PIAA fixes basketball playoff quirk that forces first-round rematches

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, January 26, 2018 | 11:19 PM

The state basketball tournament is typically a time for facing unfamiliar opponents from across Pennsylvania.

But when Moon’s boys team won a WPIAL title last season, its reward was a bus ride to Plum for a state playoff opener against Franklin Regional, the sixth-place team from the WPIAL. Runner-up Hampton also faced a familiar foe in fourth-place Mars, a section rival.

Both lower seeds pulled upsets.

The WPIAL boys finalists in Class 6A and 5A must face that same bracket quirk again this year, but the PIAA has fixed it for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. According to updated state brackets revealed this week, all first-round matchups between two WPIAL teams were eliminated entirely from the PIAA boys basketball playoffs.

“We talked about that at the state level for several years: Replaying our tournament was unfair to our teams,” WPIAL steering committee member Dan O’Neil said. “We asked them to do whatever they could so that our schools were not playing another school from the league in the first round.”

The first-round matchups between WPIAL teams also exist in current girls brackets for Class 6A and Class 4A. The updated PIAA brackets will eliminate them from 6A but not entirely from 4A. In 2019 and 2020, the WPIAL Class 4A girls champion will face the sixth-place team from the WPIAL to start the state playoffs.

The PIAA board voted Wednesday to approve the brackets on a first reading, meaning the brackets technically need two more votes to become official.

Starting next season, under the new brackets, the WPIAL boys finalists in Class 5A would face the seventh- and ninth-place teams from Harrisburg-based District 3.

The WPIAL Class 6A boys and girls finalists also would start the state playoffs against teams from District 3.

“Finally,” Moon coach Adam Kaufman said. “To be honest with you, I’m really happy about it. … Getting on a bus and having the opportunity to go stay in a hotel and play ball with your friends against a bunch of kids you’ve never seen before, I think that’s a pretty cool experience. That’s one of the reasons I think it’s really, really a good idea. Because that is a lot different than driving to North Allegheny or Ambridge and playing the same team you’ve played four times already.”

A year ago, Moon and Hampton played for the WPIAL title at Petersen Event Center on March 3. In their PIAA openers a week later, Moon lost to Franklin Regional, 52-51, and Hampton lost to Mars, 85-81.

“Both of those teams should have been playing somebody from outside the district,” O’Neil said. “I think this is a good development. Logistically, I think some people will have a problem with it. It’s going to mean more travel, but we’re going to have more excitement for the kids.”

The updated #PIAA brackets for all sports in school years 2018-19 and 2019-20 are here: https://t.co/eqoDIIxOOQ#TribHSSN

— Chris Harlan (@CHarlan_Trib) January 25, 2018

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Hampton, Mars, Moon