There’s four WIAA Super Tuesday match-ups around the state tonight, with spots in this week’s WIAA State Tournament up for grabs.
Top ranked Appleton East (25-0) faces 2nd ranked Germantown (24-1). That’s the premier match-up and will tip off at 7pm at UW-Oshkosh. The winner gains a spot in the Division 1 field on Friday night. The season is over for the loser.
In Stevens Point, Superior squares off against DePere. Beloit Memorial takes on Milwaukee Hamilton at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee and Madison Memorial faces Milwaukee Riverside at UW-Whitewater.
Previously, eight teams made the division 1 state tournament field, but the WIAA made a very unpopular change, reducing the field from 8 to 4 teams and forcing some teams to travel great distances on a school night to determine the 4-team state field.
The result means the teams have little prep time from the end of the game to the division 1 semifinals on Friday night at the Kohl Center. Little time for the teams, little time for the schools to coordinate fan buses as well as sign-ups to get their fans to Madison. Andlittle time for the fans themselves to find hotel rooms and make their own travel plans, not knowing until after Tuesday night if their team is going to be making the trip.
In the past, if you won your sectional, it meant you were making a trip to state. That’s still the case for division’s 2 through 5. But for division 1, it now only means just another step in the process that it takes to get to the State Championships in Madison.
The games themselves should be great. But they’ll be played on a regional basis, instead of at the “Big Show” down in Madison.