State Tournament in January? No way!

Okay, so the two time defending 5A state basketball champions have lost four of their first six games this season. Does that mean its time to start to worry? Nope.

BlueJay fans have been spoiled with an impressive win/loss record in the last few seasons, but the win/loss column does not clinch your ticket to the state tournament. On all levels of basketball you will find teams with sub par .500 records make the post season dance.

I am not going to try and calculate this year’s basketball record, but come February is when you need to start to look at the entire field in Class 5A. Not January.

Not one team has won the state championship in December, January, or early February.

Granted, it is a vert good thing to be playing basketball on the West side of the state then the East this season. Have you seen the deep and talented field up the turnpike? Edison, Memorial, Washington, and East Central, but good news is the West will not run into them until March.

The West is more wide open. Are they as good as the East? No, but in a one game setting on a neutral floor anyone can win in the state tournament.

The goal for Ardmore, Western Heights, El Reno, Guthrie, NW Classen, and Capitol Hill is to host a regional. There are only four of those to go around. With that said, I’m not sure there is a real home court advantage. Perhaps, Ardmore because of the travel.

Guthrie is 6-4, but have you seen their schedule? Western Heights, El Reno, Carl Albert, NW Classen, McGuinness, and Norman North. Ardmore is upcoming in the first round of the Carl Albert Tournament and Carl Albert in February.

What the current record does show is making the conference championship game will be an uphill battle with losses to El Reno and Western Heights. Jays can still make it, but will need to get wins over El Reno and Western Heights along with two wins over Deer Creek to give themselves a chance. Then again, conference championships are not a state tournament qualifier either.

How good is the Suburban Conference North this year? Guthrie, El Reno, Deer Creek, Western Heights, and Piedmont are a combine 32 and 17.

So come playoff time, Guthrie will know exactly what they will have in front of them because they have already played top ranked teams, or have played a schedule to prepare them for what the playoffs bring.

Add in the experience factor these Jays have piled the last few seasons will give them an advantage. Granted this is not a complete team yet, but would you expect that in early January? The one common formula this team seems to have compared to other Pete Papahronis team’s is team defense and we have seen what defense can bring to trophy cases.

Guthrie is getting scoring from multiple outlets, but we are still waiting to see one player who wants to take control of a game when needed.

Every team has questions to be answered, but we will have to wait until February to get them answered.