The Best Teams Aren't Supposed to Go to State?

I bet you had to do a double take at that headline.

That is basically what I got told by a high ranking MSHSAA staff member a few years ago. This is a person I like a lot, and this was not his opinion, nor was it the opinion of any current MSHSAA employees. This is just a fact.

The Missouri State Basketball Tournament, in it's current format, is not designed for the best teams to go to state.

To understand this statement, you have to go back a few decades, back to when people rode trains to the state tournament, or when they played in log cabin gyms. Back then it was hard to travel and get to games. This resulted in regional tournaments popping up all over the map.

Then one day, those "regional champions" got together and decided it was time to see who had the best team in the state. So in 1927 the first state tournament happened, with two Kansas City schools playing a Springfield school and a Southeast school (Jackson) in the Final Four.

Northeast Kansas City won the state title, beating Springfield Central 27-17, a score that would make Lennies McFerren proud.

If you study the early years of the state tournament, the Kansas City schools "dominated" the early state tournament. There are at least two different Kansas City area schools represented in several of those early years. Why? Because the rest of the state wasn't participating fully yet.

Then in 1932 Fruitland beat University High (Cape Girardeau). Neither of those schools exist anymore. Anybody from that part of the state knows that Fruitland is a "suburb of Jackson," which is just north of Cape Girardeau. So that year there were two SEMO teams at the same Final Four.

This tradition really carried on until the late 30's or early 40's, when MSHSAA split the classes into "Class A" for the big schools and "Class B" for the small schools. It is at this point in history, with more schools participating, when you really start to see teams from all over the state in the tournament.

The crazy thing about the early state tournament is that it went back and forth.... 1 class (1927, 28, 29, 30, and 31), then 2 classes (1932 and 1933), then 1 class again (1934, 35, 36, 37, and 38), then 2 classes again (1939, 40, 41, and 42), then 1 class again (1943, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49), and then finally 2 classes again in 1950.

Why all the changing back and forth? Again, times were different. It wasn't just taking trains or riding a horse to the game (seriously), but the country was coming out of WW1, then going through The Great Depression, and going into WW2. A lot of young boys and even some coaches went off to fight in the war. Legendary Puxico head coach, Arnold Ryan, actually started coaching because all of the "real coaches" had gone off to fight in the war.

Times were really different.

But this is where the state tournament was born, when travel was hard and times were even harder. Some years we had enough for two classes, and some years we didn't. Starting in 1956, MSHSAA went to three classes (Class S, M, and L... I'll let you figure out which one stands for Small, Medium, and Large). Then in 1974 MSHSAA went to 4 classes (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A). Finally, in 2003, MSHSAA went to the 5 class system (Class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

So if you hear somebody say "1A," you know they grew up watching basketball in the 80's and 90's. That's still what I still call it. Back to the story...

With all the changes in classification, with more schools participating, and there being a boys and girls tournament, there is still one thing has not ever changed... The state tournament, at it's core, is still designed to represent "regional champions." It's set up so that a team comes from each region of the state, NOT to get the best 4 (or 8) to the last weekend. What other tournament do you know of that is designed to NOT have the best teams face off?

Is it time to change that? Do we have enough good roads and reliable means of transportation and great facilities needed to change the format of the actual tournament? I wrote an article (click here) recently about fixing the state tournament. I think it would be great to see the top 4, or even the top 8 teams, battle it out over that final weekend.

Maybe that will happen. I think there is enough momentum being created by the fans and the coaches and yes, even some administrators, that something like this is actually going to happen. In the meantime, as Class 1-3 districts conclude this week, the actual state tournament is going to start next week. This is my absolute favorite time of year. So get out there and enjoy some basketball.

Go watch your favorite team play, and if they get beat, pick another game and go watch somebody else play. Drive a long way to get there. Make a road trip out of it. Go to a gym you've never been to before. Go sit by some fans and swap stories about players you've never seen or heard of before.

You can tell us all about it or post scores or send us pictures on our Forum.

It's the state tournament. It's not perfect, but I love it, I just love basketball, and this is my favorite time of year. Thanks for reading. #JWT