Impossible to seed, impossible to please.
Just downright impossible.
Greater minds than myself have been entrusted with putting together tonight’s draws (7 p.m. live stream, click here) for both the B.C. AA and AAA senior girls basketball championships.
So I figured I would give the AAA draw a shot. (For fun coaches, please keep this in mind).
TOP HALF DRAW
QUAD A
Oak Bay Breakers vs. Mt. Baker Wild
R.A. McMath Wildcats vs. Panorama Ridge Thunder
QUAD B
Kelowna Owls vs. Claremont Spartans
Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers vs. Carson Graham Eagles
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
QUAD C
Argyle Pipers vs. Yale Lions
Abbotsford Panthers vs. Dover Bay Dolphins
QUAD D
Brookswood Bobcats vs. Prince George Polars
Walnut Grove Gators vs. Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs
The wrench in all of this, of course, is Lord Tweedsmuir.
Ranked No. 2 in last the BC poll, they took the Fraser Valley’s No. 1 seed into zones last week but lost their second game of the event to eventual champion Abbotsford.
The issue is, with the Fraser Valley’s depth and strength behind clear No. 1 seed Oak Bay, what do you do?
The Valley powers — Abby, Brookswood, Walnut Grove, Panorama Ridge and Lord Tweedsmuir — all want to be on the opposite side of the draw from the Victoria powerhouse.
Abby earned that distinction with its Fraser Valley title win over Brookswood, but its fortunes have gone up and down based on the health of its roster.
And, there is a rule in which teams from the same zone can not play each other in the opening round (there could have been as many as eight FV teams qualify).
I guess what I am saying here is, if you used an RPI formula to assign each team a number based on strength of schedule and quality wins througout the season, Abby, Brookswood and Lord Tweedsmuir, in no particular order, are the next three tops teams. With that line of thinking, two should be on one side of the draw and the other on the same side as Oak Bay.
The opposing side of that arguement is: What did the Fraser Valley championship accomplish?
There is no perfect solution.
And the only thing guaranteed here is that you will never please everyone.
