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Seeding at state adds a bit of mystery By Greg Stiles The Class 4A girls state basketball playoffs start tonight. That leaves the Crater Comets with 35 potential opponents as they prepare for next week�s state tournament at the Chiles Center in Portland. Crater and the other eight district champions already are booked for the 16-team tournament, while 27 other teams are attempting to merge into the remaining seven spots. In past years, that meant scouting a couple games with an eye on one or two other teams. For the first time, however, a five-person seeding committee will put in order the 16 surviving teams Sunday. Coaches can only guess who they�ll be playing or if their tournament opener will be on Tuesday or Wednesday. It�s not quite like looking for a needle in a haystack, it�s more like figuring which haystack to search. As soon as the Comets wrapped up their first unbeaten Southern Oregon Conference campaign, Crater coach David Heard began dispatching scouts around the state. He�s also ventured into the perilous Oregon Live online girls basketball forum � where coaches, players and officials are frequently besmirched � searching for helpful information. "I�m not going to ever read that thing normally," Heard says. "But now I have to follow what�s going on. Sometimes, there is a game report that�s helpful and I�m interested in what the people are saying about seeding." The Comets are ranked No. 2 to Oregon City in both the coaches� poll and the media poll, and the general belief among those who do post on Oregon Live is that the committee will follow suit. Heard would be very happy with the No. 2 seed because the Comets would open Tuesday night and get Wednesday off to prepare for the quarterfinals. "Plus Oregon City is the draw," Heard says. "We�re not going to draw that many people." But the opening round opponent is a mystery. That�s why Crater assistant Larry Ryerson watched Portland Interscholastic League champion Lincoln last week. Heard had a friend watch Hermiston and Pendleton Saturday. Scott Dippel will be at Willamette on Thursday and in Corvallis Saturday. On Saturday, Heard will be at Barlow, Ryerson at Beaverton and Greg Dippel at South Medford. "I�d like to see the OSAA go to a film exchange, like they do in football, where you exchange two game films," Heard says. "But then they�d have to require teams to film games, and I�m not sure everyone does." The Dippels will run next Sunday�s practice and Heard will meet them at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, where the Comets rented the floor for $65. "It gives us a big floor to practice on and we�ll be following Oregon State� practice and get to see them.," Heard says. "It�s on the way to Portland and keeps us on schedule for sleep. It�s a big thing for me that the kids get to sleep at their normal times. If they stay up until midnight, 1 or later, then they�re groggy the next day." During the tournament, Crater practices at Wilsonville High, just south of Portland. "It�s a nice big open facility that has that kind of open feeling like the Chiles Center," Heard says. Given the Comets� current health, a two-week break won�t hurt. Senior center Jody McLeod�s has been bothered by tendinitis in her ankle. Junior forward Amy Denson has been ill, but tests for mononucleosis came back negative. Senior wing Janell Sapienza had oral surgery and missed some time. Then there�s the case of freshman guard Whitney Black. "After we beat South, the girls did a dogpile," Heard says. "I told the girls that was the worst dogpile I�ve ever seen, and they need to practice their dogpiles. "The next day I looked over in practice, and they�re doing a dogpile." That�s when Black stretched muscles in her rib cage. "I was looking forward to spending a week and a half getting into better shape," Heard said, "but I had to give up on that." THE SEEDING COMMITTEE gathers in Portland Sunday to hammer out the order. John Johnson, a former Marshfield boys and girls basketball coach, views the process as something long-needed. "I think the main reason they�re doing this is to get the one, two, three and four teams opposite one another," Johnson says. "You want to avoid the one and two teams playing in the first round, even though they might not meet in the finals." Johnson agrees their are scouting drawbacks. But they shouldn�t hinder the top few teams that will face the weakest teams. "When you match up 1-16 and 2-15, that should take care of the scouting report," he says. What could make things a little tricky is if three or more teams from one league qualify for the tournament. The OSAA�s policy for blind draws in past team sports has been to put league champions on one side of the bracket and the second- and third-place teams on the other side. Essentially, that kept teams from meeting opponents from their own league until the semifinals. Johnson notes that seeds close to each other � say Nos. 12 and 13 � could be switched around to avoid first-round games matching league rivals. "There are going to be complaints," Johnson says. "There are going to be complaints no matter what you do. But this is certainly a step in the right direction. I think this will lead right into seeding for football, which will certainly be a plus." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4483, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.