SHANE WILSON
The basketball season is coming to a swift end. The final few games of the season are within mere weeks and talks about postseason play are becoming abundant. The MIAA Tournament is inching closer, which begs a few questions.
Will the ESU women get the number one seed for the tournament?
Will the men even make the tournament?
The women almost seemed destined for the number one seed, as they solely control their destiny in doing so. The only possible hiccup, in my mind, for the Hornets in getting the top seed could be the Feb. 24 game against Washburn – luckily for ESU, the game is at home.
The number one seed would secure the easiest route for the Hornets to play through to the championship game, which could have huge implications for ESU and other teams, alike. The winner of the conference championship game earns the MIAA’s automatic bid to the South Central Regional – and a step closer to nationals.
I’m not saying these last few games for the ESU women should be overlooked, by any means. Higher ranked teams have often overlooked lower ranked teams and paid the price for it. This could be costly, in more ways than wins and losses, for this team.
The ESU men, on the other hand, have an entirely different scenario before them. They currently sit at ninth in the league, with only Pittsburg State and Truman having worse conference records than Emporia State. The kicker is this – only six teams are allowed to play in the MIAA Tournament.
This set of circumstances doesn’t bode well for the ESU men.
As it stands now, Missouri Western is the last team to get the invite to the conference tourney with an 8-8 record. Three other teams – Northwest Missouri State, Washburn and Emporia State – have seven conference wins.
This bulge in the middle of the MIAA only means that we will have to wait until the end of the season to find out who gets to go to the MIAA Tournament.
Emporia State, it seems, probably has the toughest road to travel in order to get to postseason play. A home game against Washburn and an away game against nationally-ranked Ft. Hays State separate ESU from that opportunity.
Hopefully for the Hornets, the taste of the 73-42 loss at Washburn earlier this season is gone.
Perhaps the Hornets can make it happen. Their recent play looks like a step in the right direction. The ESU men look like their in a groove – most of the roster is healthy and in good form, something that had been missing earlier in the season. The key will be for all of them to play collectively as one unit, one team. When that happens, this team can do some pretty spectacular things.
Only time will tell.
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