Tweaking the tourney

While state tournament time in Montana is great, can someone explain to me why they have a Class B district seeding tournament?

Ah March, the greatest basketball month out of the entire year. Not only do colleges square off in the NCAA Tournament, perhaps the greatest postseason in all of sports, but high schools battle in the postseason and always seem to provide some great moments.

While state tournament time in Montana is great, can someone explain to me why they have a Class B district seeding tournament?

Ah March, the greatest basketball month out of the entire year. Not only do colleges square off in the NCAA Tournament, perhaps the greatest postseason in all of sports, but high schools battle in the postseason and always seem to provide some great moments.

With apologies to the NBA, even though Blake Griffin is the most entertaining thing since Blu-Ray discs, nothing quite beats your high school playing in the postseason for basketball.

If you weren’t cheering for an incredible Two Eagle River boys basketball team earlier in February at the 14-C Boys District Tournament, well you don’t have a pulse. I think I saw even some Charlo fans cheering when their district rival downed the top-seeded Superior Bobcats.

Two weeks ago in Columbia Falls, head coach Brad Pluff and the Polson Pirates brought in a new gameplan that completely stymied the Northwestern A opposition. I don’t think the boys team will ever get enough credit for what they did in that tournament, it was legendary on the scale of a Barney Stinson storyline on “How I Met Your Mother.”

They had the second-lowest seed heading into the tournament and ended up heading to state. Speaks a little about their heart, right?

The Polson girls, after almost toppling Frenchtown in the Northwestern A Divisional Championship game had more than a few people walking out of Columbia Falls’ gym going “dang, that’s a good team.”

Stay tuned for their run in the state tournament this week.

Then there’s the Ronan Boys who won a 4OT game against Troy in the Western B Divisional Tournament. It was such a great game, somebody should probably send the footage to ESPN Classic.

Considering I can’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded (note to graduating high school students: you will gain weight in college), it’s amazing to think that the Chiefs played an NBA-length game.

The basketball postseason in Montana is perfect. Well almost perfect. There’s one little blemish in the postseason structure that defies logic.

Why the heck do we have a Class B District Tournament? While the Class C Districts actually eliminate teams and only send two or three squads onto divisionals, the Class B District Tournament is strictly for seeding purposes. You win districts you go into Divisionals with a one seed. You lose at districts… well you’re still going to divisionals.

That’s right, save for one team that finishes last in the regular season standings, everyone else goes to the next level of the postseason.

So why are schools playing these district tournaments? Shouldn’t the regular season determine how squads are seeded in the divisional tournament? I mean… that’s usually why teams play a regular season.

Considering schools, parents and fans have to expend considerable resources to attend these district tournaments, the MHSA should take a long look at these district tournaments and figure out just what they accomplish.

Let’s say a team finishes with the No. 1 seed heading into the district tournament. That’s all fine and dandy, but the best-case scenario for them is to hold onto the No. 1 seed they already earned. We all know how postseason tournaments tend to get a little crazy, and these top teams in the regular season could find themselves having one bad night and then they’re suddenly put in a poor bracket for divisionals. Is that fair?

Or, how fair is it for a team to win the No. 1 seed in districts only to turn around in the first round and face a top-ranked team that didn’t have a good tourney in the other district? See how this just gets a little crazy? The MHSA could save some money, scrap the district tournament altogether and stick to strictly a divisional tournament. This puts more importance on the regular season, which is the best way to go.

I know it’s called March Madness, but the Madness shouldn’t come from how the state sets up its postseason tournaments.