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| Wednesday, February 28, 2007 | (1 comment(s))
Steve Hanlon/Prep Beat
MUNSTER | When John Boyd speaks of playing a road game in the first round of Class 4A Sectional 1, just call him Professor Experience. For the third time in four years, Boyd's West Side Cougars travelled to Munster in what is a called a "satellite" sectional site.
A better name would be a "stupid sectional site," but I'll get to that in a minute.
"When you come here, you're down 10 when you walk in the door," said Boyd, West Side's coach.
Actually, his team was down 14 in the first half, making the game look a little like last year's satellite slap, won 69-50 by the host Mustangs. But with true grit and ultimate determination, the Cougars stormed back and battled the Mustangs hard down to the wire, or wires in this case.
Munster would go on to win this Instant Classic 72-69 in double overtime. Boyd had no question who would've won had the game been played at E.C. Central, which will host the sectional's semifinals and finals. Boyd had no doubt what would've happened had this tourney been set up like 62 of the other 64 sectionals in Indiana.
"Munster is Munster in their house," Boyd said. "If this game had been played anywhere but here, Munster loses."
Boyd went on to talk about how the satellite sectional concept came about. He said that the four "white" schools -- Highland, Lake Central, Lowell and Munster -- out-voted the two other schools, his own and E.C. Central. He said there is no doubt about what's going on here.
"What way do you think they voted?" he said, knowing what the answer is.
I spoke with Blake Ress earlier on Tuesday, and the IHSAA commissioner said that there was one reason why the state association was petitioned by the schools in Sectional 1 to have satellite sites. It's a reason that backs up Boyd's contention.
"They told me that it would help attendance," Ress said.
There is a belief that white basketball fans won't travel north of Interstate 80-94 to watch basketball games. To that, all I say is take a calculator to E.C. on Friday because you'll need it. Munster and Lake Central will have large fan bases.
But it will be hard to say the contests will match Tuesday's stupendous satellite scenario. That would be next to impossible.
"To win championships, you've got to win on the road," West Side senior Horace Bond said. "It's kind of hard playing on the road, but you've got to be ready to play in a parking lot if that's what it takes to win. We made a few too many mistakes, or we could've got this one."
Ress said he plans on taking a hard look at the satellite sites at East Chicago and at Michigan City, where teams can play home games without hosting. He said he doesn't like them. With that I concur. As does Boyd.
"Munster played great and they deserved to win," Boyd said. "But this doesn't happen on a neutral court."
This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach him at shanlon@nwitimes.com.
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Highland Simian wrote on Feb 28, 2007 1:42 PM: