New format this year for 4A Region 1 basketball tourney
COEUR d’ALENE — Finding the right formula for determining the lone berth to state boys and girls basketball from the three-team 4A Inland Empire League has always been a work in progress.
For years, the 4A Region 1 tournament was a true double-elimination. The second and third-place teams met on the first night, with the winner traveling to the top seed. That winner waited while the loser played the loser of the game on the first night. That survivor then had to beat the team on the winners side of the bracket twice to claim the lone berth to state.
When you have a distance of 41 miles between Sandpoint and Lakeland, and 96 miles between Lakeland and Moscow, and 127 miles between Sandpoint and Moscow, well, that’s a lot of time on a school bus in a short amount of time.
A few years ago, the league switched to a single-elimination tournament, and played it at North Idaho College. The No. 2 and 3 seeds met on the first night in a loser-out game, and the winner played the No. 1 seed two nights later for a trip to state.
By playing right after the 3A District 1 tournament at NIC, the 4As gained a neutral court and a tournament atmosphere — but the top seed had no margin for error.
This year, the 4As — as well as a couple others — are trying something new.
The 4A Region 1 girls tournament will start at NIC on Monday (the boys start theirs two weeks later at NIC), with the second and third seeds meeting in a loser-out game. The winner plays the No. 1 seed on Wednesday at NIC in the first game of a best-of-3 series for the regional title and the region’s lone berth to state.
Games 2 and 3 would be Friday and Saturday, if necessary.
“The format was changed in order to create more ‘meaningful’ games at the end of the season,” Lakeland athletic director Tim Cronnelly said.
Also, the league wanted to shorten the gap between regionals and state; the last few years, the regional champ didn’t play at state until eight days later.
The league threw in the caveat that if the 4A IEL champion finished undefeated, that school would play host to Games 2 and 3, no matter who won Game 1. That will happen in the boys tournament, as Moscow finished 4-0, and could happen in the girls tournament if Sandpoint beats Moscow tonight.
If the top seed didn’t go unbeaten in league, then the winner of Game 1 of the best-of-3 finals would host Game 2, and the winner of Game 2 would host Game 3, if necessary.
“The idea for the format has been kicked around by the three coaches for two years,” Lakeland boys basketball coach Dave Stockwell said. “We voted on it the year before last but it didn’t happen until this year. The whole idea for the best-of-3, rather than a one-and-done, is to allow our teams to play a few more pressure games possibly, and to make sure the best team is represented at the state tournament.”
Does Stockwell like the new format?
“I’ll let you know if we play in the best of-3,” he said with a laugh. “As far as the winner of the league hosting all the games because they went undefeated, I would have preferred the underdog be allowed to ‘steal’ home court by winning the Wednesday game, but I guess you should be awarded for going 4-0 in league. I just think it would really put a lot of pressure on both teams in that Wednesday night game and make it more interesting.”