Northwest Arkansas — The ’Hawks’ recent victories over Gentry and Shiloh provided the impetus to both keep Pea Ridge in the 7th spot in the MaxPreps/ Freeman 4A state basketball rankings as well as to knock Shiloh out of the Top 10 altogether.
The boy cagers continue to hold their grip on third place in the 4A-1 District as they maintain a 6-2 district record. With Farmington beating Huntsville last week at Farmington, the Cardinals and Eagles are now tied atop the league with identical 7-1 records, just a game ahead of our Blackhawks.
The ’Hawks have single games with both the Eagles and the Cards before the seasons end. The ’Hawks could conceivably tie for the league championship if they could take down both their foes, albeit doing so would be tough with both battles being road games.
Tiebreakers could favor Huntsville as they beat Farmington worse than they were beaten by the Cards and the Eagles had a wide margin of victory in their game with us. Not being exactly sure how the seedings are done (eachdistrict has the freedom to have their own rules concerning seeding out of league play), it would be hard to know which seed the ’Hawks would come out with in the event they won both games with HHS and FHS, or split them or lost them.
However it turns out, the top two seeds get automatic semifinal berths in the district automatically qualifying them for bids the regional tournament to be played in Farmington. The third and fourth seeds will have to play their way into a regional berth. Should the ’Hawks end up with the third seed, they would likely play either Prairie Grove or Gentry in the quarterfinals with the likely No. 4 seed Shiloh playing either Berryville or Gravette.
Should the ’Hawks win that first game, they would qualify for the regionals, probably drawing stateranked teams Subiaco,West Fork or Clarksville in the first round.
If the ’Hawks won the district tournament, they would get the fourth place finisher in the 4A-4, an unranked, much weaker team - at least on paper.
However, a couple of years back, we won the district tournament and faced a “weaker” Paris team on our own floor in the regional, and lost. So you never know and that’s why they play the games.
There’s no guarantee of anything, but having said that, the potential is quite high for, as the Irish put it, a “grand” finish to the season.
MAXPREPS STATE 4A TOP 10
1. Farmington
2. Subiaco
3. Dumas
4. Huntsville
5. Westside Jonesboro
6. West Fork
7. Pea Ridge
8. Clarksville
9. McGehee
10. DeQueen DISTRICT STATE OVERALL 1. Farmington 1st 11th 2. Huntsville 4th 19th 3. Pea Ridge 7th 32nd 4. Shiloh 11th 59th 5. Berryville 16th 88th6. Prairie Grove 26th 133rd 7. Gentry 29th 152nd 8. Gravette 40th 211th 289 Schools in poll High School schedule tight
With two weeks left in the high school basketball season, the ’Hawks face the prospect of playing seven games in that time span.
Home games with Gentry and Prairie Grove were postponed due to the weather along with a road game at Berryville. The remaining regularly scheduled games read like this:
Feb. 2 - at Gravette
Feb. 5 - Berryville
Feb. 9 - at Farmington
Feb. 12 - at Huntsville
Somehow, the boys and girls have to squeeze three make-up games into an already normally full schedule. For the boys, they really don’t need to play extra games the same week they travel to Huntsville and Farmington, but I guess it might have to be “que sera sera,” something Doris Day used to say to keep from swearing (just kidding).
College baseball season near
For those who are stilldigging out from the snow and ice most recently dumped on northwest Arkansas, it might find it hard to believe that baseball season is just around the corner.
In fact, on Feb. 19 through 21, the Razorbacks are set to host Ball State in a three-game series at Fayetteville. For those fans who would like to see the Hog diamond men up close and personal, the 2010 Razorbacks will be at the Northwest Arkansas Mall this coming Saturday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to meet and greet their fans.
The 2009 Hogs, after overcoming a lot of obstacles last year, battled their way into the NCAA College World Series after winning the Oklahoma Regional and the Super-Regional at Florida State.
With a large portion of last year’s team back with coach Van Horn’s “boys of summer,” the Hogs have been getting lots of preseason attention from the various collegiate polls.
National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America (NCBWA) and Rivals.
com have the University of Arkansas ranked 15th inthe country. USA/TODAY ranks the Hogs 16th with Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball ranking Arkansas in the 17th position. Why college baseball needs five separate polls I’ll never know, but there it is.
Speaking of honors relating to baseball, recently graduated infielder Ben Tschepikow (pronounced shep-uh-cow) was named Outstanding Athlete of the Year by the University of Arkansas. He won All-SEC honors for his on field play and was also All-SEC honoree for his volunteerism in community service.
On the down side, he was drafted by the Kansas City Royals to play professional baseball. I say “downside” because the Royals have perhaps the worst franchise in the American League.
On the upside, there is a good chance he might eventually get sent to play for Northwest Arkansas Naturals minor league team, a farm team for the Royals headquartered in Springdale. Being a Fayetteville lad, he would be a good draw for the local pro team.
Sports, Pages 8 on 02/03/2010