What should the TSSAA do?

[QSouth89]

I know very little about Ky., but I'm very familiar with Indiana's program. I've seen 7500 (capacity) fans at regular season games at the old "Wigwam" in Anderson. One of the big differences that I've seen between IN. and TN. is, if you don't have a computer, it's hard to even get a score for a game in this state. Indianapolis tv stations gave EVERY regular season score in the state on the 10:00 news. Nashville's channel 5 news only gave the AAA boy's final game state tourney score and probably wouldn't have given that score if Brentwood hadn't been involved. I'm sure changes could be made to make h.s. basketball more popular in this state, but I really don't believe making drastic changes is needed at this time. We'll never reach the status of these 'basketball states',

Baskeball coverage in Knoxville is terrible. During football season WATE, WBIR and WVLT will all devote 25 minutes (11:10-1135) of the Friday night news to show football highlights of all the area teams then during basketball show 30 seconds of highlights and it's usually Bearden or Fulton that get that little air time. A few years ago we were in Kentucky and they showed highlights of basketball games for 25 minutes! I was amazed. The New Sentinel won't even cover hoops till after Christmas. The PrepXtra coverage is terrible too. Edited March 21, 2015 by QSouth89

[Indian]

Unicoi county is in region 1, there are all kinds of schools you left off that list that we would drive by to be in region 2. All of Greene county.

I didnt explain the breakdown very well but it could get a little wordy for something that is just hypothetical..bottom line I could see something similar working if there was every a real push for one final champ. Just give the smaller schools a chance to win something in the regular season or it would be difficult to evaluate coaches and teams in tough groups.

[ZOA9]

I went to the Kentucky girls state tournament last week and it was the best state tournament I've ever attended. The only down fall to the KHSAA tournament was there was two sessions per day with 2 games per session at $13 a session. Of course, once it got down to the final 4 teams, there was only 1 session. Pretty steep price in my opinion. In terms of competition and crowing 1 state champion, it was an unbelievable atmosphere with very few blow out games. Almost every game was competitive from start to finish. I know this system will never happen in Tennessee, but in my opinion, Kentucky is leaps and bounds ahead of Tennessee high school basketball as a whole when it comes down to structure of tournament and getting the most excitement from games.

I've been to the Kentucky Boys State Tournament several times.  The Tennessee State Tournament is not even close to the Kentucky State Tournament in terms of attendance and atmosphere.  The Boys Tournament in Kentucky is called the Sweet 16 and played at Rupp Arena in Lexington...... Good crowds for all games and if the right teams make it you can see a crowd in the neighborhood of 20, 000 for a high school game. The KHSAA does a good job promoting the tournament but the sport itself sells high school basketball in that state where basketball is considered a religion.  Tennessee will never catch up with Kentucky High School basketball just for the fact that basketball in that state is important to every school in the state. I will admit that the TSSAA needs to do a better job in promoting the event.  The first thing they could do is move the tournament out of MTSU. (Horrible environment to host a state tournament) But if you move it somewhere else I'm not sure the attendance will ever improve since basketball in this state is not the main event. The city of Lexington supports their state tournament with alot of neutral fans attending the event. They just love their basketball in that state and tennessee does not so the attendance will not be there IMO.

[rabbitranch]

I've been to the Kentucky Boys State Tournament several times.  The Tennessee State Tournament is not even close to the Kentucky State Tournament in terms of attendance and atmosphere.  The Boys Tournament in Kentucky is called the Sweet 16 and played at Rupp Arena in Lexington...... Good crowds for all games and if the right teams make it you can see a crowd in the neighborhood of 20, 000 for a high school game. The KHSAA does a good job promoting the tournament but the sport itself sells high school basketball in that state where basketball is considered a religion.  Tennessee will never catch up with Kentucky High School basketball just for the fact that basketball in that state is important to every school in the state. I will admit that the TSSAA needs to do a better job in promoting the event.  The first thing they could do is move the tournament out of MTSU. (Horrible environment to host a state tournament) But if you move it somewhere else I'm not sure the attendance will ever improve since basketball in this state is not the main event. The city of Lexington supports their state tournament with alot of neutral fans attending the event. They just love their basketball in that state and tennessee does not so the attendance will not be there IMO.

+1

[davidlimbaugh]

yes, teams holding 'last shot' with about 2 minutes left each quarter is fantastic basketball, football has added play clocks, I can't imagine shot clocks are that far away.

 

Football has always had a play clock, it is called a back judge's arm....   Some schools have purchased play clocks but for schools that do not have them the back judge will continue to lower his arm....