Wisconsin High School Sports | Wisconsin Sports Network | WisSports.net

By Mark Miller


Wishoops.net Editor





Some sweeping changes to the high school basketball landscape in Wisconsin could be forthcoming thanks to several recommendations of the WIAA Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee.





However, before the potential changes are put into place, they must first meet with the approval of several committees, including the WIAA Sports Advisory Committee, the Executive Staff of the WIAA, the WIAA Advisory Council and, finally, the WIAA Board of Control.





If the changes are approved at the committee level over the new few months, the WIAA Board of Control could make final decisions on the new ideas at its June meeting. Most of the potential changes, though, would not go into effect until the 2007-08 season.





"It is important to understand that these recommendations get scrutinized by a lot of different school people," said Debra Hauser, Associate Director of the WIAA in charge of basketball. "We will have athletic directors, principals, superintendents, our executive staff and the Board of Control look at these recommendations very closely. They will really get reviewed."





Recommendations from the eight coaches on this year's WIAA Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee include the following:





* Increasing the number of teams at the WIAA State Tournament from 20 to 32. This would change the format from the current 8-4-4-4 setup to an 8-8-8-8 alignment. Allowing eight teams from each of the four divisions to earn spots to the WIAA State Tournament would necessitate the elimination of the Wednesday practice sessions in order to allow that day for competition. In addition, it is possible one or more divisions would play both semifinal and championship games on the same day, similar to the current structure in Illinois.





"This is a very preliminary idea," Hauser said. "No tournament schedule has been developed as of yet. This is something the coaches would like consideration given to down the road."





* Seeding the entire sectional at the Division 1 level only. The current rules allow for seeding at just the regional level. Many Division 1 coaches have called for this change for several seasons.





* Limiting out-of-state exposures for WIAA schools to one per season. Schools such as Milwaukee Rufus King and Milwaukee Vincent have participated in several out-of-state tournaments and classics in recent years. King, in fact, played in three out-of-state competitions during the 2005-06 campaign. This new rule would limit participation in such events to one per season. Games played in these tournaments/classics must be played against state-association member schools.





* Increasing the number of regular-season games from the current limit of 20 to 21. If teams elect to play in an out-of-state competition, the limit for regular-season contests would remain at 20. However, if teams opt to play all of their games against teams from Wisconsin or bordering states, the limit would increase to 21.





* Placing the 116 largest schools with boys' basketball programs in Division 1, followed by the next largest 116 in Division 2 and the next largest 128 in Division 3. The remainder of schools would be placed in Division 4. This would eliminate the need for the "pigtail" or sub-regional games at the Division 4 level that took place in 2005-06.





* Any in-season tournament or classic held in Wisconsin must be run by a member school and no less than 50 percent of the profits from the event must be retained by the member school or a designated charity.





The members of the WIAA Basketball Coaches Advisory include the following coaches: Jolene Bird of Boyceville, Steve Board of Richland Center, Allen Guthman of Owen-Withee, Bob Haffele of Randolph, Kerry Janquart of Ashwaubenon, John Nedelcoff of Mayville, Rick Storlie of Fall Creek and Dennis Uppena of Cassville. Todd Hencsik, West Allis Central was absent.





(Send comments to Wishoops.net Editor Mark Miller at wbnews@pngusa.net)