By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
While not perfect, the WIAA’s initial boys and girls basketball RPIs were finalized Monday.
Intended to provide a more equitable path to the state tournament, the RPI was introduced by the state’s high school athletics governing body in the fall. A similar ranking could be introduced to football in the near future.
The short delay between the end of regular season contests and the RPI release was a review period that allowed coaches and athletic directors the chance to confirm and input all of their schools’ regular season schedules.
The RPI rankings, available at tinyurl.com/PDN-WIAARPI, will seed the state regional round this Sunday once schools are finished qualifying through district tournaments.
RPI rankings also will seed the state Hardwood Classic (i.e. the state tournaments in Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane).
The RPI goes hand-in-hand with the new Hardwood Classic format where 16 teams per classification will play at regional sites Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24-25.
In the regional round of state, four games involving the top eight seeds based on RPI rankings will be played (i.e. No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7 etc. … ) with the winner advancing to the second round at the state championship site with a bye, while the losing team will still advance to the first round at the state championship site.
The other four games involving seed Nos. 9-16 will be loser-out contests (No. 9 vs. No. 16, No. 10 vs. No. 15 etc … ).
Winners of those games advance to the state championship site (Tacoma, Yakima, Spokane) to play the losers of the four games involving seed Nos. 1-8.
Round 1 games at state will be single elimination and the tournament will continue with an eight-team modified double elimination format in the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship.
Six trophies will be awarded per gender per classification.
Got all that? Good. Here’s some North Olympic Peninsula scenarios.
After a two-game win streak in the Class West Central District Tournament last week, the Port Angeles girls (13-8) have qualified for a regional berth for the third time in the past four seasons.
But, the Roughriders’ hot finish (six straight wins) was only partially taken into consideration in the final RPI calculation.
This is because the RPI currently comes down to two factors: a team’s win-loss percentage and strength of schedule.
The formula is weighted as follows: 25 percent for a team’s win-loss percentage, 25 percent to that team’s opponents’ win-loss percentage and 50 percent to opponents’ opponents’ win-loss percentage.
So the Port Angeles’ girls postseason wins over Eatonville and Renton didn’t factor in to the Riders’ final RPI ranking (No. 21). Those victories wouldn’t have been enough to vault Port Angeles into the protected top eight, but it might have moved them up from a lower regional seed (the Riders project as the No. 15 seed at regionals, but could move higher depending on district upsets). They can’t go lower, state regional qualifier Franklin Pierce is ranked No. 22.
Roughriders coach Michael Poindexter said he likes using the RPI to seed the state tournament, but did point out a big flaw in not using district playoff results in the final tabulation.
The reason for this, the WIAA explains, is that different districts play a different number of qualifying games. Some play two games, some play 10, and that difference could skew results.
“There’s a coaches committee that is working on some potential changes to the system like adding in the district results,” Poindexter said.
In effect, if your team qualifies for the state regional round quickly, it takes much of the air out of the remainder of the district tournament. State-qualified teams are no longer fighting for a higher district seed to regionals as the RPI methodology now handles the seeding.
The Port Angeles girls face two games that are essentially dress rehearsal’s for the state regional round — a district semifinal against RPI No. 3 White River (21-2) on Thursday, followed by a potential district championship or third-place game against Franklin Pierce or North Kitsap. With all four teams already set and seeded for regionals, the air has been let out of the balloon.
Other girls teams still in the mix for a regional berth include: 2A Sequim and 1B Neah Bay, and if they defeated Lopez on Tuesday night, the Clallam Bay Bruins. If all three teams were to advance, they would be part of the No. 9-16 seeded group in their respective classifications’ tournament.
Boys side
On the boys side: 1A Port Townsend plays Cascade Christian at 6 p.m. tonight at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma for a state regional berth, and 1B Neah Bay will play in Port Angeles on Thursday in another winner-to-regionals game.
If the Port Angeles boys beat Fife in Tuesday’s late game, the Riders would also remain in the mix for the 2A regionals, needing to win one more district game to advance. Forks also needs two wins to make the 1A regional round. The Rider boys (2A No. 27) and Spartans (1A No. 28) would be part of the lower reaches of the No. 9-16 seeds if they were to advance.
Neah Bay (17-3), which is in the midst of a 15-game winning streak, has steadily climbed the 1B RPI rankings and can reap the rewards with a win Thursday evening against Pope John Paul or Cedar Park Christian (Mountlake Terrace).
The Red Devils will clinch a regional berth and a trip to Spokane for the 1B tournament with a victory. As the No. 1 seed, defending state champion Neah Bay could lose its regional game and would still play in a Round 1 game at Spokane Arena.
This is a good thing. The WIAA has allowed for some potentially high-quality regional matchups between the top eight seeds, a state preview as it were, while also protecting those higher-achieving teams from early elimination.
On the outside looking in, Port Townsend (15-4) has been hurt by playing in the four-team Olympic League 1A Division. The Redhawks have faced weak competition in league, and with the four teams playing each other three times in league play, Port Townsend’s strength of schedule has been impacted. The Redhawks sit at No. 27 in the 1A RPI, so if they win tonight and make the regional round, they will be a lower seed in the No. 9-16 group.
In seasons past, a Port Townsend team that advanced to the district championship would earn a No. 1 or No. 2 seed to state regionals. However, the RPI has upset that routine this season.
But the bottom-line math remains the same: keep winning and everything takes care of itself. Including trips to state.
Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News Neah Bay, in black jerseys, and Port Townsend, in white jerseys, represent the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the effect of the WIAA’s new RPI system. Here, Port Townsend’s Jacob Boucher and Neah Bay’s Sean Bitegeko (12), Kendrick Doherty and Anthony Bitegeko (3) during the Crush in the Slush at Port Townsend High School in December.
