TSSAA does it to West Tn twice

[sls]

I can't believe the TSSAA not only put Chester County girls vs Gibson County against each other in the 1st round, but they have done it again with Southside vs Haywood. These teams played each other during the season and are reasonably located close to each other. It is hard to believe these teams must travel 3-1/2 hours to play someone they have already played, not to say the experience for all involved will be something to remember win or lose. These teams could have played @ Oman arena in a sectional type game and saved a ton of money and the place would have been packed. TSSAA please plan better.

[twhoops]

That is the luck of the blind draw.

[sls]

Sometimes I wonder TWHoops. You would think it would be East of Nashville and West of Nashville, or some imaginary line besides same region, in the 1st round, even with that it still could be blind. It is ironic that last year I drew out how I thought the AA boys would be before it ever came out and I was right. I would have never got it correct this year though.

[splainshornet]

Well look further

 

Boys A Cosby (Cocke County) vs University School Johnson City

Boys AA Haywood vs Jackson South Side

Boys AAA Bradley vs Greeneville

 

Luck of the draw, I think not.

[sls]

Good job splains, I just did not know where the other schools were.

[Guest GilesCoBocats]

Great point, however it really doesn't matter about Southside and Haywood. Giles County is going to put the winner out in the next round. Maybe they should both just stay home.

[sls]

Well if that is the case then why not let one of them get put out by someone they have not played. PS If I remember Sside defeated Bolivar recently worse than GC. Bolivar was/is a good team, but even they will tell you Milan had them beat in the region just as GC was beat in the Substate. Sometimes things are just not meant to be. GC may win it all, they have the talent. Talent is not everything in basketball. PS#2 I don't think GC will defeat Ridgeway, if it comes to that.

[Edited by sls on 3-11-03 10:12P]

[bigwes68]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

 

In the two years they played the neutral-site sectional format, it was not a blind draw. The bracket was already set by Sectionals so teams had some general idea of who they might be playing before Selection Sunday (or, in the boys' case, Selection Tuesday). That's why you had games between teams that couldn't have been any farther apart (Lake County vs. Cosby in 2000, for instance). For instance, the #2 team from the West Sectional played the #1 from the East; #1 from the West might have played #2 from North Middle, and so on. It was set up so teams from the same region and/or area of the state would not have to face each other until at least the semis. They need to go back to this to avoid the South Side-Haywood type matchups.

[twhoops]

Another Giles County fan talking how they are going to walk through the tournament. Haywood is a very good team with guards as good as any team in the state. They are also just as good if not better at rebounding than Bolivar who killed you on the boards. Haywood did go to Memphis and beat the Memphis #1 Raleigh Egypt. I don't care who you are. That is the toughest thing to accomplish in Tennessee High School basketball. So you better take off your CAKE WALKIN shoes and get ready for some great games. That is if you can get be arguably one of the best coached teams from the East in Jody Wright's Fulton Falcons.

[Clay]

GilesCoBocats...what are you doing????? It takes ten level headed giles co fans to make up for one bone headed comment like you just made. I bleed black and gold but only idiots talk like that going into the state tournament. Don't get me wrong, i think on any given day we can beat anybody...but on any given day tristen fletcher could miss the half court shot w/ 1.1 seconds left.....how soon we forget. we win with class, and hopefully we don't lose...but if we are so unfortunate as to lose, lets do that with class also....until then, pull your head out and don't make everybody look like idiots...GO GCHS

[TORNMAN]

Explain to me why South Side and Haywood are not in the same region. I believe that South Side is alot closer then say teams like Martin and Union city that are in the region with Haywood.Seems the Tssaa does have a good grasp of where all the west tn schools are located and distance of travel when it comes to setting up the west tn regions.......If you ask me ALL the regions in west tn outside of Memphis are screwed up in there alignamnets.Look at Gibson Co, Milan ,and Humbolt..........all within 10 to 15 miles....all in different districts, different regions, and even different sub-states........somthing is bad wrong with that set up.

[supersteve17]

I have been to the draw on more than one occasion. It is strictly a blind draw unless two teams from the same region are drawn. In that case, the two teams go to opposite sides of the bracket. There is no perfect way to do this. You can't really seed teams 1-8 in a fair manner. Who would decide this? You sometimes get unreal first round matchups, like Temple versus Perry County this year in Boys' Class A or Brainerd versus Hamilton a few years ago in Boys' Class AAA. That is the luck of the draw. What you also sometimes have are schools in close proximity to each other playing in the first round because they are not in the same region, like Gibson County versus Chester County this year in Girls' Class AA. If you divided East versus West there would still have to be a dividing line somewhere and the possibility would exist that teams from neighboring communities on opposite sides of the line would have to play each other. If the line went through Nashville, you could have a team from one side of town playing a team from the other side of town in the first round -- for instance, Nashville Christian (west) could have to play Ezell-Harding (east). I know this may be a little bit unclear, but my point is that there is no perfect way to do it. You sometimes get those kinds of first round matchups.

 

BTW, if the TSSAA was unscrupulous about this, they would want the teams with the largest crowd support from their communities to meet in the finals for the largest possible gates. There has to be some way to do it and this is the way they have decided to do it.