Kasen Bryce dunks during Preston High School’s state championship game victory over Hillcrest High School. | Pat Sutphin, EastIdahoSports.com EASTERN IDAHO — Can a tournament winner be called “state champion” if they aren’t playing the best teams in the state? That is the type of thought the coaches of the now-5A District 5 — South East Idaho Conference — boys basketball teams have been pondering for several years. A number of conferences, and sports, would benefit from a reexamination of how the state tournament brackets are built, but few would gain as much as the three-team conference, which includes Preston, Century and Pocatello. Longtime Preston head coach Tyler Jones was very blunt when asked if the state needs to consider changing the selection process. “For sure,” he told EastIdahoSports.com. “We’ve been battling this for a long time. Even in the years when we’ve won state, Pocatello and Century, I felt, deserved to be there as well. Last year, I thought, for sure, we were a top-two or -three team, but we were sitting at home watching.” He added: “I think that there’s a way that you can get representation and the best team to state. I think, the fans and spectators, they want the best teams. That’s what the state tournament should be about.” Preston High School won the state championship this year, and there is no question about their title. Their lone loss came in the form of a one-point overtime defeat at the hands of a Timberline team that finished third in the 6A tournament. The question that does arise is whether Reggie Larsen and company could be calling themselves two- or even three-time champs, had they only gotten an invite to the tournament. A deeper look into the 5A classification — which, until this year, was 4A — shows that each of the last four state tournament winners have come from the east side of the state. Going further, 10 of the last 11 and 12 of the last 14 champs, have come from Districts 5 or 6. Given that run of dominance then, why would only three of the eight slots in the tournament go to this region? Six of those 12 champs spanning the past 14 years have come from D5 — Preston in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2025, and Pocatello in 2024. And here’s the thing: Pocatello lost just five games on their 2023-24 title run, two at the hands of a Preston team they never had to fear when the state tourney rolled around. Jones insisted that Pocatello was a deserving champ last season, adding that his team had the slight of not receiving an invite on their collective minds this season. The players were “fueled” by it and “made up for it” this year, he said. Even Century, though it has struggled for a place at the table, has been successful when the Diamondbacks earn an invite to Nampa. Having appeared in just four tourneys since 2014, Century has won trophies three times — as runners-up once and third-place twice. Century head coach Ryan Frost called the IHSAA’s current selection process “unfortunate” and “definitely unfair.” Century finished the 2024-25 season with an 0-4 record against Pocatello and Preston, but they were 12-7 against all other opponents — splitting home-and-aways with state participants Bonneville and Jerome. “You never know until you play, but I’d like to think that we’d go there and at least be competitive,” Frost said. “We played Preston the toughest they had all season besides them losing to Timberline: we lost by four to them.” For comparison sake, Preston won its three state tournament games by an average of 22.3 points per game. Pocatello head coach Kobi Gardea has also expressed frustration regarding the selection process, but did not respond to several requests for interview from EastIdahoSports.com. Century celebrates a buzzer-beater victory over the Highland Rams. | Courtesy photo The past and other issues Over the past decade, the D5 teams have tried to find other ways to earn additional spots in the tourney. They have, at different times, joined District 4 and District 6. But they have been booted from both, in Frost’s opinion, because they “gobble up” state berths. As the Century coach explained, those decisions do not come by mandate from the IHSAA, but rather are left up to the decision of the conference and its teams, which “seems odd” to Frost because other district loses nothing by keeping the status quo. Jones said his Preston program would “for sure” welcome being invited back into the joint conference with either District 4 or 6. “We would welcome that. We’d love to be in a bigger conference,” he said. Frost also addressed the fact that, for several years, the tournament has been hosted annually in the Boise-Nampa area, saying it would be nice to share the benefits that come with hosting the tourney with the rest of the state. Players, he noted, gain an advantage when they sleep in their own bed, eat in their own dining room and play in their own area. Tournaments also bring a boost to the local economy and interest in the local community. There are sites across the state — University of Idaho, the Mountain America Center (in Idaho Falls) and Idaho State University, just to name a few — that would be logical hosts, he said. Potential fixes? Jones floated some potential fixes weeks ago, saying the best possible option would be to have each district champ — of which there are five — take the top five seeds, then have the final three seeds decided by at-large or play-in bids. One idea is to have the top six-ranked non-district champs play a separate play-in tournament. This year, that would have meant that Pocatello, Skyview, Sandpoint, Bishop Kelly, Middleton and Bonneville — in that order — would have been playing for the three spots that went to Bonneville (5-seed), Columbia (6) and Jerome (8). Since Jones discussed his ideas with EastIdahoSports.com, coaches across the state have received an email asking them to vote on potential changes to state tournament selections. The email states that any changes would affect how “volleyball, soccer, basketball and softball teams will qualify for state and state play-in games” beginning during the 2026-27 school year. To continue its use as a microcosm for the statewide issue, 5A basketball currently sees eight of its 27 schools earn berth into the tournament — around 30%. District 1-2 gets one spot, for it district tournament champ; D-3 gets two spots, for its tourney champ and play-in winner; D-4 also gets two spots, for champ and play-in winner; D-5 gets one; and D-6 gets two, for champ and play-in winner. Coaches are currently voting for one of three options. Option one is to keep the current system. Option two would actually remove one of those spots, cutting the state field to seven and giving the top seed a first-round bye in the tournament. Option three matches Jones’ proposal. The “40% Bracket with Rule of 5 Representation” would create 11 spots in the tournament. Five would go to the district tourney champs, while Districts 3, 4 and 6 would each get a second automatic at-large bid, due to the number of schools in the district. The final three spots would be determined by MaxPreps rankings. In this format, seeds 6 to 11 would play a full play-in round, as Jones suggested. The reason more teams should be involved in the basketball tournament, Frost explained, is the potential for upsets is greater than, for example, football. Every year, 16 teams qualify for the football state tournament in each classification, with upsets few and far between. The reason so many people tune into the NCAA’s “March Madness” tournament, Frost continued, is because of how often 12s beat 5s. Plus, there is a week between tourney games in football — where higher seeds host games in the first and second rounds. Frost spoke about the “cost-benefit analysis” of adding games to the basketball tournament, saying it would lean heavily to the plus-side. Adding an entire round of play, and allowing higher seeds to host the first two rounds, with the semis and finals the following weekend at a neutral site, would add an incredible level of involvement and interest, Frost said. “It would be a great atmosphere.” EastIdahoSports.com will follow this story when results of the current coaches vote are released.The post IHSAA considering state tourney realignment; D5, which has won 6 of 10 boys basketball 5A banners, would benefit appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com