• Making it to the state tournament and winning the gold ball comes with all kinds of challenges and obstacles to overcome. But with the shift in the scheduling thanks to the winter weather, this year’s tournament has provided more for which coaches and players to deal.
In Classes A & B, games have been rescheduled to tonight and tomorrow, in advance of the state tournament round on Thursday through Saturday. In 2A, 3A and 4A, the regional rounds have been moved similarly and the area tournaments are this weekend as well.
This means that for those teams in A and B who are playing through consolation brackets just to make it to state, the turnaround gives only a one-day break and to win a state title means winning five games in six days. The same holds true for those in the regional consolation – win five in six days just to get to state.
Beyond just the daunting task of accomplishing something like that is that the weekly and daily routines have been thrown off. Scheduling buses, hotels, meals, and all the other things that go into just the planning of the trips for the small school coaches who often double as athletic directors, factors into these equations. And then there is idea of finding time to plan for the next opponent and get the kids the opportunity to shoot around and prepare.
Good luck to all the teams that find themselves in this position.
One positive is that there may be time for a few players that have been nicked up last week to heal a little longer heading into the weekend.
Again, good luck.
• The Tulsa men’s basketball team is 21-7 going into its final regular season games – hosting Cincinnati on Wednesday and at SMU on Sunday. The Golden Hurricane owns a half game advantage over SMU in the standings as of today.
There aren’t too many signature wins to speak, but most of the losses aren’t bad either. The loss to D-II Southeastern is definitely not good and to crosstown rival ORU is rough. But the others are to No. 15 Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, No. 8 Wichita State, No. 22 SMU and UConn.
The talk from the national media is that this is a bubble team. But the Golden Hurricane seems to have the look of a tournament team.
If TU wins out in the regular season, it wins the American conference. In this week’s AP poll, the Golden Hurricane is ranked 34th. The RPI is No. 37.
M.O. believes Tulsa should be dancing in the Big Dance later this month.
• Congratulations to all the state schools that put things together in the final week to earn bids in their league tournaments – NSU men, SNU men, SOSU men, SWOSU women and men. Northeastern’s berth in the MIAA came down to overcoming a 14-point deficit on the road in the final game against a team that beaten it earlier in the season by 28 points.