basketball madness

Congrats to the Daniel Boone High School boys' basketball team. The Blazers defeated Holy Name in the Berks League semifinals last night, 60-58. Now all they have to do to win the league championship is beat Reading on Friday night at the Sovereign Center. The Red Knights have not lost a league game yet this year and defeated Muhlenberg last night in the other semifinal game by a wide margin. A Blazer win would be a much bigger upset than the Giants beating the Patriots.
Also congrats go to the Spring-Ford girls' basketball team after beating Perkiomen Valley last night in the PAC-10 championship game. The Lady Rams' head coach is Boyertown grad Jeff Rinehimer who was a pretty good player in his day. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Now is the time of the year I hate the most, the first round of the district basketball playoffs. Why do I hate this time of year? Because very few of the games are very competitive. Several years ago the PIAA decided to shorten the regular season in favor of getting more teams in the district playoffs. As a result you have first round match-up with top seeds playing teams that aren't even above the .500 mark. Sometimes all this accomplishes is to embarrass the losing team who is down by 30 at halftime. It used to be that making the district playoffs was an accomplishment. Just playing a district game meant something, a reward for a good season. What does it mean to play one game and lose by 40 points? I say decrease the number of teams in the district playoffs and add a couple more non-league games for everyone. But that's just what I think.