The Starting Five

Well, here we go again with postseason basketball and my annual gripe session that as usual, is barking up a wrong tree with the Maryland Public Schools Secondary Athletic Association (MPSSAA as we know it).
The draws were conducted Sunday and as I figure always happens, did. There are some illustrations of why this state needs needs to change its structure for playoffs.
Basically, if you are not a top 4 seed you are at the mercy of the system. And depending what region you are in and how many teams there are, it might be only the top 2 seeds.
As usual there are cases of schools having to hit the road, carrying a much better record than the team they will be visiting.

Case points follow:
In 2A West, Williamsport, with a 10-10 record, must go on the road to play at Catoctin, a 3-17 team. Make sense?
Winters Mill, 4 games better than Francis Scott Key plays at FSK.
In 3A North Hagerstown, at 11-8 goes on the road to play at Rockville, 9-12.
In 1A 5-17 Boonsboro goes to 2-20 North Carroll.
In the Girls 3A North Hagerstown, at 12-7 visits 8-11 Linganore. This is hard to believe, but North’s girls were an 11 seed. In 1A West East, Boonsboro must be seething, taking their 11-11 record to 5-17 Clear Spring.
First change that I’ve been clamoring for is that all teams, in each Region, be seeded accordingly by their won-loss record.
And, in case yoou don’t know this, games that are played during the holiday period, such as those at the North Hagerstown boys mixer, do not count in the records turned in to the state that count toward the seeding.
Why play the games then? They must count!
That cost Clear Spring’s boys a 4 seed losing out to Brunswick.
Clear Spring won one more game than Brunswick, but throwing out the two holidy games, both teams were 11-9 and Brunswick won the 4 seed.
It’s pure and simple — ridiculous — and something needs to be done with the system and those that think this works.