Friday Topic of Discussion...

[you_dont_know_me]

So, maybe we can start one of these each week? Help us get through the weekend and early next week?

What do you think are some "win-win" straight forward ideas that MSHSAA could incorporate to make high school sports work better?

Possible topics: Length of seasons, Transfer rules, Private v. Public, Contact Days, Championships (anything involved with), Rules Meetings, Points of Emphasis...just trying to get a good chat going.

 

[nwbball]

Just glad to see you aren't ripping on charge calls today my good buddy. ha ha.

rules meetings? doing the sport rules meeting on line for coaches has been great....not having to drive an hour or do them on a specific date.
(although the coach's social hours afterwords somewhere in town were always fun)
.
length of season? coaches normally say "it's just right":....supervising administrators will always say...."it's too long".
.
Contact Days? opinions vary greatly even among coaches......but 20 seems to be a compromise number....let's call it....The Goldilocks Decision

Looking forward to the arrival of varsity season.

 

[mowesten]

I would like to see the top eight in each class go to the state championships. Kansas does this — about the only thing they do right — and I like it … draws bigger crowds, betters the odds that the top teams “make it” and eliminates the third place game, etc.

The first step would be to eliminate the four and five team districts in Class 5, which is a joke, and split the state up so there are an even number of teams in each class so there are 16 districts in each class with roughly 7-8 teams in each.

From there, combine two districts, seed them out 1-16, and play the thing out in two different locations, with the top half of the bracket playing in one location and the bottom half playing in another location. The winner of each meet up for the right to go to the state championships.

This would help even out the talent and spread things around a little rather than one district being terrible or super good, now you would have the best teams having the best chance and the teams at the bottom having to earn it a little more.

This may all be clear as mud and there’s probably somebody out there that can explain it a little better.

Some of the other potential topics — summer contact, transfer rules, shot clock, private v public — has just about been beaten to death. I’m not sure I could add anything new to those discussions at this point lol

 

[Eagles_Ball]

The first step would be to eliminate the four and five team districts in Class 5, which is a joke, and split the state up so there are an even number of teams in each class so there are 16 districts in each class with roughly 7-8 teams in each.

From there, combine two districts, seed them out 1-16, and play the thing out in two different locations, with the top half of the bracket playing in one location and the bottom half playing in another location. The winner of each meet up for the right to go to the state championships.

Never work in MO. Makes FAR too much sense.

 

[mowesten]

I’ll be real honest, I actually think that main opposition to the idea would be coaches. That’s kind of harsh, but right now, if you’re an average or mediocre program you still have at least the hope of some dumb luck that you could be in a weak district and experience some postseason success.

But if you seed out 16 teams (or 14 depending on the breakdown) that becomes much more difficult. It would certainly paint a more accurate model and likely eliminate teams with losing records finding their way into the postseason, but it would also mean that a lot of programs would find postseason success difficult and make it tough for coaches to sell any positives from postseason play.

You’re going to have to really bring it as a 12-16 seed to get very far in my scenario.

Seeding out the 16 best teams from two rival districts would mean a weak team would have very different odds of having postseason success. Which is what I would like. I want to see the top eight teams advance or at least most of the top eight teams advance, and have a good, fun, state championship tournament.

I’m not sure everyone else would agree.

 

[msubearssuperfan1]

Illinois (last I was aware) does the Elite 8 deal as well as Kansas. I like it a lot.

 

[Eagles_Ball]

I’ll be real honest, I actually think that main opposition to the idea would be coaches. That’s kind of harsh, but right now, if you’re an average or mediocre program you still have at least the hope of some dumb luck that you could be in a weak district and experience some postseason success.

But if you seed out 16 teams (or 14 depending on the breakdown) that becomes much more difficult. It would certainly paint a more accurate model and likely eliminate teams with losing records finding their way into the postseason, but it would also mean that a lot of programs would find postseason success difficult and make it tough for coaches to sell any positives from postseason play.

You’re going to have to really bring it as a 12-16 seed to get very far in my scenario.

Seeding out the 16 best teams from two rival districts would mean a weak team would have very different odds of having postseason success. Which is what I would like. I want to see the top eight teams advance or at least most of the top eight teams advance, and have a good, fun, state championship tournament.

I’m not sure everyone else would agree.

There’s a lot of truth to what you said. Even as a coach I love the idea. I’d also be in favor of byes and double byes (ie, sec tourney) for top seeds. I really like how the P5 conferences sees their tourneys. Rewards a team for their success during the season.

 

[big_lebowski22]

One of the things that MSHSAA needs to do (if this has been done recently I was unaware) is to survey its coaches a variety of questions. Teachers, Admin & board members do this frequently with their stakeholders. This would be a huge step in the right direction for the folks @ MSHSAA to get honest feedback from their coaches. Honestly the opinion of MSHSAA among an overwhelming majority of coaches I talk to is not positive. The surveys can be set up online and confidential. On the other side I believe MSHSAA Admin need to get out in the trenches and talk to coaches etc and educate them on what they do for coaches etc. There is plenty to be learned from both sides on how to promote the game of basketball in a positive way.