LANGLEY — The draw for the Telus B.C. senior boys basketball championships will be made Sunday (3:30 p.m.) via livestream (tfsetv.com) from the Langley Events Centre.
In the spirit of it all, I present the Quad-A draw, as if I had been summoned the power to create the 16-team bracket.
As I always say, it’s never perfect, and coaches, you do know I have nothing to do with the actual process.
My broadcast partner Chris Kennedy and I, will be seeing the draw Sunday about an hour before you do.
Mine has it’s share of blemishes, which, in all honesty, will likely never pass the muster of the committee.
In complete honesty, my process was this:
*I seeded the draw 1-16.
*I placed the teams in standard draw formation (1 vs 16 top, 2-15 bottom, 3-14 on the 2-15 side, 4-13 on the 1-16 side, etc)
*I made one switch I felt was very doableto avoid an in-zone opening round clash from a zone which has very few berths.
*I then put it under the microscope and upon closer examination found many warts.
Some of them:
There are five Fraser Valley teams on one side of the draw, three in one quadrant, and one features a match-up (Mouat vs. Semiahmoo) that just took place at the FV championships.
Could I have moved one of the Fraser Valley teams from the top half to the bottom half without disrupting integrity? I felt I could not.
Could I have swapped out say, LM-3 Kits with say, FV-4 Semiahmoo? Sure I could have. If we applied RPI, I am pretty sure Kits, Semi and Mouat would produce pretty darn close numbers.
The reason I was hesitant?
We have a clear No. 1 here, and there is no doubt about that.
The expanse of Walnut Grove’s domination has to be considered as a top priority and if you looked at the provincial rankings throughout the season, Kitsilano was pretty consistently ranked above both Mouat and Semiahmoo. So I felt the Blue Demons needed to stay put.
That is what putting a draw together comes down to.
In the end, there is a responsibility to protecting the top four seeds in the big picture. It’s something they have earned.
Getting too concerned with zone vs. zone, how recently a team played another, whether they are in the same league within a zone… all of those can be considerations, but they can’t force re-jigging to keep everyone happy if they affect what the big picture of our season has very strongly suggested to us is the truth.
With all of that said, here it is:
QUADRUPLE-A
TOP HALF DRAW
QUADRANT A
Walnut Grove Gators (FV-1) vs. Mt. Baker Wild (Kootenays)
W.J. Mouat Hawks (FV-3) vs. Semiahmoo Totems (FV-4)
QUADRANT B
Holy Cross Crusaders (FV-2) vs. Pinetree Timberwolves (FV-7)
Vancouver College Fighting Irish (LM-1) vs. Belmont Bulldogs (VI-2)
QUADRANT C
Oak Bay Bays (VI-1) vs. Handsworth Royals (Howe Sound)
St. George’s Saints (LM-2) vs. Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers (FV-6)
QUADRANT D
Kitsilano Blue Demons (LM-3) vs. Yale Lions (FV-5)
Kelowna Owls (Okanagan) vs. North Peace (North Central)
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