By Joe Palladino
You will see changes to Naugatuck Valley League basketball this season, specifically, in how the games are scheduled. You will not see changes in the CIAC state tournament format this season, even though we expected modifications.
First, in the NVL, the addition of a 16th school, Waterbury Career Academy, prompted a schedule tweak. The Spartans were plugged into the Brass Division, or city division, and that changed things a tad.
Before, the schedule was straight forward: Teams played opponents twice within their division, and once against all other schools. Now, Brass teams will play only four schools in the five-team Copper and Iron Divisions.
NVL president and schedule guru, Brian Fell of Woodland Regional, explains the change:
“Each school in the Brass Division drops one school in each of the other divisions by a reverse power formula,” Fell said. “This is based on division standings using the previous two years league records. Brass No. 1 (Sacred Heart) drops Copper No. 5 (Seymour) and Iron No. 5 (Woodland).”
Yes, Wildcats and Hawks, strike up the band, you guys have sidestepped a pummeling at the hands of the Hearts.
Sorry, Mr. Fell continues:
“Brass No. 2 (Crosby) drops Copper No. 5 (Seymour) and Iron No. 5 (Woodland).”
Seymour and Woodland: Tell the band to strike up another toon. You guys also duck the Bulldogs.
Here is the Brass breakdown, with teams the city schools do not play:
- Sacred Heart: Seymour, Woodland
- Crosby: Seymour, Woodland
- Kennedy: Derby, Torrington
- Holy Cross: Oxford, Wolcott
- Wilby: St. Paul, Watertown
- Waterbury Career: Ansonia, Naugatuck
“Copper No. 5 and Iron No. 5 play each other a second time to balance all schedules at 18 games,” Fell added.
That means Seymour and Woodland play twice, if you’re keeping score at home.
“This is done separately for boys and girls schedules,” noted Fell, “as they have different two-year rankings.”
Here is the breakdown for Brass girls:
- Holy Cross: Ansonia, Naugatuck
- Kennedy: Derby, Woodland
- Crosby: Ansonia, Naugatuck
- Sacred Heart: Oxford, Wolcott
- Wilby: St. Paul, Watertown
- Waterbury Career: Torrington, Seymour
Naugatuck plays Ansonia twice to balance the girls schedule.
On to the CIAC
Remember the plan devised by CIAC boys basketball mastermind, Robert “Jiggs” Cecchini? The one that was supposed to balance the state tournament brackets, and by balance we mean bump schools of choice up the competitive ladder? Well, forget it. It will not happen, at least, it will not happen for 2017.
Crosby coach Nick Augelli, a member of the state’s boys basketball committee, explained the kibosh.
“Well, it was the athletic directors,” said Augelli. “Their major concern was the subjective part of it.”
The plan was to move school’s of choice up and out of small school brackets, out of Class S and M, and into the large and larger brackets.
How would this have happened?
“It was going to be a five-member panel,” Augelli said, “a group of basketball aficionados, who would look at the four divisions and see if there were any disparities.”
If we were in a time warp, the committee would have looked at the Class S boys tournament two years ago, or the Class M boys last season, and reasonably concluded: Get Sacred Heart the heck out of there.
“There would have been maybe five or six schools that would have moved,” said Augelli, if the plan was approved.
It wasn’t.
“The idea is to try and avoid these 40- or 50-point blowouts that you see in some games,” added Augelli. “There are some games that are just not fair.”
Polling was favorable among coaches, Augelli said. The plan remains on the table, but at present, the success-in-tournament format is still in play. That plan has, for example, kicked three-time state champion Sacred Heart up into Class L next spring, a division that has, among others, teams like Crosby, Notre Dame-West Haven, Notre Dame-Fairfield, Weaver, Career Magnet and Windsor.
Zounds.
The flaw in the system, however, has Trinity Catholic still in Class S. Holy Cross has been moved out of Class S and into M due to consecutive tourney runs to the quarters and semis, and Immaculate, the S defender, is now in M too, but some may argue that a bump from S to M is too modest, for both teams.
Bottom line: Immaculate, Sacred Heart and East Catholic were your S, M, L champs. But, we trudge on with the same tourney plan.
The success-in-tournament plan works, but it is based on mathematics and it moves slowly. Jiggs’ plan, approved by the committee but no one else, would have moved teams year by year through subjective placement.
It was worth a try. It may still be worth a try, but not in 2017.