Playoff Changes Increases Competition for Boys’ Basketball
At the end of a standard regular basketball season in a normal year teams from all over the state would compete against each other to see which team is the best; this year there will still be competition in a bracket format, however, the teams facing each other will be more local causing better chances for the boys’ basketball team to advance.
Coach Kevin McKenna said the bracket should make it a lot easier for the team to compete, but the boys’ basketball team is still trying to improve in all areas.
“We are gonna scout up, work on our defense, work on our execution and our rebounding because those are the small things that win championships and win brackets,” Mckenna said.
The W.I.A.A. revised the assignments of teams for the 2021 Boys’ Basketball Tournament Series.“The revisions are in response to the number of programs that have declared they will not be participating in the Tournament Series this season,” the W.I.A.A. website states.
In previous years the HUHS boys’ basketball team competed in a sectional against 16 other teams from all over the state including teams such as Sussex, Arrowhead, Brookfield Central, and Wauwatosa East.
This year, Hartford competes against more local teams in Division 1 Sectional 2C along with Beaver Dam, Slinger, West Bend East, West Bend West.
Senior Adam Johnson said normally they would’ve been playing a top team in the state like Brookfield Central or Wauwatosa East making it harder to advance.
“I believe the new setup gives us a chance to get out of our sectional because we would play teams from our conference who are not as difficult as a Brookfield Central or Tosa team,” Johnson said. “We also would have the advantage of playing them already so we would know some of their personnel.”
Senior Caleb Much said the change to sectionals will benefit the team tremendously since they are playing teams in the area they are familiar with.
“We know how Slinger and the West Bend teams play and this will make it much easier to plan and prepare to face one of these teams in the playoffs because we have faced them before and we know what to expect,” Much said.
However, McKenna thinks they still need to be focused with their regular season games. “We can’t worry about playoffs with our record, we have to worry about the next game, the next practice, the next play,” McKenna said.
Much thinks if the team works together more, plays up to their maximum potential, and works hard they can compete with anyone.
“Once the playoffs start, our record doesn't matter anymore as each game is win or go home,” Much said. “We know that we can win our regional, we just need to start playing better as a team.”
