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THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Emerging from the fog of the MaxPreps rankings

| December 9, 2021 1:25 AM

The good news for the 4A teams up here in high school basketball is, with at least four games against the larger 5A schools in the area, whoever makes it to state out of 4A Region 1 is going to be battle tested.

The bad news — the battle-tested 4A Region 1 champ will likely draw a low seed at state, and perhaps face the best team in the state in the first round.

That's because this is the first year MaxPreps rankings will be used to seed the eight-team state boys and girls basketball tournaments in each of the six classifications.

In past years, the tourneys were "seeded" — sort of — by the Idaho High School Activities Association, which tried to match up district/regional champs vs. regional/district runners-up, and below.

HOWEVER, GIVEN the choice between trying to beat good smaller-school teams and ending up with a high MaxPreps seeding at state, and scheduling as tough a competition as they can find regardless of the results, most schools choose to schedule tough.

"I think there's a lot of manipulating that can be done with the MaxPreps rankings," said Post Falls boys coach Mike McLean, who has guided the Trojans to state 11 times in his 14 seasons as coach, and routinely schedules the toughest nonleague games he can find.

"If I was manipulating it, I would schedule (good smaller schools) more. It (the rankings doesn't take into account the different classifications, it doesn't take into account playing at home or on the road ... It's like they have a one-size-fits-all approach."

Lake City's boys return most of last year's state runner-up team in 5A, and are using the regular season to prepare for what they hope is a return to the title game this season.

"I don't know what to think of the MaxPreps rankings," Lake City coach and athletic director Jim Winger said. "Even with the conference calls I've been on, I'm still a little foggy (on the criteria). In North Idaho, you're at the mercy of so many things, you take what (games) you can get. I wanted to go to Boise twice (for regular-season tournaments) because that's where state is. I want to play teams we're hopefully playing to beat in March."

Coeur d'Alene boys coach Jon Adams is in his second season at his alma mater.

"MaxPreps changes a little of the strategy (for scheduling)," he said. "It affects seeding at state. For us, who we play is not as important as how we're playing."

TONY HANNA, who has coached boys at 3A Timberlake and at 5A Coeur d'Alene, is now at 4A Lakeland, which won the regional title last year.

"I just think in general, it's going to behoove the bigger teams to play the smaller teams," Hanna said. "I think there's a lot of questions (with the MaxPreps rankings).

"For me, I'll play anybody."

ST. MARIES has been to state each of the last seven seasons, ever since Bryan Chase took over as coach. Twice, the Lumberjacks reached the title game and last year, won their first state title in 61 seasons.

"I think it's better than the alternative," Chase said of the MaxPreps rankings.

One problem with the old system — in classifications with five regions/districts, one of the first-round matchups at state had to be a regional/district champ vs. another regional/district champ.

"So many years you go down there, and the opening game is the toughest game in the tournament. These last 3-4 years, it seems like we always saw the best team in the semis — Firth for a couple years, then Ririe for a couple of years ... even last year, playing (defending 2A champion) North Fremont in the semis."

Still, given that knowledge ...

"I want to play the toughest schedule we can, and get better," Chase said. "If you go down (to state) with seven or eight losses, so be it."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.