26 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

Anyone know if a district runner up team has ever won state?

More than once.  Didn't CovCath win as a District loser?  The Nick Ruthsatz year?

17 minutes ago, Randy Parker said:

More than once.  Didn't CovCath win as a District loser?  The Nick Ruthsatz year?

Yep...2014. Lost to Holmes in 2OT in the 35th District Finals, then beat them in the 9th Region Finals.

Christian County won the Sweet 16 in 2011 after losing by two to UHA in the 8th District Finals. UHA got bounced in the first round of the 2nd Region Tourney.

Owensboro won the Sweet 16 in 2015 after losing by six to Apollo in the 9th District Finals. Apollo lost to Meade County in the second round of the 3rd Region Tourney.

Trinity won the Sweet 16 in 2019 after losing by eleven to Waggener in the 27th District Finals. Waggener lost to Ballard in the second round of the 7th Region Tourney.

So winning the state tournament after losing the district tournament isn't all that much of a rarity. Sounds like cutting district runners up out of the regional tournaments would be removing some really good competition from the talent pool. I don't like it.

 

1 hour ago, R1 sports fan said:

If anything I think we need classification, and have the final 4 of each class played at Rupp.

I'm not  against reclassification, but to me it doesn't fix the lack of balance between districts and regions. In fact it might make it worse. Ultimately, I think the whole district to region format need to  change. 

1 hour ago, sportsfan41 said:

Anyone know if a district runner up team has ever won state?

2014 comes to mind (and I'm sure there are others). Cov Cath lost to Holmes in 2 OT at District, then beat them in the Regional final. 

I'm having deja vu from last year when I think we had a thread identical to this, but I am sure it probably comes up every year.

I think I stated this last year but I will state it again.  I think the late great Joe Morgan said this about when we introduced the Wild Card team in the baseball playoffs, was that it made sure you had the 2 best teams in the NL and AL vying for that trip to the World Series trophy.

My format would be just like how Region Tourneys are set up where can only play your fellow Region team in the finals.  I realize there is availability issues probably at Rupp to increase the # of days you have Rupp, therefore the Round of 32 games are ALL played at the Region winners home court.  This would give more reason potentially to win your Region to have that home court advantage in the Rd of 32 to get to Rupp.  Then you proceed as normal with the Sweet 16 tourney at Rupp.  

I realize this probably won't happen since the Regions where there probably is at least 2 deep teams that could go deep in the tourney are the minority in the state since the majority of the Regions are the 1 and done type of Regions so the chance to go to Rupp is their trophy and this format takes that away....

But I said this last year and I am sticking to what I believe is a good format.....

3 hours ago, R1 sports fan said:

If anything I think we need classification, and have the final 4 of each class played at Rupp.

I saw that proposal in a good article on Vaught’s Views a few weeks ago.  And the those 4 class winners playing for an overall Sweet 16 championship.  We don’t have 700 like sized schools any more.  Time to step into the 21st century with our high school sports. 

2 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Yep...2014. Lost to Holmes in 2OT in the 35th District Finals, then beat them in the 9th Region Finals.

Christian County won the Sweet 16 in 2011 after losing by two to UHA in the 8th District Finals. UHA got bounced in the first round of the 2nd Region Tourney.

Owensboro won the Sweet 16 in 2015 after losing by six to Apollo in the 9th District Finals. Apollo lost to Meade County in the second round of the 3rd Region Tourney.

Trinity won the Sweet 16 in 2019 after losing by eleven to Waggener in the 27th District Finals. Waggener lost to Ballard in the second round of the 7th Region Tourney.

So winning the state tournament after losing the district tournament isn't all that much of a rarity. Sounds like cutting district runners up out of the regional tournaments would be removing some really good competition from the talent pool. I don't like it.

 

Which in turn leads me believe that the current regional format is fine as well. 

1 hour ago, MightyOak said:

I saw that proposal in a good article on Vaught’s Views a few weeks ago.  And the those 4 class winners playing for an overall Sweet 16 championship.  We don’t have 700 like sized schools any more.  Time to step into the 21st century with our high school sports. 

What would this mean financially for the KHSAA, though?  Didn't Indiana classify basketball and then made less money at the state tournament as a result?  I could be remembering wrong but I remember reading an article a decade ago about how people regretted going to classification.

It's already odd enough that you can lose once in the postseason and still win a state title.  Losing 2 times in the postseason and still winning a state title would be a little ridiculous.

There’s something about the “Sweet 32” that just doesn’t sound right. 

21 hours ago, FrankNicodemus said:

I'm having deja vu from last year when I think we had a thread identical to this, but I am sure it probably comes up every year.

I think I stated this last year but I will state it again.  I think the late great Joe Morgan said this about when we introduced the Wild Card team in the baseball playoffs, was that it made sure you had the 2 best teams in the NL and AL vying for that trip to the World Series trophy.

My format would be just like how Region Tourneys are set up where can only play your fellow Region team in the finals.  I realize there is availability issues probably at Rupp to increase the # of days you have Rupp, therefore the Round of 32 games are ALL played at the Region winners home court.  This would give more reason potentially to win your Region to have that home court advantage in the Rd of 32 to get to Rupp.  Then you proceed as normal with the Sweet 16 tourney at Rupp.  

I realize this probably won't happen since the Regions where there probably is at least 2 deep teams that could go deep in the tourney are the minority in the state since the majority of the Regions are the 1 and done type of Regions so the chance to go to Rupp is their trophy and this format takes that away....

But I said this last year and I am sticking to what I believe is a good format.....

Am I correct in saying that your favorite team plays in a five team district with four small schools? Why change anything? You have men's and women's teams participating in the Regional every year.

6 hours ago, The Professor said:

There’s something about the “Sweet 32” that just doesn’t sound right. 

Yeah, nah.

On 3/11/2022 at 8:15 PM, DanvilleFan said:

What would this mean financially for the KHSAA, though?  Didn't Indiana classify basketball and then made less money at the state tournament as a result?  I could be remembering wrong but I remember reading an article a decade ago about how people regretted going to classification.

In 1990, in Indiana state tournament attendance was 980,000.  By 1997, the year before they went to a class system, state tournament attendance had already dropped by 200,000.   The true reason for attendance decline is more easily traced to simple changing demographics.  In Ky, the younger crowd doesn’t have the same school loyalty they once had.  Kids bounce from school to school.  Consolidation has taken the community loyalty that once existed out of the equation.  Older people vacationed at the Sweet 16.  Not anymore.  

Make it stop, leave it alone and don’t class. Keep the All A and AA tournament mid season and not sanctioned by the KHSAA as a state Champion.

On 3/12/2022 at 8:57 AM, The Professor said:

There’s something about the “Sweet 32” that just doesn’t sound right. 

Call the first round whatever you want. The 2nd round would still be the Sweet 16. But to not want to improve the tournament because the name “doesn’t sound right” is kind of silly.