Three local high school basketball programs punched their tickets to the Western Massachusetts tournament semifinals on Monday. Both Greenfield and Pioneer will host games on Wednesday night in their respective brackets, with a win earning a spot in Saturday’s sectional finals. The Pioneer girls will travel to Hoosac Valley on Wednesday in the Class D semis.

It’s year two for the new statewide tournament format, which has in turn altered the Western Mass. tournaments. Gone are trips to the Cage and the like, though area athletic directors and coaches have managed to continue some of the traditions that have made the sectional tournament so special over the years.

Things do look a bit different, however. On Saturday, Westfield High School and Holyoke High School will each host four Western Mass. title games. The current format for hoops has the area split into four classes (A, B, C, D) for boys and girls, divided by enrollment.

Area coaches have noted there are pros and cons to holding these new-look Western Mass. tournaments. In order to add them to the slate before the state tournaments begin, basketball regular season schedules went from 20 games to 18, saving room for all schools to be guaranteed two additional games this week (a combination of tournament and/or non-playoff matchups).

For example: the Pioneer boys basketball team finished its 18-game regular season with a 15-3 record. That was good enough for the No. 1 seed in the WMass Class D field, as the sectionals were seeded via statewide power rankings. The Panthers won their quarterfinal game over Baystate Academy on Monday night, bumping them to 16-3. The MIAA caps season schedules at 20 games for seeding purposes, so if Pioneer beats Duggan Academy in the semifinals on Wednesday, that would put them with a final record of 17-3 as far as the MIAA is concerned.

So what about a potential Saturday sectional final? Those championship games won’t count toward state seeding, though that’s unfortunate for most schools as title-game opponents would often provide the best power ranking bump of any game in the postseason. That’s something that will have to be revisited moving forward, in the interest of helping Western Mass. schools improve their seeding for the state tournament.

This issue has impacted teams with lofty state tournament aspirations. In the fall, the Frontier girls volleyball team won two Western Mass. tournament matches against schools ranked in the bottom tier of their statewide division, victories that ultimately hurt their power ranking number. That’s been an issue in some sports, as the most beneficial game for power ranking purposes is often the one that doesn’t count. 

It can work both ways, however, as schools on the bubble of the state tournament may have a chance to play their way in through the strength of playing higher-ranked teams in the Western Mass. tournament. 

There’s also the unconventional road to state tournament qualification through non-playoff games. For schools not earning a top eight seed in their respective classes, two non-playoff games are assigned to complete a 20-game schedule. With 10 wins necessary for automatic state tournament qualification, an 8-10 team can miss the sectional tourney, then win two non-playoff games to earn a state berth.

Such was the case with the Frontier boys basketball team on Tuesday night, as the Redhawks finished just outside of the Class B field with an 8-10 mark. As they were well outside the top 32 of the Div. 4 state rankings (No. 40 as of Tuesday morning), a .500 record appeared to be the only path forward. Frontier beat Southwick in its first non-playoff game, then traveled to Westfield on Tuesday night with a win-and-in scenario against the Bombers.

As sectional tournaments now use state power rankings to seed teams, the old format of a .500 record or better earning schools an automatic berth into Western Mass. is no more. I crunched the numbers to find out which schools were impacted by that change, trying to find out how many across the area missed the postseason that would have made it under the old format.

On the boys’ side, five schools with .500 or better records did not qualify for this year’s Western Mass. tournament (Ludlow, Southwick, Smith Vocational, Pathfinder, St. Mary’s). That number was seven on the girls’ side (Agawam, Commerce, Putnam, Southwick, PV Christian), Hampden Charter East, Baystate Academy).

On the flip side, five schools with sub-.500 records qualified for the WMass tournament on the boys’ side that wouldn’t have under the old format (Minnechaug, Paulo Freire, Lenox, Renaissance, Baystate Academy), and seven in the girls’ tournament (Taconic, Drury, Greenfield, Monson, Mount Everett, Hopkins Academy, Ware).

The Western Mass. tournament also added some drama in the form of the Renaissance boys basketball team, which had to forfeit its Class C quarterfinal tilt against Greenfield on Monday after scheduling too many games during the regular season. The Phoenix had gone above the 18-game threshold prior to the Western Mass. tournament, an error which ultimately cost them a chance at a sectional title. The Green Wave earned advancement into Wednesday’s semifinal round as a result.

There are many other nuances to the new-look format, but for now, let’s enjoy the return of Western Mass. tournaments. They aren’t perfect, and tinkering is needed, but tradition is a good thing, and continuing to crown champions in this corner of the state is important.

Jeff Lajoie is the sports editor of the Greenfield Recorder and Daily Hampshire Gazette. He can be reached at jlajoie@recorder.com]]>