Column: Tournament should have bigger stakes

Published 10:41 pm Saturday, December 31, 2005

One couldn’t help but notice the sparse turnout last week for the Carpet Capital Holiday Classic at the trade center.

Basketball fans stayed away in droves. The Highlands Arena was nothing more than an echo chamber and casual conversations could be heard over the bounce of basketballs.

Out-of-town entrant Sequatchie County, which is located in Dunlap, Tenn. (about 25 miles west of Chattanooga), had a nice following and gobbled up 17 rooms at a local motel for two nights. Not many other people made an effort to support the four-day event.

The atmosphere inside the Highlands Arena had zero electricity.

There is something very unappealing about a week of basketball that is simply an opportunity for teams to play three guaranteed games without anything at stake. In fact, basketball’s 25-game regular season is just a tuneup for the postseason. Do they really need 25 games for that?

Football teams must earn a spot in the playoffs. Same for baseball. Basketball’s regular season should mean more than a team’s seeding for the postseason. It should be part of a three-month elimination process.

While Melvyn Ottinger and most prep coaches disagree with that premise, the fact remains that this year’s Classic created absolutely no buzz on the local sports scene. Southeast boys coach Todd Cottrell coached in North Carolina and participated in holiday tournaments where trophies were at stake, and he liked that format.

Northwest Whitfield and Dalton elected to play elsewhere during the Christmas break, although coach Marcus Starling and the Cats agreed to play one game at the trade center when Chapel Hill’s boys dropped out. Murray County’s boys have long had the philosophy of not playing in post-Christmas events.

In 2004, Ottinger lined up 21 boys and 16 girls teams and they played a combined 44 games in four days at two different sites. That proved a bit much.

Ottinger, who has directed all eight Classics, maintains that the event is one of the best prep Christmas tournaments in Georgia. But it’s not a tournament. No one is eliminated. No champion is crowned.

Northwest’s state-ranked Lady Bruins opted to play in the Deep South Classic in Snellville — on the same days as the Carpet Capital Holiday Classic — where they did compete for a title. They finished fourth among 16 teams.

Ottinger has no hard feelings toward coach Margaret Stockburger for that decision, but for obvious reasons wants the Lady Bruins to stay — and play — at home next season.

Most Region 7-4A teams want to play in the Classic to gain the experience of playing in the arena that usually hosts the postseason tournament, and early rounds of the state tournament.

Ottinger is already looking toward the 2006 event and would like to have eight boys and eight girls teams. It would help if all four local schools would participate. Then, he could get eight other schools to fill out the schedules. He’s thinking about creating a private school division that could include Christian Heritage and schools like Chattanooga Christian, Tennessee Temple, Grace Academy and Boyd-Buchanan out of nearby Chattanooga.

Basketball powers like Marietta, Tucker, Tift County and others have participated here in the past. Marietta was here when it had sons of Dale Ellis and Patrick Ewing on the roster. Teams like that could be invited back in the future. Ottinger says teams frequently call asking to play here. In fact, he said he turned away 15 to 20 teams for last week’s classic.

Ottinger, who turned Dalton Community College into a national junior college basketball power years ago and is contemplating a return to coaching, can make this thing work a lot better.

“I realize there are conflicts before and after Christmas,” Ottinger said Friday during games at the trade center. “But there has to be a compromise somewhere.”

It would help if all four local schools made a commitment and dropped their objection to playing each other in the Classic. Rather than games that amount to glorified practices, put a carrot out there for these teams — a trophy.

If basketball teams are going to practice and play throughout the holiday season anyway, guarantee three games but reward them with a chance to actually win a tournament. It can be done. And Carpet Capital Holiday Classic champion has a nice ring to it.

Is that asking too much?