This girls basketball season will be unlike any other in UIL history.
For the first time ever, the UIL will crown two state champions in each classification for basketball and will split the four playoff teams from each district into Division I and Division II brackets based on enrollment. That will mirror what is done in Class 6A for football.
“I have always really enjoyed the spirit of competition and the big bracket and how everything laid out with the single state champion in each classification,” said Ross Reedy, coach of back-to-back Class 5A state champion Frisco Liberty. “But any time you get an arrangement like this, it’s always exciting to see new challenges. Now when you come out of district, you don’t get the 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 [matchups]. You might be playing a state-ranked team in the first round.”
The new playoff format means that 12-time state champion Duncanville and two-time state champion DeSoto can’t meet in the 6A Region II final as they have done in three of the last four seasons. Defending 6A state champion Duncanville has the largest enrollment in District 11-6A and is guaranteed to be in the Division I bracket if it makes the playoffs, and 2021 and 2022 6A state champion DeSoto would go Division II if it makes the postseason since it has the smallest enrollment in the district.
Duncanville, ranked No. 1 in the state entering the season, also might avoid a playoff matchup with rival Cedar Hill, as the state’s ninth-ranked team would go Division II unless both DeSoto and Lancaster make the playoffs. There is a small chance that 2024 6A state runner-up South Grand Prairie could end up in the Division II bracket, but for that to happen both Arlington Martin and Arlington Sam Houston would have to make the playoffs.
Only state championship games will be played at the Alamodome in San Antonio, with those taking place Feb. 27 through March 1 and two classifications playing per day. Teams will no longer have to play their state semifinal the day before, as teams in 6A, 4A and 2A had to do last season, because the semifinals will now be played at neutral sites and will be the Monday and Tuesday of state week.
That benefits a team such as Duncanville.
“With our style of play and how hard we play, it gives us an advantage, because now we get rest in between,” Duncanville coach Neiman Ford said. “With our full-court pressure, it’s kind of a struggle to play those back-to-back games. You have to repeat that intensity in less than 24 hours. But give us a couple of days, and I feel like we’ll be ready to go.”
The final day of the state championships will feature two title games apiece in 6A and 5A. That could create a boost in attendance after last season’s 5A final drew 3,044 fans and the 6A title game had a crowd of 2,961.
Teams will now play only six playoff games instead of seven, and schools have the option of having a regional tournament or playing the regional semifinals and finals at neutral sites. If they choose not to have a regional tournament, the semifinals would be Feb. 17-18 and the finals would be Feb. 20-22.
“I love the fact that we don’t have regional tournaments anymore,” said Chance Westmoreland, coach of six-time state champion Argyle. “Last year in our regional semi we go double overtime against Tascosa, and that was the late game. We turn around the next day and play Timberview. I think the regional final is the most important game of the year to get you to state, and it’s so hard to play it on sometimes 12 hours rest. Now, you can have a neutral site and you will have time to prepare.”
Last season, both the 6A and 5A state championship games matched the winners from Region I and Region II. That can’t happen in the new format, as the winners of those two regions will automatically play in the state semifinals.
Class 5A is already broken up into Division I and Division II before the season starts in football, but it won’t be that way in basketball until after the current two-year alignment cycle ends.
Frisco Liberty has won three state championships in the last five years and has the third-smallest enrollment in 11-5A, so it’s likely headed to the Division II bracket with state No. 4 Argyle and No. 8 Frisco Memorial. But if Memorial and Frisco Independence both make the playoffs, then state No. 1-ranked Liberty would end up in Division I with No. 2 Amarillo and No. 3 Leander Glenn.
Liberty’s playoff path could possibly include a matchup with Lubbock Monterey five-star point guard Aaliyah Chavez, the No. 1 recruit in the nation in the Class of 2025. Monterey, the state’s fifth-ranked team, has the fourth-largest enrollment in 3-5A.
“You may not know your [first] opponent until the Friday before the playoffs start,” Westmoreland said. “In the past, you could plan out your route. It’s going to be a little anxious for coaches, but I think it’s going to be exciting, because it can change so quickly. There are over 220 schools in 5A, and there is no reason we can’t have a big and small school winner in every classification.”
Complicating matters is the situation at Class 5A Faith Family, which added 13 transfers during the offseason after hiring four-time state champion Andrea Robinson away from DeSoto to be the head coach at the UIL charter school. Faith Family’s transfers include four players ranked among the top 100 recruits in the nation, as well as two other all-state players, and the 13-5A district executive committee found Faith Family and its girls basketball coaches guilty of recruiting violations, a lack of transparency and withholding information.
The UIL state executive committee will decide the punishments, and options include suspensions for Robinson and assistant coaches Kadi Creel and Jordan Jones and a possible playoff ban for the school. There hasn’t been a DEC hearing yet to determine the varsity eligibility of the transfers, and the start of the season is fast approaching, with UIL teams starting games Nov. 1.
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