The boys varsity Blackhawk basketball team is tied for the league lead with the final two seasons of the regular season upon them.
The 'Hawks played Prairie Grove last night and if they emerged victorious from that road game, they will have clinched a semi-final spot in the 4A-1 District Tournament, having opened up a four-game lead over the third place Tigers with just three games left. This Friday the 'Hawks will host Berryville in the annual Colors Day game.
The game looming most large will be the game at Huntsville next Tuesday. If the 'Hawks take care of business against Prairie Grove and Berryville, the winner of the Huntsville/Pea Ridge battle will likely be the conference champion.
If the 'Hawks win again against the Eagles having won the two games this week. They will have swept the two-game series and will earn the top seed in the tourney regardless of the outcome of the Shiloh game. If the 'Hawks stumble this week, they will probably have to beat Huntsville to claim the top seed.
There are a lot of scenarios that could play out in these two weeks but the important thing is that the 'Hawks have played themselves into a good place to be.
The regular season ends Friday, March 13, with Shiloh coming to town finish off conference play. That game will an important one to win regardless of what else happens between now and them.
Single plays can sink a team
The Razorbacks game against Florida proved a single bad officials call can flip a game result, and the Super Bowl losers proved one bad play call can flip a result that way as well.
Arkansas was leading in the Florida Gators by a single point when a Hog defender made a clean block of the Gators' final shot that should have preserved the win in the last couple of seconds. However, an official who had his whistle in his mouth preparing to blow even before the shot was blocked, decided to call a foul. The Gators made both free shots and won the game. Every camera angle on the shot showed that the call was blown, that it was a perfectly executed blocked shot. It seems that SEC officials have developed a bad habit of anticipating fouls rather than just waiting to see if they develop.
In the Super Bowl, Seattle made a stunning comeback, coming up with a first down on the Patriot 5-yard line with less than 60 seconds left in the game. On first down, the Seahawks all-pro Marshawn Lynch bulled for 4 yards, nearly scoring before being brought down on the 1.
Everybody in the stands and those watching TV expected Lynch then would punch it in and the Seahawks would defend their title. It is doubtful that the Pats could have stopped Lynch as he had been punishing them all day long, topping 100 yards.
The Seahawks inexplicably lined up in a formation that the Patriots had been practicing against for the two weeks leading up to the final game. New England knew exactly where the ball would be going and they intercepted it in the end zone and ended Seattle's reign in the process.
The 4A-1 sinks in the polls
Six of the eight teams in the boys 4A-1 District dropped in the latest MaxPreps/CBS basketball poll.
Though Pea Ridge hasn't lost a game since mid-December, their opponents in the 4A-1 have been sinking in the lower reaches of the 4A poll. Five of the eight teams are in the lower one/third of the state's 48 teams. Only Huntsville (No. 2) and Shiloh (No. 34) did not lose ground in the latest poll.
When the 'Hawks' opponents have lower rankings, that lowers the 'Hawks power rankings to a degree. The 'Hawks dropped two spots last week even though they are in the midst of a 13-game winning streak. A few of the Blackhawk's games were closely fought games with lower ranked teams which affects the margin-of-victory statistic kept by the computer.
Ironically, one of the 'Hawks widest margins of victories this year came against the state's No. 2 team, Huntsville.
But, as I have said ofttimes in my column, the most important poll is the one after the season ends. Unlike the 5A through 7A schools, every school in the 2A, 3A and 4A has a chance to go far in the postseason because they all play in a district tournament.
Of course, lower ranked teams in the district would have to win two games in a row just to qualify for regional play but it is possible. A few years ago, Gravette girls finished sixth in the league but went all the way to the state tournament when they got hot at the end of the season.
MaxPreps/CBS boys 4A state poll
1. Monticello
2. Huntsville
4. Pocahontas +1
4. West Helena -1
5. Jonesboro Westside
6. Central Arkansas +2
7. Arkansas Baptist
8. Riverview -2
9. Brookland -1
10. LR Estem +4
14. Pea Ridge -2
27. Prairie Grove -3
33. Gentry -3
34. Shiloh
40. Gravette -1
43. Lincoln -1
46. Berryville -3
MaxPreps/CBS boys North Region Poll
(4A-1 and 4A-4 Districts)
1. Huntsville
2. Arkansas Baptist
3. Subiaco +2
4. Pea Ridge -1
5. Dardanelle -1
6. Dover
7. Pottsville
8. Prairie Grove
9. Ozark +1
10. Gentry -1
The top four finishers in the region tournament qualify for the state tournament.
All semi-finalists in the district tournament qualify for the regional.
4A-1 boys district standings
1. Pea Ridge 9-1
1. Huntsville 9-1
3. Prairie Grove 6-4
4. Shiloh 5-5
5. Lincoln 4-6
6. Gentry 3-7
7. Gravette 2-8
7. Berryville 2-8
Where are the girls rankings?
I have been asked, and rightly so, why I don't publish girls rankings like the boys.
The reason that I don't is that they are simply not there. Only 16 of the 48 girls 4A basketball teams submit any kind of stats or game results to the CBS/MaxPreps website. In contrast, all 48 teams in the boys rankings have significant amounts of date submitted allowing it to have a decent ranking system. There are teams on the boys side with some data missing, but not enough to skew the results dramatically.
MaxPreps has a computer program that analyzes won-lost records, strength of schedule, and margin of victory or loss of each game. Anyone can sign on to the website program and report game scores and I often report scores of other teams games to help keep their results accurate.
The number of teams reporting increases each year and hopefully someday more girls programs will get on board and there can be a ranking as good as the boys.
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 02/04/2015