CHAMPAIGN — Manual High School boys, Washington girls and Dee-Mack girls were Peoria-area basketball teams who avoided the challenge of navigating third-place games this spring in the IHSA state finals format.
Others have not been so lucky the last few years.
“I think it’s a bad format,” Richwoods boys head coach William Smith said. “I don’t logistically understand it. Every team in the Final Four has had a phenomenal season.
“To say you lose in the morning and have to turn around and play again … It’s not fair to the kids or to the fans.”
From 2022-24 the IHSA shifted to a new format where semifinals and third-place games for the small schools were played on Thursday and the same for large schools happened on Friday. Saturday was set aside for four state championship games only.
It meant a two-game, one-day experience for eight schools.
After a one-year hiatus on that format in 2025, the IHSA shifted back to the one-day semifinals/third-place schedule this spring.
Richwoods went 30-5 in 2023-24 and lost its Class 3A semifinal 52-41 to Chicago DePaul, then won the third-place game 62-50 over Mt. Zion.
“The only team that really gets the experience is the 1A and 2A championship game,” Smith said. “Class 3A and 4A, no matter what happens one of them is playing again tonight and the other tomorrow.
“Everyone starts on Thursday. The games are running later than before. There are things that need to be fixed. Our 8 p.m. game didn’t start until 9.”
The IHSA format was under some scrutiny on social media this weekend as games unfolded at State Farm Center. It’s a situation for which there might not be an answer that will make everyone happy.
“We recognize it’s a quick turnaround for the participants,” IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said. “It works smoother in terms of the teams coming in and out. Last year we went away from having two games on the same day, it was a trial year where no one had to play two in one day. The advisory committee came back and recommended we return to this current format.
“You get a variety of positions based on whether you win or lose, I think. Attendance was a factor, it’s hard to get fans to attend a consolation game. We find if we move a consolation game off the same day as the semifinal, the attendance goes down. We find more people tend to stick around when the consolation game is a few hours later, they are already there.”
Smith suggests shifting to a 3-class format, or playing Class 1A and 2A games on Thursday, with another round of 1A and 2A games on Friday morning before the Class 3A and 4A opening games. Then bring 3A and 4A back to finish up on Saturday.
The Fieldcrest girls team went 34-4 in 2021-22 but lost an IHSA Class 2A state semifinal 51-47 to Winnebago on a Thursday and came back a few hours later that same night, losing the third-place game to Pana, 49-45.
Mitch Neally, now athletic director at Heyworth, was head coach of that Fieldcrest team.
“The IHSA does a great job of giving our athletes a great experience,” he said. “I know things are difficult from a scheduling standpoint. I remember that day felt like a whirlwind. We played the last game of the Class 2A session that day. Got down 22 at half, fought back, lost by 4, overcame all those emotions … then have to play a third-place game after that; it was tough on our girls to get their minds right.
“We had five girls play 95% of that game. They were trying to find a way to will themselves back to play. It was a tough day. As much as I love the state experience, I do feel our girls didn’t get to experience state like they should have gotten.
“We left Fieldcrest at noon and got back around midnight. That one day will never be forgotten but it happened so fast. … It’s very difficult to play two of the biggest games of the season within a few hours. I say all those things but I don’t know the logistics behind what the IHSA faced. I hate to say it, but it really wasn’t the traditional state experience.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Is there a better format for IHSA state basketball finals? ‘Felt like a whirlwind’
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
