Saturday Sentinel: Believe it or not winter sports postseason is here
Comments (...)Believe it or not, the postseason is here when it comes to prep basketball.
Seems like it was just yesterday when Thanksgiving tournaments were starting up.
One of my favorite parts of the year is the boys basketball postseason. While it isn't as good as when there was two classes, it's still fun going out and watching intense regional and sectional games.
Whenever the regional seeds come out, I always make sure to go look and see where everyone is seeded, particularly when it comes to the area schools. Thursday, the Class 1A and 2A seeds were announced by the IHSA.
One regional site that I'm interested in is the Class 2A Seneca Regional, for obvious reasons. The IHSA decided to send six, yes six, Interstate Eight Conference teams there.
Herscher is the No. 1 seed, which comes as no surprise. The Tigers were unbeaten, up until they lost to Westmont in the final of the Interstate Eight Tournament in Coal City last week.
Seneca, despite its subpar play at the I-8 Tournament, comes in as the No. 2 seed. Coal City (No. 3), Wilmington (No. 4), Dwight (No. 5) and Reed-Custer (No. 6) round out the regional.
Herscher is an easy favorite, but if Seneca gets hot the Fighting Irish could take down the Tigers, especially since Seneca will have the home court advantage.
Keep an eye on Coal City. The Coalers have played much better since the Plano Christmas Classic. We could see a very interesting semifinal contest between Coal City and Seneca should the Coalers take down Reed-Custer in the quarterfinals.
The area's only Class 1A school, Gardner-South Wilmington, got a great draw in the Serena Regional.
The Panthers have played well since Shane Tucker took over as head coach, and earned the top seed at that regional. GSW will meet the winner of No. 4 Grant Park and No. 5 Serena in the regional semifinals. Should GSW advance, the Panthers would most likely see either No. 2 Illinois Lutheran or Newark in the final.
The Norsemen are the defending state champions, but have lost most of their firepower from last season's team.
Next week, the seeds for Class 3A and 4A will be announced, and both Morris and Minooka should get decent draws.
In Class 3A, Morris is headed to the Kankakee Regional. While Streator is looking like the top seed, there's no way the Redskins shouldn't be the No. 2 seed.
Minooka's assignment is tougher to read considering the Indians were sent to the Lockport Sectional.
That sectional features 21 teams that will be seeded, and then broken up into separate regionals. The Indians have had a good year so far and I would suspect they'll get a top-eight seed.
All I know is, these next few weeks will feature some good basketball.
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