ANGER IS BURNING in basketball circles throughout the state leading up to this weekend’s state championship tournaments in Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane.
The WIAA’s draw process for setting state tournament brackets is under fire from all directions, as it is every season, but you shouldn’t hear Neah Bay complaining.
This year’s ire stems from some of the state tournament matchups.
In Class 4A and 3A, the top two teams in the final Associated Press rankings, both boys and girls, will not meet in the championship game because they are on the same side of the bracket.
Then there is the Zillah boys team. There have been three elite teams in 1A this season: King’s, Lynden Christian and Zillah.
They seemed on a crash course for a state championship for the past few months. The question all along was which team would be lucky enough to be in a different state bracket than the other two.
Then that all fell apart.
Lynden Christian fell to King’s in the District 1/2 tournament. The Lyncs took the second seed into the regional round. There, they faced District 5’s champion, which ended up being Zillah.
The Lyncs lost to the Leopards, and were eliminated from the state tournament before even reaching Yakima. Tough break for Lynden Christian.
Then the state’s 1A boys bracket was announced Sunday. Guess who Zillah has to play in the quarterfinals Thursday? Yep, King’s.
So, rather than have an epic tournament with three favorites vying for the prize, only one team will have state championship dreams when the semifinals roll around Friday.
The loser of Thursday’s showdown will fall into the consolation bracket, where the best finish it can have is fourth place.
Tough break.
The boys 1B bracket has a similarly unfortunate set up.
Well, unfortunate for some teams, but advantageous to Neah Bay, the North Olympic Peninsula’s only team to advance to the state tournament.
State tournaments are never easy, but the Red Devils couldn’t have asked for a more cozy draw.
The Associated Press’ top two teams in 1B, No. 1 Almira-Coulee/Hartline and No. 2 Seattle Lutheran, meet in the first round Thursday at Spokane Arena. And they’re on the opposite side of the bracket from Neah Bay, which was fourth in the last AP poll.
So is fifth-ranked Shorewood Christian, which opens state against Yakama Nation Tribal School.
The Red Devils have won 19 games this season and lost three. One of those losses was to Sequim. The others were to Shorewood Christian and Seattle Lutheran.
So the championship game is the earliest Neah Bay will have to face the only two 1B teams to whom it lost this season, or Almira-Coulee/Hartline, the overwhelming favorite.
That doesn’t mean the tournament will be a breeze, or that the Red Devils are a lock to claim its sixth consecutive top-three state finish.
But they couldn’t have a much better draw.
And that draw could be crucial to a team as short on depth as Neah Bay — coach Stan Claplanhoo mostly uses a six-man rotation.
The Red Devils have a favorable first-round matchup, against Taholah, which they defeated 88-65 in December. (Then again, the Neah Bay girls also routed Taholah in December, only to lose to the Chitwins at regionals last week.)
If the Red Devils win that game, they’ll have a tough semifinal matchup against either third-ranked Garfield-Palouse or Sunnyside Christian.
The Knights weren’t ranked in the final AP poll, but they spent much of the season in the top 10, and they’re always tough in the tournament. Neah Bay knows that as much as anyone, having lost to Sunnyside Christian in the 2011 and 2013 state championship games.
So it won’t be easy for the Red Devils.
But it probably won’t be as hard as it could have been.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
