We Lost 1st Game in Regional & Then Won State Title

If you follow Illinois High School basketball, you have to wonder how it would be possible to lose in the Regional and then go onto win the State Championship. It could not happen in Illinois but it could in Oklahoma. 

In Oklahoma, they have 7- classes in basketball- 6A down to 1A and then a B-Division. 5A/6A each have exactly 32 teams, 4A/3A have exactly 64 teams, then the other divisions have 100+ teams. 

The tourney is divided in Regional Tourney, Area Tourney, and State Tourney. The champion and the runner-up in the Regionals both advance to the Area Tourney. The runner up in a Regional #1 does not go to the same Area Tourney as the champion from Regional #1. So in 1976, both Galesburg and Richwoods would have advanced from the Regional but would have gone to different Sectionals. Last year, both Galesburg and Morton in girls basketball would have advanced to different Sectionals. None of them could have met again until the State Tourney. 

In the Area Tourneys, two runner ups from the Regionals play each other, and two champions from Regionals play each other. The loser of the champions game will play the winners of the runner ups game. So on the Regional and Sectional level, a team has to lose twice before they are eliminated.

Look back at history, and think how many more times your favorite team would have gone to State. 

Eight teams advance to State. At State when you lose, you are done. 

Some thoughts on this format-

1- The IHSA assignments at the Regional/Sectional level can be very arbitrary from year to year. So if the IHSA pair top teams on a Regional level, they both can advance. How often throughout history has your team been sent to a Regional where there 3-4 top teams in the same Regional?

2- The IHSA doesn’t seem to set up a formal rotation of who hosts a Regional or Sectional. So maybe a team that gets a bad draw can keep playing.

3- It would be frustrating to beat a team on a Regional level, and they get to keep playing. But then you could play that team again at State and lose, and you are done. They got to keep playing with a loss and you did not.

4- It would take a lot of getting used to when part of the drama of a state tourney is the one and done aspect.

5- It would certainly do more limit the mpact of how the IHSA assigns teams. 

6- For those who say that they are a “traditionalist”, then I would advocate we go back to a two-class system.