which won by 22 at North Central in December, by the way) to have a chance to prove they're the best in the state. Normally, compromises like that seem wishy-washy, but this one doesn't. I think it could work very well.

    Indy Metro Pumas: Underdogs play for state championship - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

    It's not quite a sequel to Hoosiers, but an Indiana high school basketball team few people have heard of will play for a state championship this weekend.

    www.wthr.com

    Zach Osterman // IU Athletics beat reporter // Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZachOsterman

    Zach Osterman

  • One tournament, no classes. In high school, I attended Westfield before it grew to what it is now. It was a 2A school in the same sectional as Carmel and Noblesville. We never made it out of the sectional during my four years, but the excitement when Westfield played Carmel back then was tangible. It was the classic David vs. Goliath scenario and every time David got pummelled, but we enjoyed having the opportunity to face the Greyhounds.

    Don't tell me that smaller schools can't compete, particularly with the Park Tudors, Bowman Academies and Ft. Wayne private schools out there. Yogi and company would have given anyone in the state a game this season.

    Plus, it makes the IHSAA more like the NCAA Tournament. When a small team upsets a favorite, that just adds to the excitement of the event. If the small school ADs don't want to go back to one-class basketball, then I am all for Ken's idea of A, 2A, 3A and 4A champs playing off in a 4A vs. A and 3A vs. 2A scenario.

    This post was edited by Ed Magoni on 4/11/2012 at 12:37 PM

    Ed Magoni // Publisher of Inside Indiana Magazine // Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EMagoni

    Ed Magoni

  • Good stuff. The attendance for the state tourney has been dropping at a steady rate. Obviously interest is lacking and the old format would help IMO. A very small town about 7 miles from where I live had a Milan type fill to it back in the early 80's. Lyons made the cover of SI and was #1 team in state. They had two stars Oliphant and Patterson. Oliphant(SP) attended IU and was on 87 NC team. Suffered some serious knee injuries and played sparingly. Patterson attended PU before transferring. Patterson was very sick during tourney and by that second game the same day he was not himself. Team also has Ollie from Hoosiers on it, go figure.

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