Now, All Can Play for Title...

Coaches weep. Tom Hamilton wails:

“ But this isn’t Wisconsin!”

Great, a geography lesson. Thank you. Now to the point, and a short story about all-inclusive postseason basketball tournaments. . . .

In 1979, the high school team in Elkhorn, Wis., finished the regular season with a 6-12 record. The Elks then won seven consecutive games and their second consecutive Class B state championship--at 13-12.

“It was a case of where we beat a conference rival in the first game of the tournament, and things just started mushrooming from that,” said Roger Mashack, the school’s athletic director. “It just goes to show that when you start believing in what you can do, good things start to happen.”

This is what coaches who oppose the new Southern Section playoff format are arguing against.

Good things.

Underdogs.

Surprises.

And, not incidentally, participation.

Aside from the drama a wide-open tournament will provide, and the fact that it will eliminate the politics and mistakes inherent in any playoff selection system, consider simply that it will give boys and girls a chance to play at least one game in the exciting atmosphere of state or section championship tournament basketball.

I know that’s terrible, kids being allowed to participate and all. But there is precedent to indicate the section might survive.

For example, I think they still play high school basketball in Indiana. Pretty well, too. And they not only have open playoffs, they shun the class system, throwing everybody--big schools and small--into the same pot.

“I’m from Kansas originally, and when I coached in college, I spent time in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio,” says Jim Perry, the La Quinta boys’ coach. “In all those states, everybody makes the playoffs.

“I think it generates some enthusiasm and gives everybody a chance. The best teams are still going to win.”

Some say it’s demoralizing and pointless for bad teams that meet good ones early in the tournament. La Quinta was 2-20 in the regular season last year, made the limited 3-AA playoffs anyway and lost, 92-65, to Trabuco Hills in the first round. But Perry’s not complaining.

So what are these coaches worried about?

Losing, perhaps. Having to work a little bit extra to win a championship.

They must teach and motivate for another night. They need to remind their kids that basketball is a funny game, that sometimes the Kings beat the Lakers. They have to shell out money to rent “Hoosiers” and drive the lesson home.

If they fail to make the point, they know all sorts of strange things can happen.

But if the 20-2 team can’t beat a playoff opponent with a reciprocal record, then it doesn’t deserve a championship anyway. And surviving play in a field that includes every school in a team’s class isn’t going to taint a title--it’s going to further legitimize it.

Coaches complain that there will be no reward for playing well and winning a league title. This argument is twice flawed.

--Teams do get something for winning a league title: a league title. Why can’t that trophy be an end in itself?

--In the new section format, first-place finishers still benefit in the playoffs.

“The top teams get seeded, so they’re getting rewarded for their efforts,” Perry says. “They still get a home game in the first round. That has always happened, that’s not a change.”

So the “con” side is weak, no match for the “pro”:

--Participation. No. 1, and mentioned before. Message to adults: Just let the kids play and quit complaining.

--Fairness. Selection formats in restricted playoffs invariably have politics, discrepancies and inadequacies, and some deserving team is always left out. Loara, 15-7 last season and with one of Orange County’s top players in Tes Whitlock, didn’t make it.

“Any type formula or criteria you come up with, someone is going to fall through a crack,” says Jerry Halpin, who coached that team and says the point system used to select playoff participants in 1990 was “laughable.”

In fairness, Halpin says he does favor postseason limitations based on league standings--while his players sat home last year, teams with more than 20 losses played on--but then you’d invariably have a fourth-place finisher in one league saying it was better than the champion of another. So why mess around? An open system eliminates subjective judgment completely. No debate, no residual bitterness. High school athletics have enough of that stuff on other fronts.

--Money. An extra playoff game or two will provide more chances to make a few bucks. If it isn’t right because of the kids, how about the bottom line?

--Interest. In Indiana last year, the state basketball tournament final four drew more spectators, about 41,000, than an NCAA regional championship the previous week. Fans follow this thing from start to finish, and don’t think intense local rivalries and the chance for stupendous upsets in the early rounds aren’t a big part of it.

“One team might have a terrible record but manages to put it all together the night it plays its biggest rival,” says Bob Williams, sports information director for the Indiana High School Athletic Assn. “Wouldn’t you think that would mean something? If they’re good enough to knock you off, maybe they’ve had injuries or other problems, and they got it together.”

In Indiana, incidentally, you get nothing--no seedings, no automatic home games--for the regular season. Everybody is thrown into one pot with a blind draw.

--History. You don’t hear a lot of people sitting around reminiscing about that 22-6 team that won the Southern Section 5-A title in 1984.

But I guarantee you the people in Elkhorn are still talking about 1979.

1991 PLAYOFF BREAKDOWN

School division breakdown for 1991 basketball playoffs. Total eligible teams are listed; schools have until 3 p.m. Friday to elect not to participate.

Division Enrollment Boys Girls I-AA (5-AA in ‘90) 2,451 and up 47 47 I-A (5-A) 2,000-2,450 46 46 II-AA (4-AA) 1,720-1,999 39 39 II-A (4-A) 1,500-1,719 41 41 III-AA (3-AA) 1,260-1,499 33 33 III-A (3-A) 1,000-1,259 35 35 IV-AA (2-AA) 640-999 37 37 IV-A (2-A) 400-639 32 32 V-AA (1-AA) 95-399 55 55 V-A (1-A) 0-94 57 57