Buckle up, this tournament may produce wild results
Ready or not, here it comes.
The IHSA's four-class boys basketball playoff system rolls into full swing with the start of the Class 3A and 4A tournaments on Monday, and everyone's wondering if it'll fly after an enjoyable 35 years of two-class action.
The ends may wind up looking like they justified the means, but that won't necessarily make folks happy along the way. Just ask our neighbors in Indiana where, 10 years after the boys tournament ballooned from one class to four, hardcore fans still haven't forgiven the powers that be for the shattering of tradition.
By mid-March the IHSA record books could show that Homewood-Flossmoor claimed the Class 4A title, Simeon won in 3A and North Lawndale earned the 2A championship.
That'd look pretty good.
All three powerhouses are considered among the top 10 teams in Chicagoland, if not the entire state. Simeon won the last two Class AA titles. Homewood-Flossmoor may be the best team in Illinois and North Lawndale was the 2007 runner-up in Class A.
Is it possible the IHSA got it right by going to four classes? Probably not.
In Class 4A especially, the ends likely won't come close to justifying the means.
A quick look at the East Aurora sectional shows the harsh reality. Not only is it deeper than any other sectional in the state, it's one of the deepest sectionals in recent memory.
The 16th-seed, Benet, entered this week with a 13-10 record. Fourteenth-seeded Wheaton Warrenville South was 14-10 heading into Wednesday's DuPage Valley Conference finale.
See where this is going?
With so many large schools bunched in such a small area, there is simply nowhere to hide. Twenty-one teams are crammed into the East Aurora field, and nearly half of them must play and win a feed-in game just to advance into the regional semifinals.
Only five DuPage County schools will compete in Class 3A, scattered to sectionals at Antioch and Riverside-Brookfield. Nineteen area schools fall in the 4A bracket, resulting in a version of basketball bumper cars at East Aurora.
And because of the IHSA's twisted regional concept, most of the top seeds will reap no benefit from their season-long effort to earn that high seed.
Batavia, No. 1 at East Aurora, is headed to a regional hosted by No. 8 Bartlett. Third-seeded West Aurora is bound for Willowbrook, where the host Warriors are seeded ninth. Fourth-seeded Wheaton North will play at Naperville North.
Waubonsie Valley, the second seed, is the only top-four team playing host to a regional. Everyone else is left to roll the dice on another team's home court.
That scary combination -- enormous sectional depth and favorites forced to play on the road -- will make every game an adventure in the East Aurora field. It might be fun for fans to watch, but it won't be very fair.
Even though the IHSA is bound to produce four quality state champions, the road to reach that point will be littered with too many good teams forced into bad situations.
In doubling the number of classes, the IHSA also doubled the headaches.
And, as usual, there isn't enough aspirin to go around.