STATESVILLE — How would you like to be West Rowan’s girls basketball team right now?
Regardless of whom you root for, it’s obvious the Falcons are getting a raw deal.
West had the same conference record as East Rowan (8-4, tied for second), split regular-season games with East and advanced to the same round of the North Piedmont Conference Tournament (both lost in the semis) as East.
Yet East is one of three NPC teams headed to the state playoffs, while the Falcons are getting ready for softball, soccer and track. The basis for that odd circumstance is the rather nebulous criteria that East did better than West against Statesville, which tied with West and East for second.
That line of reasoning is silly, illogical and wrong.
Authorities ruled that the tie among the three second-place teams for tournament seeds 2-4 could be broken based on their records against the other teams in the cluster: East (3-1, with two wins over Statesville) was seeded No. 2, ahead of No. 3 Statesville (2-2, with two wins over West), which in turn was seeded ahead of No. 4 West (1-3).
No problem at all with that thinking as far as seeding teams for the conference tournament.
But just for the tournament.
That’s not how state playoff representatives are ordinarily decided. It’s important to remember that West tied for second through a 12-game home-and-home conference campaign. It did not finish fourth in any way, shape or form. It was sweeping
A.L. Brown and Northwest Cabarrus, while East was splitting with those teams.
Higher authorities further ruled that their “head-to-head” cluster-breaking solution superseded all those logical steps laid out in the N.C. High School Athletic Association handbook for determining state playoff representatives when there is a multiple tie — like who advances further in the conference tournament or who beats whom if teams happen to meet in the tourney.
Sorry, but now I do have a question.
How can a three-way tie be considered head-to-head? By definition, doesn’t head-to-head mean how two teams did competing against each other, not how things total up when you throw a third (or fourth or fifth) party into the mix? Isn’t head-to-head the same as one-on-one? As far as I know, there’s no such thing as head-to-head-to-head. Except maybe cutthroat racquetball.
Sure, East has the edge on Statesville. And, no question, Statesville gets the nod over West. But what about when it all boils down to simply East vs. West? One or the other. How can anyone say East has established head-to-head superiority?
They can’t. Because it hasn’t happened. West and East are dead even. They’re tied.
If the NCHSAA wishes to break ties for tournament seeds between teams A and B based on their records against Team C — fine and good. Go for it.
But that should never, ever be the pathetic process that decides who does and who doesn’t go to the state playoffs. Too much is at stake. Too much work has been put in by coaches and players since Nov. 1 to take that shortcut.This situation is as bad as those dreaded index cards that break football playoff ties, but it shouldn’t be.
Football’s got an excuse. They can’t just suit up and play an extra game. In basketball, though, there are few roadblocks.
If justice prevailed, East and West would be taking part in a play-in game today at 5 p.m. at Statesville High before the NPC Tournament finals to break their very real deadlock and determine which one goes to the playoffs.
Head-to-head, folks.
Head-to-head. One or the other.
Ask East coach Randy Bingham or East Athletic Director Worth Roberts what they think. Those two guys always believe in doing the right thing — they’d tell you a play-in game is the way to break the tie.
Nothing at all against the Mustangs, folks. Believe me, I like ’em. But what’s happening here is not the right thing.
Think about it. Next season, it could be your team in this mess.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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