2013-2014 'Magnificent 7' Renegade Girls Basketball  Week-8 Poll A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith 02-03-2014

This is U.S. Route 35 rising up over a wintry LaPorte. (Photo by Mark Smith)

LaPORTE, IN (02-03-2014) Not everybody makes great decisions. Everything can't be planned perfectly. Sometimes all of us blunder.

The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) can draw pairings for the state girls basketball tournament any day of the season. As far as I know, they wait until there's only one week left in the regular season to draw teams for no reason other than ... well, that's the way it's always been done.

That's why it was a surprise to thinking people when the IHSAA put the tournament selection date on the same day as the Super Bowl, pro football's world championship game, Sunday, Feb. 2.

IHSAA special dates are announced at the end of the previous school year and the date of the Super Bowl is known years in advance, so there was at least eight months for the IHSAA to change the 'draw' date. But nobody did.

So, on Sunday, the state tournament draw and the Super Bowl, occurred on the same day. Who cares? What difference does it make? Did you read any newspaper Monday? Watch any Indiana-based TV sports show. Listen to any Indiana-based radio station. Was the IHSAA girls basketball draw the top news or even the predominant sports story? Did they mention it at all?

The IHSAA did everything they could do to bury the girls basketball state tournament draw. They didn't intend to, but they weren't aware enough to change it. Then the website froze up and you couldn't watch the pairings show on-line.

It was a worse rollout than ObamaCare. So the quaint little TV show the IHSAA does down in Indianapolis to announce the state wide matchups went on and even those who could watch (most can't see it on TV in NW Indiana) on TV probably didn't because they were getting ready for the NFL title game. It's not like they're trying to promote their sport. It's not like Indiana icon Peyton Manning was playing in the Super Bowl, or anything like that. The least the IHSAA could have done was dress a ground hog up in a basketball uniform and have him pick teams out a hat.

1. (4A) LaPorte (17-1)
2013 (13-9), 2012 (13-9), 2011 (7-14), 2010 (1-20)

LaPORTE: One nonconference loss to Mishawaka shouldn't make any difference to the Slicers, who can clinch the Duneland Athletic Conference title with a final week win over rival Michigan City. I always think 19-1 or 20-1 is better than 20-0 or 21-0. You play in fear of losing. The urgency is there for four quarters. A 16-point win over John Glenn (13-3) on Jan. 31 has to be a boost, but LaPorte's schedule isn't what it could have been for a long run in the post-season. But a season finale against Penn (16-1) is a good finisher. Kyleigh Kubik (13.5 ppg.), Nicole Konieczny (15.4 ppg.) and Jaclyn Heath (12.1 ppg.) give the Slicers balance, for what that's worth. The only problem for LaPorte is that in the Class 4A Hobart Sectional they're required to defeat three winning teams they have already beaten.

2. (4A) Lake Central (17-2)
2013 (16-8), 2012 (13-10), 2011 (13-11), 2010 (15-7)

ST. JOHN: LC has been as dominant as anyone, but they could not hold a double-digit lead at LaPorte in the game that decided the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC). The difference between them and LC is that LC played 19 Class 4A teams including Fishers (15-4), Hamilton Southeastern and Penn (16-1). Lindsay Kusbel (10.3 ppg.) Tara Zlotkowski (13.2 ppg.) and Gina Rubino (12.5 ppg.) give the Indians balance like LaPorte. LC, the defending sectional champ, is 5-0 against 4A Sectional 1 foes. The only team they didn't play was Highland (14-5) and that's who they drew in the sectional quarterfinals.

3. (4A) Merrillville (12-5)
2013 (24-1), 2012 (21-1), 2011 (14-8), 2010 (25-2)

MERRILLVILLE: Merrillville lost a scheduled game to Northridge due to the snow, so they will only get to play 19 regular season games. The Pirates will finish third in the DAC, but with losses only to Washington (13-5), LaPorte (17-1), St. Joseph's (10-3) and LC (17-2) twice, Merrillville can't be discounted. With Victoria Gaines (14.2 ppg.) and AJ Downs (12.3 ppg.) and Jasmine Talley (11.1 ppg.) the Pirates have experienced scorers even though they don't have a lot of overall experience. In the post-season, you don't go deep into the bench unless you have foul problems or injuries. That should help Merrillville, but let's be honest. I thought they'd be better than 12-5 going into the final week of the season. But they got a good draw with CP and LaPorte on the other side of the eight-team Sectional 2 bracket.
 

4. (4A) Crown Point (12-6)
2013 (5-16), 2012 (14-9), 2011 (14-8), 2010 (10-11)

CROWN POINT: The Lady Bulldogs will also play just 19 games as a match with Lowell was snowed out. CP didn't beat LC or Merrillville or LaPorte during the regular season, so they'll need some upsets to get out of the sectional and regional. But they have the three double figure scorers like those teams do in Katija Tarailo (13.5 ppg.), Abby Kvachkoff (12.6 ppg.) and Hannah Albrecht (10.9 ppg.) and the fact that they use eight players exclusively won't hurt as much in the post-season when most teams cut down to seven or eight. CP is not as quick as Merrillville or as good offensively as LaPorte, so they could have used a break in the draw. The Lady Bulldogs most certainly will have to defeat BOTH LaPorte and Merrillville to win Sectional 2.

5. (4A) Gary West Side (13-3)
2013 (17-4), 2012 (17-5), 2011 (19-5), 2010 (17-5), 2009 (17-7), 2008 (18-5)

GARY: West Side won five games in a row in January and they figured to beat Chesterton and make it six before the season ended. The Cougars did not play the schedule they've played in past seasons but the only losses are to powers LC (17-2), South Bend Washington (13-5) and small school superpower Canterbury (14-3). West Side is a traditional high school team with one dominant scorer, in 5-foot-6 freshman guard Mary Evans. West Side has rolled over Hobart 53-26 and Lowell 76-54, impressive scores over winning teams. They probably need to play LC early in the sectional (it will be the semifinal) before the week-long playoffs tire them. But I don't see anybody playing better than West Side in the last two weeks.

6. (1A) Oregon-Davis (14-2)
2013 (22-4), 2012 (21-5), 2011 (17-6), 2010 (22-5), 2009 (22-3), 2008 (24-1)

HAMLET: The Bobcats were sacked by the weather. The annual Bi-County tournament was cancelled by 'Old Man Winter' and O-D was stomped on by Illinois 'rich kid' school Benet Academy 77-59.
The good news is: There's nobody like Benet or South Bend Washington (14-3) in the Class 1A playoffs. O-D's game with Culver (12-3) was cancelled due to the weather so the Bobcats only will play 18 games. You can't rank them ahead of the four top DAC teams due to the schedule. You can only play Argos so many times. O-D can still point to that win over Penn (16-1) as no one else has defeated the Kingsmen. But O-D will now face a series of teams that simply want to beat them while the BobCats need to make the state finals or the season is a disappointment. That's a lot of weight to carry.

7. (4A) Highland (14-5)
2013 (8-14) 2012 (8-13), 2011 (8-12), 2010 (7-14)

HIGHLAND: The Trojans posted their first winning season since 2008 and they were 5-0 in January before topping Griffith 39-34 last Saturday night. You have to give them credit for wins over Crown Point (12-6), Bishop Noll (17-2), Lowell (10-8) and KV (12-5). The problems is: They average a relatively low (for top teams) 51 points a game and they have not been good defensively against good teams. Who is freshman Taylor Steele? I don't know, but she leads Highland in scoring at 10.7 points per game. This has been a great comeback story, but they didn't play Lake Central (17-2) or Gary West Side (13-3). It would be a major upset if they survived a 4A Sectional 1 match with LC.

In the shadows...

(2A) Bishop Noll (11-2)
2013 (21-3) 2012 (10-10), 2011 (8-15), 2010 (5-16)

HAMMOND: Here's another team that didn't lose much because they didn't play much. Noll had 19 days off after a Dec. 10 win over Hebron before they topped Marquette 73-17 in a no-contest last Friday. Noll has won six in a row, but they might be so bored due to inactivity that they may not care about that. Noll is the favorite in next week's GSSC tournament. But they play Hanover and Whiting (9-4) this week to get ready. Noll's going to get sick of seeing Whiting. Noll should play Whiting in the GSSC tourney and again in 2A Sectional 33 next month.


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Revised: February 03, 2014 .