ProfessorBriggs.com
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Professor's Proverbs -- March 18, 2008
It's been a while since Professor Briggs has updated this site. There are a number of reasons, none of which are really great reasons. But suffice to say, I've been a bit busy.
Another high school winter sports season is now in the books. By recent standards, one might say that the 2007-08 season was not as successful for the Mercer County area teams. The fact that Reynolds did not win the state dual-meet or team title in Class AA is a bit of a change from recent years. Just about any other school in the Commonwealth would be tickled with making the dual-meet state tournament and finishing in the top five of the overall team standings. But that's an indication of how dominant the Raiders have been state-wide.
In basketball, the Kennedy Catholic boys and Farrell girls both made it to the state semifinals in Class A before dropping heartbreakers to Serra Catholic and Mount Alvernia, respectively. It's the second straight year that two area teams have advanced to the state semis.
Although the area did not produce a state championship team in basketball, Professor Briggs feels that this past season should still be remembered in a positive light. The Farrell girls team -- what a fun team to watch play basketball. They played at a state-champion caliber level for much of the season and only an ice-cold shooting effort for 16 minutes kept them from going to University Park.
Plenty of nice surprises too, especially on the girls' side. The Reynolds girls, after finishing third in the region, shocked Saegertown in the District 10 quarterfinals and nearly toppled mighty Girard in the semifinals. Congrats to head coach Bob Chamberlain on taking the Raiders on an exciting tournament run.
In Class AAA, the Hickory Hornettes made a memorable late-season charge to slip into the playoffs on the final night of the regular season. Hickory put up a pretty good battle against an outstanding Mercyhurst Prep team that eventually finished second in the state.
This winter, I had the opportunity to broadcast a bushel of games for WPIC and WLLF and loved every minute of it. I had a real blast doing it and I want to publicly thank Bob Greenburg for the opportunities this year. I hope people enjoyed listening to me as much as I enjoyed calling the games.
I also want to thank the two men I worked with most frequently: Chris Burtch and Tony Mastrian -- two of the finer color commentators anywhere. Working with them is one of the main reasons I had so much fun this year.
Next time, I'll delve further into local high school basketball as I present the ProfessorBriggs.com Basketball Awards for the 2007-08 season.
> As most of you know, Professor Briggs sometimes likes to take a different look at some traditional things in athletics. With "March Madness" fully kicking in gear, I decided to examine a different way of slotting and organizing the 65 teams in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Tournament.
For this exercise, I used the NCAA Division III Tournament as a model. In Division III, eight geographic sub-regions are set up across the country. The NCAA makes every attempt to keep teams from traveling more than 500 miles in the first two rounds of the tournament, if possible. If a team has more than 500 miles to go, they can fly. Otherwise, they are jumping on a bus.
Now, I know that upper-end Division I teams have money burning holes in their pockets. Plus, the NCAA picks up the tab for everything travel-related in the postseason. Back in the early days of the Division I Tournament, teams tended to stay within their geographic region. A team like UCLA would be in the West; Indiana would be in the Mideast, etc.
Today, teams are going all over the place. Connecticut is in the West region but plays its first two games in Tampa, Fla. Odd, isn't? This is not a new trend either. Twenty-five years ago, North Carolina State came out of the West region and played all of its Tournament games in or west of the Rocky Mountains.
Anyway, I have concocted eight (8) geographic regions and slotted the 65 teams into those eight regions. I held to actual NCAA seeding as much as possible (i.e. if a team is currently a 10th seed, I didn't rank them ahead of a No. 7).
The only caveats I had were:
*Two teams from the same league could not meet in the first round (regional
quarterfinal)
*Teams were kept as close to home as possible. Under this plan, I believe only
one team had a trip of over 1,000 miles (Texas-Arlington)
The regions were: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, South, Mideast, Central, Northwest and Southwest. Once regional championships were determined, the Northeast would play the Mid-Atlantic champion. Southeast vs. South; Mideast vs. Central; Northwest vs. Southwest.
The third (regional finals) and fourth (regional champ vs. regional champ) would be played at a pre-determined site. For example, the Northeast vs. Mid-Atlantic games might be played in say, Philadelphia or Charlotte. (This differs from the D-III tournament, which has home-court advantage all the way through to the national semifinals.)
In each region, No. 1 hosts No. 8. Nos. 4 and 5 play at No. 1. Winners advance to regional semifinal. No. 2 hosts No. 7. Number 3 plays Number 6 at No. 2's home court. Winners advance to regional semifinal
Northeast
1-Pittsburgh
2-Connecticut
3-St. Joseph's
4-Temple
5-Villanova
6-Siena
7-Mount St. Mary's
8-Cornell
(Games at Pittsburgh, Pa. and Storrs/Hartford, Conn.)
Mid-Atlantic
1-North Carolina
2-Georgetown
3-Duke
4-West Virginia
5-George Mason
6-Winthrop
7-American
8-Maryland-Baltimore County
9-Coppin State
(UMBC would play Coppin State in a preliminary game to advance to play North
Carolina in quarterfinals. Games played at Chapel Hill, N.C. and Washington,
D.C.)
Southeast
1-Tennessee
2-Vanderbilt
3-Clemson
4-Miami, Fla.
5-Davidson
6-Georgia
7-South Alabama
8-Belmont
(Games played at Knoxville, Tenn. and Nashville, Tenn. Note: Georgia should
probably be No. 7 or No. 8 but cannot play fellow SEC teams Tennessee or
Vanderbilt in the quarterfinal round. Unless Miami plays in Orlando, the
Hurricanes are probably going to have a trip of over 500 miles wherever they go)
South
1-Memphis
2-Texas
3-Arkansas
4-Mississippi State
5-Texas A&M
6-Oral Roberts
7-Mississippi Valley State
8-Austin Peay
(Games played at Memphis and Austin, Texas. It's 563 miles from College Station,
Tex. to Memphis. Note: Mississippi State received a higher seed than Arkansas,
but Arkansas finished ahead of Mississippi State in the SEC West. Also, Arkansas
is roughly 100 miles closer to Austin than Mississippi State.)
Mideast
1-Louisville
2-Xavier
3-Michigan State
4-Notre Dame
5-Indiana
6-Butler
7-Kent State
8-Kentucky
(Games played at Louisville, Ky. and Cincinnati.)
Central
1-Kansas
2-Wisconsin
3-Purdue
4-Drake
5-Oklahoma
6-Marquette
7-Kansas State
8-Western Kentucky
(Games played at Lawrence, Kan. and Madison, Wis. Note: Kansas State will travel
600 miles to Wisconsin. Kansas State cannot play Kansas in quarterfinals.)
Northwest
1-Stanford
2-Washington State
3-Gonzaga
4-Brigham Young
5-Oregon
6-Cal State Fullerton
7-Boise State
8-Portland State
(Games played at Palo Alto, Calif. and Pullman, Wash.)
Southwest
1-UCLA
2-Southern California
3-Nevada-Las Vegas
4-St. Mary's
5-Arizona
6-Baylor
7-San Diego
8-Texas-Arlington
(Games played at Los Angeles [Pauley Pavillion and STAPLES Center] Note:
Texas-Arlington makes the long trip, over 1400 miles to Los Angeles.
I am not suggesting that the NCAA adopt this plan. It is definitely a logical plan and would work. However, the popularity and breadth of the NCAA Division I Tournament makes it somewhat difficult. Cities and schools place bids for regionals, etc. three and four years in advance. So to take that away from cities, etc. would probably not be a good thing.
Let me know what you think about this at ryanbriggs@zoominternet.net.
> The Shenango Valley Modified Softball League is looking for new players and teams for the 2008 season. If interested, drop me a note or call me at 724-748-3718.
> Questions? Comments? Something in between? Send a note to ryanbriggs@zoominternet.net