Would the current form of Hoosier Hysteria be better off without relying each year on the random ping pong balls to determine who plays who come sectional time?
Would a seeded tournament at the sectional level provide for better matchups, more excitement and bigger crowds?
The given opinion of several South Bend area prep boys basketball coaches is that the format for the sectional tournament should be a seeded one.
Eric Gaff, who guided South Bend Saint Joseph to an IHSAA Class 3A state championship in 2024, is a firm believer that a seeded sectional field is best for the tournament.
The Huskies, who moved up to Class 4A for the 2025-26 season due to the IHSAA success factor, were in a loaded sectional this past winter. The field included eventual champion St. Joe, along with powers South Bend Riley and Penn to go with South Bend Adams, Michigan City, LaPorte and Mishawaka. Those seven teams had a final combined record of 113-59.
“I think that the sectional should be seeded,” said Gaff, who is 92-44 in his five seasons at St. Joe. “If it’s seeded, then that makes the regular season mean more. Every game during the season would matter and count because it would factor into your seeding.
The IHSAA says that the current blind draw system works best due to the fact that every team in the Hoosier state qualifies to play in the state tournament.
“The reason we do not seed here is simple, and it’s because that everyone in our state plays in our tournament,” said IHSAA commissioner Paul Neidig in an interview for this story. “That’s not the case in all of the other states. Everybody participates here, and that puts us in a different standard. We need to be realistic about the differences in schools as far as different locations and the different resources they have.”
Neidig has served as the IHSAA Commissioner since 2020. He served as an assistant commissioner prior to that from 2017 to 2020 and oversaw boys basketball. Prior to coming to the IHSAA, Neidig had a 31-year career in education for the Evansville School Corporation.
Scott Radeker, the highly successful coach at Northridge High School, is all for seeding, even if it were for just the top two teams in each sectional.
“Teams should be rewarded for good regular seasons,” Radeker said. “Having the top two teams in a sectional play at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night makes no sense. It makes perfect sense to seed the top two teams, and that’s pretty easy to see in most sectionals who those teams are. Especially since we have Class basketball.”
Radeker led his 2025-26 squad to Class 4A sectional and regional championships. The Raiders wrapped up their season at 26-2 with a loss to Crown Point in the semi-state title game.
Other coaches push back some on seeding. Barak Coolman, the Penn High School coach, is not completely sold on the idea.
“For me, if there’s an equitable way to seed it, then I would be for it,” Coolman said. “But the hard part for me is what do we use to seed it. The Sagarin ratings are probably the closest thing we have to do it. Another issue is having a different number of teams in different sectionals too. That makes a big difference.
“There’s no crazier feeling than the blind draw,” Coolman continued. “It’s something that a lot of players remember for a lifetime. The whole room is nervous because it’s the unknown and something that is so out of your control.”
Should every team still make the state tournament?
Area coaches are not in agreement when it comes to the question if the state tournament should include all teams regardless of record.
“I do think that the state tournament should be all inclusive,” Coolman said. “It does not hurt anything, and it does not lessen anything. Why are we doing high school sports? I think that it’s for the masses, not for the few. How valuable that sectional experience is to teams is a big thing.”
South Bend Riley’s Alex Daniel is also firmly in support of every team in the state getting a chance for postseason glory.
“The sectional environment is just so unique and so special,” Daniel said. “To me, the more basketball, the better. It’s important to so many different communities and it provides the opportunity for magic to happen.”
Gaff, who played at Concord High School and Grace College before playing professionally overseas, comes down on the other side of the debate.
“I know that people are very loyal and nostalgic to certain parts of our game, but we got rid of one-class basketball, so what is stopping us from other changes?” Gaff remarked. “I think that it’s OK if some teams are left out of the tournament. You lose sometimes, and it hurts. But are we hurting the game by helping everyone.”
Neidig says there are many factors that have to be looked at.
“I do not think that a seeded tournament has garnered significant support from principals and athletic directors,” Neidig stated. “I can’t recall a time where there has been a proposal made to seed the basketball tournament. We have to look at everything involved and say at the end of the day do we get it right in the end.”
An outside-the-box idea
Radeker put forth a unique idea of his own on Hoosier Hysteria.
“I think that it would be really exciting for there to be two tournaments,” Radeker said. “I’d say take like the top 128 teams or something like that based on their regular season success. Then, you have everyone else in a tournament like the NIT.
“This is something that I’ve thought about for a long time. Something like this would have my full support. To not reward teams somehow for a great regular season makes no sense to me.”
Radeker, who is 151-53 in eight seasons at Northridge, added one final caveat.
“I moved here from New York, and I wish that Indiana would have stayed with a single class state tournament,” he said. “The tradition of that here made it special.”
NOTE: This story is part of a special “America 250” project on the history of Indiana high school basketball by journalists within USA Today Co. at the South Bend Tribune, Journal & Courier (Lafayette), The Star Press (Muncie), The Herald-Times (Bloomington) and The Courier & Press (Evansville). All stories will run on those respective sites between July 6-17, with select stories in printed copies of the paper as well.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Should the IHSAA seed the state boys, girls basketball tournaments?
Reporting by Scott Davidson, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Scott Davidson, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
