Wait. What?
So you’re telling me that for the ninth time in the last 11 state tournaments, the Ninth Region boys’ basketball champs have “drawn” into the bottom bracket Thursday game in the Sweet 16?
Really? You’re saying that for the ninth time in the last 11 tournaments (no tourney in 2020 because of COVID), the KHSAA is asking Northern Kentucky’s top boys’ team to play four games in three days in order to win a state championship? While requiring eight other region champs to win four games in a full four days – with a day off to boot.
And to add to the handicap for Northern Kentucky, the KHSAA’s “luck of the draw” Friday consigned the Ninth Region girls’ champs to a Thursday game as well. Yep, for the second straight year, Northern Kentucky’s Sweet 16 girls’ team also “drew” into the bottom bracket – something that’s happened in seven of the last 11 tourneys for the Ninth Region girls.
But there’s a twist this year. Neither’s number needed to be “drawn.” Both were the very last numbered teams left in the 16-team “draw.” By the time the KHSAA had already “drawn” the first 15 regions’ numbers, there it was – the Ninth Region – all alone at the bottom of the bin. No need to even pick ‘em after everybody else has been picked.
No mathematician here but the odds of having one team draw the 16th spot is 16-1. Somebody has to be No. 16. But having both teams do that would be at least 256-1, right — 16 times 16. But it you’re looking for long odds, when we checked with some math folks a year ago about how improbable it was for the Ninth Region boys to “draw” the bottom bracket eight of 10 times and they said that if you made that draw 10,000 times, it would turn out that way only four times. That’s 2,500 to 1 – or a 0.04 percent chance.
And now it’s happened again. Just bad luck, we guess. And sure, having to play a team in the championship game that could have 36 hours more rest – well, tough – just as would be having to play the three most important games in your high school career in 24 hours from Friday night to Saturday night. Not that the Ninth Region teams haven’t done that.
In fact, the only three bottom bracket teams to win in the past 11 Sweet 16’s were from Northern Kentucky — Covington Catholic twice and Highlands. So it’s not impossible. But should it be an almost-every-year requirement for teams from up here?
And yeah, we know the argument. It’s better for Northern Kentucky fans, they’ll tell you. They can work all day Thursday, head down to Rupp Arena, and if their team wins, they can stay over for the weekend. No going back and forth from Wednesday with an off-day Thursday.
Other than the fact that it’s simply unfair, there’s that. Who needs completely fair competition? It’s only the state tournament, a one-of-a-kind Sweet 16 that has as much charm and history – maybe more – than any state tournament anywhere.
“Isn’t that where we always are?” then CovCath Coach Scott Ruthsatz said last March, after twice winning it all from the bottom bracket?
Yep, and a reason why the second Friday in February telecast doesn’t have all that much interest in Northern Kentucky classrooms where once upon a time, high schools here tuned into the Sweet 16 draw. There was suspense. Some mystery. Who, where and when were the local champs going to play.
Not so much anymore. We know the plotline. And the outcome. It’s a Thursday game, probably the last game of the night although those have yet to be determined. And with a win against Region Two favorite — defending state champion Lyon County – a crowd-drawing Friday night matchup against Central Kentucky favorite Great Crossing out of Georgetown, the state’s No. 2 team with UK signee – 7-footer Malachi Moreno.
But what about the girls, you ask. Well, if top-ranked Cooper gets there, the Lady Jaguars will have to beat one Louisville champ out of the Sixth Region to make it to Friday night’s feature game against four-time defending state champion Sacred Heart, which saw its 92-game in-state winning streak come to an end Friday in Independence when Simon Kenton ambushed the Valkyries, 75-70, in overtime.
And as an Eighth Region team now, Simon Kenton has escaped the Ninth Region curse – and the KHSAA’s “draw” – with a top-bracket berth and a Wednesday game against any one of a number of 11th Region teams that until Friday would have been favored over the Pioneers – Franklin County or Lexington schools Frederick Douglass and Lafayette.
But if there’s to be a rematch with Sacred Heart in the championship game, it would be the Northern Kentucky team with 24 hours more rest this time.
Just don’t tell the KHSAA. There has to be a rule against that somewhere, right? Because the one other Sweet 16 basketball title for Simon Kenton, breaking a 64-year drought for the Ninth Region boys in 1980, came from — you guessed it — the last game in the bottom bracket all three days.
GIRLS’ SWEET 16 MATCHUPS
Wednesday, March 12 (Times TBD)
Region 13 vs. Region 16
Region 4 vs. Region 10
Region 8 vs. Region 11
Region 5 vs. Region 14
Thursday, March 13
Region 3 vs. Region 12
Region 1 vs. Region 2
Region 7 vs. Region 15
Region 6 vs. Region 9
QUARTERFINALS, March 14
SEMIFINALS, March 15 — 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
FINALS: March 15, 7 p.m.
BOYS’ SWEET 16 MATCHUPS
Wednesday, March 26 (Times TBD)
Region 1 vs. Region 16
Region 4 vs. Region 5
Region 8 vs. Region 12
Region 6 vs. Region 7
Thursday, March 27
Region 13 vs. Region 14
Region 10 vs. Region 15
Region 3 vs. Region 11
Region 2 vs. Region 9
QUARTERFINALS, March 28
SEMIFINALS, March 29 — 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
FINALS: March 29, 7 p.m.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.