If your tradition is to get a hotel room for the weekend, or rent a camper and party in the parking lot, this year’s state basketball tournament no longer has the feel of being the ‘event’ it once was. Nor will it ever be again.
Dateline, Never-Never Land – “It ain’t ever coming back.”
That’s one of the comments I heard in Elida last Friday night during the Division VI and Division VII girls state semi-final games in this year’s OHSAA state tournament.
That particular comment was a reference to the days of partying all weekend at St. John Arena, or the Schottenstein Center, or even at UD Arena – the ‘event’ that used to be the state basketball tournament. No more ‘basketball central’ hotel rooms or RVs in the parking lot outside the arena with periodic aluminum can collection and disposal.
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No smell of brats on the Weber between sessions, wafting into the frosty air. Or even Hank Hill, propane, and propane accessories.
“It’s a shame to get this far in the tournament and play the state semi-final game in a high school gym.”
That’s another sentiment expressed by a purist from the past, from the Minster crowd on Friday, who made the point that the experience of playing in a major arena is more memorable than playing in another community’s gym.
“You can play here any time you want,” this person rationalized. “Just put Elida on the schedule.”
Another: “If what they (the OHSAA) want is to have more kids experience the tournament atmosphere, this isn’t it. This doesn’t feel like the state tournament.”
And my favorite: “There’s no Pine Club in Elida. Did anyone think of that?”
There’s no shortage of opinions over the changes with this year’s tournament…from playing the penultimate game in a high school gym to waiting an entire week to play the ultimate game this week at UD Arena. People hate change. They love their habits. And they hate the reality of games for games’ sake.
Or the common sentiment relative to why the OHSAA now has seven divisions of high school basketball: “More games for financial sake.”
“They have the perfect argument that seven divisions benefits more kids by basing the tournament on enrollment,” another media person mentioned last week. “It used to be small, medium, and large. Now it’s extra small, small, medium, extra medium, large, extra large, and jumbo. But bigger enrollment doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more kids playing basketball.”
“It’s no different than the old tournament,” says Press Pros reader Doug Blankenship. “You still have a few teams that are simply better than everyone else. And the extra teams from the realignment are getting beaten badly by those few better teams, even three or four rounds into the tournament. It’s not hard to figure out. This is ‘woke’ basketball.”
And to the person quoted in the opening, indeed, it ain’t ever coming back, that higher standard of condensed competition and talent that raised the hackles of the “that isn’t fair” crowd with schools like Richmond Heights, Akron St. Vincent-St. Marys, and Moeller. In fact, none of those schools have made it to the Final Four in the boys tournament, and only Lutheran East, among the perennials, is still alive in this year’s Division V Final Four.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
This is what the people want, says the OHSAA. And at the same time it’s hard to find someone who says they were even asked.
Indeed, these are not the old days, and it’s hard to justify the expense of driving an RV to Bowling Green for the one game that you’re interested in.
The better news? One would guess it cuts down on the consumption and over-indulgence between games.
There is no party, anymore, unless you want to drive two hours home after the game and hammer a few in someone’s basement.
And no, there’s no Pine Club in Elida. Nope.
Just more games, and more trophies.