Petition TSSAA to seed teams

[deesnutz]

Teams are seeded in district and region play; why then are they randomly selected in draw for the biggest prize in high school basketball. How ridiculous would it be to have Bolivar vs. Liberty or Melrose vs. White Station in the first round of district. It could happen it records indicate to do so. Tournaments fundamentlly built on having the best teams meet in the championship games. In the NCAA Kansas is not playing Kentucky in the first round; could you imagine the uproar if the NCAA had a random draw and a scenario like that played out. I feel that all fans should petition TSSAA to not only consider but change to seeding teams in the state tournament. Who's with me?

[DNJKreager]

Bad examples. Try again.

 

Both examples are teams in same district and can't meet until the state championship game. You'll never see a first-round Bolivar-Liberty or Melrose-White Station.

[deesnutz]

I know they are in the same district. What I'm saying is what if district and region tournments were a blind draw also then they could meet in the first round of their district or region.

[mcfan10]

Seeding would have its pro's and con's. It would prevent match-ups like Fulton-Bolivar from being in the first round. But how would you seed the teams. It's not like college basketball where you have RPI, SOS, or can watch most games on TV now days.

[hooplove]

Seeding would have its pro's and con's. It would prevent match-ups like Fulton-Bolivar from being in the first round. But how would you seed the teams. It's not like college basketball where you have RPI, SOS, or can watch most games on TV now days.

 

 

Exactly.....there is no current way to seed the teams objectively.....sure can't do it based on records alone. Since its only an 8 team tourney....the current format works....gotta beat everybody to win state anyway. Who knows.....maybe in the future, technology will allow for all High School basketball games to be webstreamed and seen state-wide so teams could be seeded in the state tourney.

[bball1984]

Teams are seeded in district and region play; why then are they randomly selected in draw for the biggest prize in high school basketball. How ridiculous would it be to have Bolivar vs. Liberty or Melrose vs. White Station in the first round of district. It could happen it records indicate to do so. Tournaments fundamentlly built on having the best teams meet in the championship games. In the NCAA Kansas is not playing Kentucky in the first round; could you imagine the uproar if the NCAA had a random draw and a scenario like that played out. I feel that all fans should petition TSSAA to not only consider but change to seeding teams in the state tournament. Who's with me?

 

This is a poor example for obvious reasons. Teams are seeded in the District tournaments based on record because each team has already played the other teams in the district, so you have an objective measure of how each team compares to the others. In region play, teams are seeded based on how they did in their district tournament. You can't seed teams in State based on record because some teams play easier schedules than others. You can't do it based on AP state polls because of reasons already discussed in other threads. Unfortunately blind draw is the best way to do it right now.

[toinemac]

The state tourney is only supposed to determine who wins the gold ball. In order to do that you have beat the best teams on Wednesday or on Saturday. Teams that do what they are supposed to and win their games will go on teams that dont will be spectating. Seedings are done in the lower tourneys to give the best teams the best chances to advance. Now at the state level no one is head and shoulders over the rest. It would be impossible to seed teams and still not have complaints. The draw is the most fair way to pick the match ups

[ParisRiverRat]

Here is an idea....when coaches win the regional semi final round, they receive a packet. Why not add a sheet of paper to that packet that must be turned in at the substate game with your lineups. This sheet of paper would list numbers 1-15 (you cannot vote for your team), there are 16 substate teams in each classification. Each coach do a poll of the remaining teams in the tournament....take the results from the 16 coaches poll and seed the 8 substate winners from the results of these polls. IF 2 teams from the same region got placed on the same side of the bracket, then switch them with the nearest vote getter, in order to get them in opposite brackets.

 

The coaches know best, and with 16 coaches involved, it would be difficult to collude and fix a draw...just my 2 cents, and it would not be all that difficult!

[deesnutz]

Great points from bball1984 and toinemac. I still be believe that some form of seeding would be benefical for the state tournament to prevent two teams from meeting in the first whom the majority considers the odds on favorite to win the state tournament. Wouldn't you agree that for instance last year people would have rather seen Humolt and Manasas in the championship game rather that the first round. These are the matchups that in some way must be prevented if all possible.

[bball1984]

Great points from bball1984 and toinemac. I still be believe that some form of seeding would be benefical for the state tournament to prevent two teams from meeting in the first whom the majority considers the odds on favorite to win the state tournament. Wouldn't you agree that for instance last year people would have rather seen Humolt and Manasas in the championship game rather that the first round. These are the matchups that in some way must be prevented if all possible.

 

 

Yes, it was unfortunate that Manassas and Humbboldt had to play in the first round last year. However, the point of the state tournament is not to set it up so that the two teams that everyone thinks are the best play in the championship. As someone already said, the point of having the state tournament is to determine the state champion. If you win your games, you will be the state champ. I believe blind draw is the best way to do it, at least at this point in time. I know Humbboldt has had some bad luck with the draw the past two years- but it evens out over time. I guarantee there will be East TN teams upset with their draw in the coming years. In 2006, everyone was on these boards claiming that Humbboldt and Union City were the two best teams in the state in A ball. Then, Grace Baptist beat Humbboldt in the semis before losing to UC in the championship. Just using this as an example of why it is hard to seed teams- no one really knows how certain teams match up or how they compare since they play in different parts of the state. Even when two teams get a good draw, like UC and Humbboldt did that season, it doesn't mean they will meet for the title game. I still say blind draw is the best method we have at this point.

 

I don't agree with the idea of letting coaches seed teams. I guarantee that CSAS's coach has no idea how good Westwood really is, and vice-versa, since both teams play about six hours apart and have never crossed paths this season. That would not be a good way to do it, not to mention most coaches would end up putting their team first to give themselves an easier draw.

[ParisRiverRat]

Great points from bball1984 and toinemac. I still be believe that some form of seeding would be benefical for the state tournament to prevent two teams from meeting in the first whom the majority considers the odds on favorite to win the state tournament. Wouldn't you agree that for instance last year people would have rather seen Humolt and Manasas in the championship game rather that the first round. These are the matchups that in some way must be prevented if all possible.

 

 

Yes, it was unfortunate that Manassas and Humbboldt had to play in the first round last year. However, the point of the state tournament is not to set it up so that the two teams that everyone thinks are the best play in the championship. As someone already said, the point of having the state tournament is to determine the state champion. If you win your games, you will be the state champ. I believe blind draw is the best way to do it, at least at this point in time. I know Humbboldt has had some bad luck with the draw the past two years- but it evens out over time. I guarantee there will be East TN teams upset with their draw in the coming years. In 2006, everyone was on these boards claiming that Humbboldt and Union City were the two best teams in the state in A ball. Then, Grace Baptist beat Humbboldt in the semis before losing to UC in the championship. Just using this as an example of why it is hard to seed teams- no one really knows how certain teams match up or how they compare since they play in different parts of the state. Even when two teams get a good draw, like UC and Humbboldt did that season, it doesn't mean they will meet for the title game. I still say blind draw is the best method we have at this point.

 

I don't agree with the idea of letting coaches seed teams. I guarantee that CSAS's coach has no idea how good Westwood really is, and vice-versa, since both teams play about six hours apart and have never crossed paths this season. That would not be a good way to do it, not to mention most coaches would end up putting their team first to give themselves an easier draw.

 

You didn't read my point...they do not seed their own team....they only seed the other 15 teams.

 

If a coach does not know something about another team in their classification, or cannot find out something about them, then they are not doing something right. I guarantee you that the top teams (coaches) in the state are able to get information almost instantly on a team IF they need to...very poor excuse!

[Purple & Gold Standard]

Why not during the sectional round swap up the regions...Why have a region 7/8 match-up every year when most people know those two regions have the strongest teams....You normally see two Chattanooga teams along with either two region 7 teams or a region 7 and 8 team....How about during the sectional round have a region 8 vs region 5 and region 7 vs region 6 or vice versa....Same way on the east end...Swap it up some...I know that would mean some additional travel but you might weed out some of the weaker teams that don't have that tough a road to get to Murfreesboro...Then when you had your final 8 they might all be good and it wouldn't matter who you played first....