Seeding controversies creeping into Lanierland

GAINESVILLE - For many sports fans in Hall County, the Lanierland Tournament is the highlight of the year in high school sports.

Every year the basketball tournament, which now features all seven of Hall County's public schools plus Lakeview Academy, provides excitement, thrilling games and bragging rights.

Not to mention, some sort of controversy. Nothing has changed so far in 2003.

"Strange" seedings, as one coach put it, has been the biggest point of controversy the last two years.

For the entire history of the 44-year tournament, seedings have been determined by winning percentage of the teams to that point in the season. For most of the life of the tournament, the best teams generally were seeded No. 1.

But two of the last three years, the best team in either the boys or girls bracket has not been seeded first, which has led to some grumbling about whether a new process is needed.

This year, the Johnson girls are seeded No. 1 by virtue of their unbeaten record. But most observers believe the Gainesville girls, who are seeded fourth, should be the No. 1 seed. The Lady Elephants, despite two losses to Class AAAAA teams, are ranked No. 1 in Class AAA and are considered one of the nation's best teams.

Johnson coach Benji Wood said before his opening-round game Saturday against North Hall that something needs change.

"For Gainesville not to be the No. 1 seed, there's something wrong here," Wood said. "For the most part (the seeding process) works but here is a clear reason why we may need to look at some other way. As the No. 1 seed, we probably have the toughest draw in the tournament. That's not the way it's supposed to work."

One coach, who did not want to be indentified, said they don't like Lanierland because of the seeding process.

Enter Greg Williams, the former North Hall boys coach who has taken on the job as Tournament Director this year. Williams and his Trojans two years ago were a victim of the first major seeding controversy.

Class A Lakeview Academy, which was making its first-ever appearance in the tournament, was seeded No. 1 having played just four games, despite both the North Hall and East Hall teams being ranked in their classifications. As a result, North Hall and East Hall met in the second round instead of the finals.

"That was a shame because that would have been an amazing finals. But that's how the system has been set up and you have to deal with it," Williams said. "We couldn't change things in midstream just because we thought the wrong team might be seeded No. 1. When you start bringing personal feelings into it, that could make things worse."

They did change one rule after that year. A minimum of five games had to be played to get seeded. The Johnson girls were 5-0 heading into the tournament this year.

Which brings us to now.

Williams, who resigned as North Hall coach after last season, took the Director's post after being approached by several principals in the county. He said they have been exploring how to move forward in the future..

But he did not say whether changes would be instituted.

"First of all, me being the director is really in name only. I don't have any autonomous power to change things. If we want to change something, all the coaches get to vote on it. A simple majority," he said.

"But, that being said, I think we should look at it at the end of the year to see what we can do. But remember, change isn't always the best thing. The system we have now worked very well until the last couple of years."

Some have suggested a seeding committee. It actually was discussed last year but didn't get very far.

"If we were to change the seeding process, that would probably be the one I would suggest. But that way has its drawbacks as well," he said. "First of all, who gets to pick the committee? Me? The coaches? The school administrators? That could lead to other problems and controversies. There are a lot of questions to be answered.

"Then, we could seek out the most objective people we could find to be on the committee and still personal politics would find its way into the process, which would bring different problems and controversies. So, nothing is perfect.

"Right now, there is no politics at all in the process. It's a very simple process: the team with the best percentage is the top seed. It doesn't take into account who we THINK is the best team. This way there's no personal feelings, just results. I like that. Plus, it only takes about on hour to do the whole thing. I shudder to think how long it would take any other way," Williams said.

Williams said they will discuss some things once the entire season is over. He wasn't sure if his post is year-to-year or a somewhat permanent position.

"We didn't talk about whether this job, which I don't get paid to do by the way, is permanent or not. There is a need for someone other than coaches of the hosting schools to put the tournament on. There are a lot of little things that have to be done. And, by someone else doing it, the coaches can just coach. I think (a director) is something this tournament needs now, and if they want to keep doing it, I probably would," he said.

"As long as there are no controversies."

Uh, oh.