Random Thoughts: 1K points, Martin RPI

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

This week’s edition of Random Thoughts is centered around the 1,000 point club, basketball tournament draws and the new method that will be used to seed teams this year.

1,000 point club

Four local high school basketball players recently joined the 1,000 point club. 1,000 points is quite an accomplishment and to have four local players do it around the same time is remarkable.

They are Van Wert’s Sofi Houg, who hit the mark during last Thursday’s game against St. Marys Memorial, the same night Delphos Jefferson’s Alyvia Lindeman hit it against Ada. Crestview’s Cali Gregory reached it during a January 5 game against Bluffton, and Wayne Trace’s Brooks Laukhuf reached the milestone against Crestview on Saturday.

Congratulations to all four players.

Tournament draws

Girls and boys basketball sectional tournament draws will be here before we know it. In fact, the girls’ draw is set for Sunday, January 29, while the boys’ draw will be held the following Sunday, February 5, and things will be different this year.

Martin RPI

The big change is the Martin RPI program will be used to seed girls and boys basketball teams through the various divisions in the northwest district. This is a notable change from having coaches seed teams in each district. The change was approved by the Northwest Ohio District Athletic Board, although it wasn’t a unanimous decision.

According to the Martin RPI website, the Ratings Percentage Index is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team’s wins, losses, its strength of schedule, and its opponents’ strength of schedule. There are currently eight states (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah and Washington) that use RPI to rank teams in order to seed/rank teams for postseason tournaments in a manner that is fair, uniform, and completely objective.

It is considered a pilot program in the northwest district.

Thoughts

I polled some of the area’s girls and boys basketball coaches to get their thoughts on the use of the Martin RPI for seeding purposes. Polling was random and completely anonymous, and some of the coaches explained their reasoning. Admittedly, it’s a very small sample, but here are the results:

Two coaches are on board with it while two others aren’t exactly sure how they feel about it and want to see how it works.

“I kind of like it because it takes the bias out of things in terms of seeding,” one of the coaches said.

The rest of the coaches polled don’t seem to be in favor of it, or at least have some reservations and a few of them shared their thoughts. Here are some of the comments:

“I like that the numbers and the stats are available to us but I do not think it should be driving our seeding for sectional tournaments. Also not a fan that they just pushed this on us when the majority of the area was against it. And lastly, I would have liked for them to go back a few years and show us the numbers compared to how actual seeding went.” – Coach 1

“Not on board. I don’t believe many coaches in our area are. A lot of things a computer can’t decipher what a human can. Doesn’t take into account head to head, injuries, teams that are playing better at the end of the year because of a late start from fall sports. Also, Martin said if we were to use his ranking system it wouldn’t be beneficial if the districts stayed how they are. He said it would work best if we went to a super district which would put all teams that lead into our regional together. I just think when the man running the program doesn’t think it’ll work, I’m not sure why we we’re using it. I have a feeling the state was going to force us to use it no matter what. The only good thing is we get to place ourselves on the bracket.” – Coach 2

“I am not totally against it but I don’t think it was needed for our particular draw. Almost all of our teams play each other and I feel our coaches do a good and honest job of voting. I think it probably works better in the bigger districts. I think the main flaw is that it doesn’t take into consideration things like injuries or late starts because of football. Coaches are able to take those things into consideration, Martin RPI doesn’t.” – Coach 3

“I am happy we still get to place ourself on a line. I feel like seeds 1-2 are at a slight disadvantage because seeds 3 and lower get to choose who they want to play.” – Coach 4

This year

It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out and if the pilot program will be extended. I’m thinking yes, it will be, perhaps with a tweak or two along the way.

Better

The new system has to be better than the one used for years, in the 1980s into the 1990s – the old pill system. The top two seeds were voted on by the coaches then the rest of the teams were each assigned a number that was thrown in a hopper and drawn out at random. It was very possible to see a team 12-4 team get the pill and be forced to play the No. 1 seed right off the bat. Ask any coach who patrolled the sideline back then – I’ll bet they’ll tell you it happened to them at least once.

As always, if you have thoughts on the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.