With Portageville and Scott Co. Central, it seems like old times
Put Jim Bidewell or Ronnie Cookson in a state championship game and it's hard to bet against them.
The two coaches are a combined 18-1 in state championship games, and both added to the total this week in Columbia. Cookson's Scott County Central team won 98-63 in the Class 1 final Saturday, and Bidewell's Portageville team won 60-55 in Class 2 on Friday.
It's the first title win for both coaches in more than 15 years (1993 for Central, '94 for Portageville), and it's the first time since 2004 that two Southeast Missouri boys teams returned as state champs.
Congratulations to both on a great weekend.
But the weekend puts a twist on our final SEMO Top 25 poll of the season — or does it? Scott Central, No. 2 in the Top 25, dominated the Class 1 playoffs, while No. 1 Sikeston lost in the quarterfinals to Borgia, the eventual Class 4 state champion.
Who ended the season as Southeast Missouri's No. 1 team?
9 comments:
I would have to say SCC. The way the Sikeston/SCC game was played there it seemed that neither team really was going to beat the other. Only the clock on the scoreboard was able to produce a 1pt winner and loser. I think after that game it was SCC who improved down the stretch rather than Sikeston. Their run through the playoffs of having a running clock in everygame is something that really needs to be recognized, no matter what class it occured in. If you want to look at it analytically, at the time of THE GAME both teams were relatively evenly matched. But from that point on it was SCC who continued to improve and play its best basketball while Sikeston unfortunantly did not.
I would have SCC at 1, Sikeston at 2, Portageville at 3. SCC only lost by 1 point to Sikeston and went on to win a state title. I think Sikeston should and will end up in the top 2 or 3 in the state rankings.
While I agree SCC had an amazing run, I don't agree that Sikeston didn't show improvement. They just happened to run into an amazing team in the quarterfinals. There were no teams in Class 1 that were in SCC's league so therefore blowouts were going to happen. Put SCC against Borgia, and there season ends in the quarterfinals too. True, Sikeston and SCC were evenly matched but you can only crown one winner and Sikeston won the game. If it comes down to which team should be ranked No. 1, you have to go with Sikeston based on that rationale. The bottom line is this, SCC played three Class 4 teams and they lost two of the three, beating only ND.
Should be Sikeston 1, SCC 2 but this site will have it the other way. Both teams were great and SCC's run was impressive. However, you put Sikeston in Class 1 and they beat the piss out of those guys as well. And the scoreboard didn't produce the winner of THE GAME, Michael Porter did. If it goes the other way then SCC is 1. Two great teams non the less. I would also put ND at three, they would blow Portageville out of the water.
As much as I'd like to see ND at 3, I don't think I'd put them that high personally. I think Charleston is getting left out here...they beat some good teams, won their district, and lost to the eventual state champs in the quarterfinals.
Actually Sikeston was the only Class 4 team that SCC lost to. Memphis Central is Class AAA (the largest classification in Tennessee). Their enrollment of 1,875 would make them a good sized Class 5 school in Missouri. They were ranked in the top 10 in the state of Tennessee most of the year and lost to eventual state champ White Station 72-71 in the State tournament. Had Central been in Missouri, I think they would have been the prohibitive favorites to win Class 5. You also really can't justify a 1 point win over SCC as the only determining factor in making Sikeston number 1. If it was based solely on who beat who, would Poplar Bluff not have claim to be number 1 since they beat Sikeston head to head? I think we all can agree that even though Sikeston lost to Bluff, the Bulldogs were the better team for the entire season. I think the same assessment can be made about SCC. Even though they lost to Sikeston by 1pt, taking into consideration what they did over the entire season in my opinion makes them the number 1 team.
Even though PB beat Sikeston, they lost to several opponentes that we beat. We never lost to a team that SCC beat, so you couldn't use that theory.
Sikeston 1
SCC 2
Pville 3
Well lets just put it this way since everybody is comparing scores. Sikeston beat SCC in the head to head matchup. Both had a great season. SCC lost pretty soundly in their first game to Memphis Central and lost to Sikeston. Sikeston lost four games, all of which came down to the wire with the game at Bluff being the only local team to beat them. I'm sorry SCC fans, but Sikeston had an answer for SCC and they beat them. Everybody has talked about how great SCC looked in the postseason but didn't they play great against Sikeston on Feb. 11 and Sikeston still beat them? I put Sikeston #1 and SCC #2.
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