While several seeding positions remain in doubt, one thing is certain about the District 5-AAA basketball tournament.
It’s going to start Wednesday at Ooltewah High School.
A firm fact: Bradley Central’s Bearettes are the No. 1 seed and looking for their fifth consecutive tournament championship.
A fairly firm fact: Because of winning a coin flip at Wednesday’s coaches meeting at Ooltewah High, which will host the district and region tourneys, Bradley’s Bears (17-8, 10-1) will nail down the No.
1 seed if they defeat East Hamilton on Friday night.
Another fairly firm fact: Cleveland’s Blue Raiders (15-7, 10-1) lost the coin toss and will likely take the No. 2 seed. Cleveland’s only shot at No. 1 is if Bradley loses to East Hamilton and the Blue Raiders defeat Ooltewah (14-14, 5-6) on Friday.
A Bradley loss and Cleveland win would give the top spot to the Blue Raiders.
“We hadn’t thought a whole lot about the tournament,” Bears coach Chuck Clark said. “I know we have to get past East Hamilton to get the No. 1 seed. We’ll dissect all that stuff early Saturday morning. We’re playing pretty good basketball right and now it’s a matter of keeping our heads on right.”
Cleveland beat Bradley, 50-45, on Dec. 12, a game that was played at Lee University, and the Bears posted a 65-62 home-court win over the Blue Raiders on Jan. 24.
The only way they would meet again is for both teams to reach the title game on Feb. 17.
“I think in the past couple of weeks we’ve played some of best basketball we’ve played all season,” Cleveland coach Jason McCowan said. “We had some pressure games, some rivalry games and now the pressure’s off because of the seeding we’ll have.
“We had good (regular season) experiences to prepare ourselves for the district tournament.”
Regardless, Cleveland and Bradley Central have a bye into the semifinals, which means each has to win just one game to reach the championship round. With the bye also comes an automatic berth in the Region 3-AAA tournament.
“You’re already in the region tournament, so you can go ahead and check that box,” McCowan said. “Ultimately, that’s what we’ve wanted to do all season. And we’re either one or two in the district. There’s no trophy for the regular season, so you’re jockeying for position three months or so.”
Walker Valley defeated Cleveland, 68-63, for the 2014 tournament championship despite 29 points from senior Kendrick Thompson.
Bradley Central has won seven of its last eight games. The Bears lost at Baylor, 54-50, last weekend.
“That loss was humbling,” Clark said. “I don’t know if we got full of ourselves or what, but we’ve accepted it and we’ll learn a lot from it. Play three games in four days and go to Farragut and beat a pretty good team, then your mind-set and heart are pretty good.”
Friday night games also have a direct bearing on the Nos. 3-4-5 seeds. Walker Valley (12-13, 6-6) and Ooltewah (14-14, 5-6) could finish tied for third place, but the Owls have to beat Cleveland on Friday for that to happen.
If that occurs, Ooltewah won have the tie-breaker with the victory over Cleveland. The Blue Raiders won the earlier matchup, 58-37, on Jan. 13 in Cleveland.
Soddy-Daisy’s Trojans (8-14, 1-10), who wind up league play at home against McMinn County, is the No. 7 seed.
On the girls’ side, the Bearettes were forced to play a different style this season with a bunch of youngsters after losing Twin Towers Brooke Copeland and Rebecca Reuter, now at Florida and Middle Tennessee State.
But the end result remained the same.
Bradley (18-5, 10-1) earned the top seed secured the top seed no matter the outcome in Friday’s game against the East Hamilton girls (7-21, 1-10). A Bradley loss would give the Bearettes and Lady Mustangs identical 10-2 league records. However, Bradley holds the tie-breaker with its regular-season sweep of Walker Valley.
“We weren’t picked by the coaches to be No. 1, but this was definitely our goal,” Bearettes coach Jason Reuter said. “Compared to past years I knew this would be the biggest challenge for us because of our youth.”
The Bearettes start a freshman (Rhyne Howard), a junior (Julia Gaither) and three sophomores (Halle Hughes, Emily Kate Brown and Kailey McRee).
Going into the regular-season finale, Bradley has won 13 of its last 15 games, losing only to Baylor (59-45) and Farragut (36-32).
Six days after the Baylor loss, the Bearettes (18-5, 10-1) ripped East Hamilton 91-23 on Jan. 13, so the No. 1 seed appears solidly wrapped in black-and-gold colors.
“That 10-1 record is not a surprise,” Reuter said. “It’s a complement to our young players. A 32-minute basketball game can get away from you with the snap of your fingers. We went to overtime to win at Walker Valley. It was a blowout at our place. We had a close loss at Cleveland and then beat them easily at our place.
“I’m very proud of my girls. They have been battle-tested. We’re setting right where we want to be and we have no one to blame but ourselves if we don’t get back to the finals this year.”
Walker Valley (19-6, 10-2) is the No. girls seed and Cleveland (14-10, 8-3) No. 3.
East Hamilton (7-21, 1-10) falls in at No. 7.
The third, fourth and fifth seeds will be determined Friday on the court.
If Soddy-Daisy (10-12, 4-7) beats McMinn County the Lady Trojans will claim the No. 4 seed.
The Lady Owls (6-17, 3-8) can get the No. 6 seed with a win over the Lady Blue Raiders.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)