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M/CLOUDY Temp: 41 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Saturday, December 21, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend December 10, 2002 Hoop state tourneys could be downsized Prep Notebook By DON HUNT Mail Tribune The Class 4A state basketball tournament has been a fixture in Portland for several decades, but its current format isn’t likely to be around much longer. Due to declining attendance and revenues, the tournament is likely to dwindle from its current 16-team format to eight teams beginning in March of 2004. If you’re a basketball junkie who enjoys spending a week in the Rose City to take in a couple dozen games, you better savor the 2003 tournament. An Oregon School Activities Association committee recommended to the OSAA’s executive board on Monday that a new format be adopted that reduces the tournament field in Portland and replaces it with more playoff games at home sites. Four teams from each conference would still qualify for the playoffs, but would be in their own gymnasiums for second- and third-round round games rather than the vast confines of Memorial Coliseum. The committee will meet again on Jan. 13 to finalize its recommendations before the executive board votes on the plan on Feb. 3. The new format would be the same for both the Class 4A boys and girls tournaments and similar formats would take effect in the smaller classifications. "Essentially what would happen is, the Tuesday and Wednesday games (in Portland) would be moved to home sites," says South Medford boys coach Dennis Murphy, who is on the committee and helped formulate the new proposal. "And its time has come. I didn’t feel this way four years ago, but at some point you have to come to the realization that a state basketball tournament isn’t the event it used to be." By holding more playoff games at home sites, attendance and revenue would inevitably shoot up. Murphy points to his team’s tournament first-round game against Benson at Memorial Coliseum last spring in which only a few hundred fans showed up. Put that game at South Medford High, and it would have drawn 2,000, he says. "We would have had a packed gym with a lot of excitement," Murphy says. "It would have been a great venue for high school championship basketball." Under the new plan, eight of the state’s nine league champions would have the home court during the subtournament and would need to win twice to make it to Portland. While football is the golden goose of Oregon high school sports — the state playoffs put $283,000 into the OSAA coffers last year — basketball has also been relied upon to help fund the other sports over the years. And lately, its revenues have dropped, from $203,000 in 1999 to $132,000 last year. It may trouble traditionalists to break away from a 16-team state tournament that has been in effect since the 1950s, but the days of students and their parents spending an entire week in Portland for the event are probably gone forever. And general interest in high school basketball just isn’t what it used to be. IN OTHER BUSINESS during Monday’s OSAA board meeting, nine Oregon schools that are projecting enrollment decreases requested to drop down in classification. One of them is Lakeview, a current member of the Skyline Conference that is seeking to drop from 3A to 2A. The change wouldn’t occur until the 2004-2005 school year. NEW ASHLAND HIGH boys basketball coach Rick Cornelius began to cringe a bit as he watched his Grizzlies squander a 12-point lead in their season-opening game at South Albany last Friday. The Grizzlies struggled to a 5-18 record a year ago and have labored through a decade of failure, and Cornelius has spent a lot of energy trying to convince his players that they’re capable and worthy of winning. All those talks paid an early dividend as the Grizzlies came back to post a 61-59 victory, then pinned a 65-51 defeat on North Bend one day later in their own gym. "We’re trying to overcome some negative history," Cornelius says. "It was encouraging to see the kids come back and get that win (against South Albany) after they were down late in the game." The Grizzlies are a scrappy, quick team without much size, although 6-foot-3, 190-pound sophomore Chris Mackojak has gotten off to a quick start. He had 18 points against South Albany and seven the following night. "He came here from Alaska two years ago and hadn’t played much organized ball, but he’s got a lot of tools," Cornelius says. "He reminds me a lot of the (Ryan) Lucas kid from North Medford, except that he’s a year younger." Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S