high school basketball tournament time

[redspartancat]

tournaments are here, and there is no discussion yet? I'm excited to see the northern C tourney in great falls next weekend. I haven't followed the rest of the state in class C much, but I would think that the north will be the strongest division this year.

[seacat]

I was wondering where the chatter was myself. I'm really impressed by Rocky Boy (at least record wise have not seen them play in person). They move up from C to B and go undefeated. What's up with that. They sound like the Browning teams of the late '70s, run and gun. Guess the Shelby-Fairfield State B final is on shaky ground this year.

[RedCat]

I haven't seen Rocky Boy play this year but have probably watched them four of five times in the past three years. They're definitely fun to watch and pretty talented. I won't be surprised if they lose in tournaments though. I think they have 3 losses in the past 3 years and they have all come in tournaments. Twice to Winifred in 2008 (divisional and state championships) and last year to Twin Bridges in the state championship.

[seacat]

Well Rocky Boy got a scare in the championship. Shelby was up 4 at half and built a lead of 9 in the third. Ended up losing by 1 with a shot to win it with time running out. I thought Shelby was supposed to be a fairly good 3-point shooting team but not on this night. I believe it's Rocky Boy, Shelby, Fairfield, & Cut Bank moving on (not sure if there's a challenge game for District). Thought Cut Bank had a shot at beating Fairfield. Fairfield had the last game of Saturday's early session and went overtime with Conrad. Going by score only looks like Fairfield had an easy time with Cut Bank.

[redspartancat]

I think it shows a lot about the quality of class C basketball when Rocky Boy can be so successful in class B.

[HiLineCat]

The Northern C will be tough again this year with Big Sandy and Winifred. Belt and Dutton-Brady also look pretty tough. The last few years the Northern c has been a tougher tournament than state. they are running the Northern C a little different this year with the boys playing Wed-Fri and the girls thur-Sat. That means boys championship is on Friday night and the girls on Saturday.

[redspartancat]

You can't count out Denton either, they have beaten both Belt and Big Sandy, and have a great side of the bracket. Power is another team that may come alive in the divisional tournament, as they did last year. Should be an interesting one.

[RedCat]

The Big Sandy vs Power game on Wednesday should be a good one. I don't get how Power loses so many games. They looked really good at the divisional tourney last year and I don't think they really lost anyone.

[John K]

I think it shows a lot about the quality of class C basketball when Rocky Boy can be so successful in class B.

Considering that their enrollment has been larger than many Class B schools for several years, including perrenial Class B powerhouse Fairfield, it shouldn't really come as any surprise that they could be successful right away in Class B.

[John K]

I have always wondered why Class AA no longer conducts divisional tournaments? Does anyone know the rationale behind the one-game playoff format used for AA, versus conducting actual tourneys? They used to play divisional tourneys, although it has probably now been about 20 years ago. It just seems to me that divisional tourneys would be much more fun and exciting than the one-game playoff system. I've just always been curious about that.

[redspartancat]

I think it shows a lot about the quality of class C basketball when Rocky Boy can be so successful in class B.

Considering that their enrollment has been larger than many Class B schools for several years, including perrenial Class B powerhouse Fairfield, it shouldn't really come as any surprise that they could be successful right away in Class B.

The reason I say this is because many people are under the impression the class B basketball is higher quality than class C, so if they are more successful in class B than in class C, this would go to show that class C is just as, or more, competitive.

[John K]

I think it shows a lot about the quality of class C basketball when Rocky Boy can be so successful in class B.

Considering that their enrollment has been larger than many Class B schools for several years, including perrenial Class B powerhouse Fairfield, it shouldn't really come as any surprise that they could be successful right away in Class B.

The reason I say this is because many people are under the impression the class B basketball is higher quality than class C, so if they are more successful in class B than in class C, this would go to show that class C is just as, or more, competitive.

I didn't mean to denigrate Class C basketball in any way. I was just pointing out that Fairfield has been one of the top Class B programs for as long as I can remember, despite being one of the smallest B schools in the state. Therefore, it shouldn't be all that surprising that Rocky Boy would do so well in their first year in Class B, since their enrollment is larger than Fairfield. You see Class C schools beating B schools all the time during the regular season, so I don't believe the difference is that significant, although I have to believe that Class B would hold at least a slight overall edge in their inter-class matchups with Class C during the course of the season.

Wouldn't it be fun to have an official MHSA sanctioned all-class state tournament iin Montana, taking the top two teams from each class? It would be great to see exctly how the top teams from various classifications stacked up against each other. I know this will never happen, but just like a playoff for I-A college football, I can always dream....right?

[RedCat]

I think the main difference in class C and B would show up with the mid and lower level teams. There are some really, really bad teams in class C and I would suspect that isn't the case as much in class B. More parity I guess you would say. As for the teams at the top I think that would be a toss up most years.

As for the all class tourney that would be fun to watch. The only bad thing is that it might diminish (just a little bit) winning state for some teams if they turn around and get blown out in the all class tourney. If it could be set up so that it doesn't really mean as much as winning each class I think that would be better...although I have no idea how to accomplish that.

[SonomaCat]

I think the All Class tourney would be really interesting in terms of seeing the AA schools (which seem to all generally play a very conservative brand of ball) run into any of the great reservation teams. The contrast in styles would be fun to see.

[Billings Cat]

I think the All Class tourney would be really interesting in terms of seeing the AA schools (which seem to all generally play a very conservative brand of ball) run into any of the great reservation teams. The contrast in styles would be fun to see.

I would agree that there's a contrast in styles between the classes (particularly if you jump over classifications such as AA to B or A to C), and the AA has it's fair share of critics, but realistically things are more conservative in the AA because of the overall parity between the teams. It's also a case of parity amongst the players--i.e. the difference between a team's top 2 players and their first two off the bench is not nearly as wide in the AA as it is as the Class B and C levels. It's this parity that ultimately makes these games "ugly" to people from the other classifications. I do think that there's also a greater emphasis on defense in the AA that you don't always see in the B and C. All that being said, they're all good and special in their own right and I'm not one who could honestly deem one of the "better" than another.

[SonomaCat]

Yeah, but I was speaking more specifically to the contrast between AA teams and any of the very entertaining rez schools (Rocky Boy, Box Elder of old, Browning, Lodge Grass of old, Heart Butte, etc.) as the rez schools almost all play a very up-tempo (run and gun) game that is different from most any non-rez school. The AA schools never see that kind of ball, so it would be fun how a game of those contrasting styles would play out.

[BDizzle]

GO LAUREL!

[Billings Cat]

Yeah, but I was speaking more specifically to the contrast between AA teams and any of the very entertaining rez schools (Rocky Boy, Box Elder of old, Browning, Lodge Grass of old, Heart Butte, etc.) as the rez schools almost all play a very up-tempo (run and gun) game that is different from most any non-rez school. The AA schools never see that kind of ball, so it would be fun how a game of those contrasting styles would play out.

Actually, up-tempo or run and gun pretty much describes summer ball for all of the high schools which is one place you can see these match-ups. The other place would be the post-season stuff like the Crowne Plaza Classic and a couple others around the state. These are definitely entertaining, but only if you don't mind seeing NBA-regular season style defense!

[HUNTERCAT]

I'm with you BDizzle........Go Locomotives!!!!!!!

[mslacat]

Is any one (newspapers, TV stations ect) posting game results from around the state this week end?