Dave Ornauer

Pacific SportsBlog

Okinawa-based sports reporter Dave Ornauer on military-related sports in the Far East.

Single- or double-elimination, basketball style: Which do you prefer

Posted February 20th, 2008 by Dave Ornauer
in

Single-elimination basketball playoffs: Total sense of urgency. Bring your 'A' game every time. Far East is, after all, a state tournament. The bad: Eliminated on the first day and have to think of all kinds of creative things as a coach to keep your players motivated and interested.

Double-elimination basketball playoffs: A second chance if a team has an off-game. True test. Cream eventually rises to the top, anyway. The bad: Too few teams end up playing too many games in the last couple of days; you can only give up to third place at tournament's end.

Which do you prefer?

single or double?

On February 20th, 2008 Editor-High Sch... says:

I've always enjoyed as many games as possible. Most tournaments are double, but the final tournament to determine a champion should be one and done. But if it's about playing time then the double format is better for obvious reasons.

should be double

On February 21st, 2008 bogopogo says:

I think it should be double elimination.

If you make it single, then you have one bad game, and you're out. With double, at least you have a chance to get back into it after your first loss.

Also, you have to consider the expense of traveling to Far East - if it was only single elimination, some of the smaller teams might chose to not come - since it's quite an expense, and after one loss they'd be done anyways.

I realize sports like football are single elimination, however, the nature of football is different than the nature of basketball.

I couldn't agree less

On February 21st, 2008 GhostWriter says:

When everyone argues "if you have one bad game you're done and have nothing to play for" my question is what about third place? The single elimination we are talking about is MODIFIED to allow teams to compete for third, fifth, and seventh place! A good coach and a good athlete will recognize that they didn't have a good game and will try their best for third place. Bottom line is that if you have one bad game, you don't deserve to be a champion. The champion is that team/individual who had 4 perfect games/matches in a row and didn't lose a single one. If that happens to be an upset, so be it. In society we are really getting too soft on our kids and giving them second chances, cookies and juice after each game, not keeping score for younger kids, participation awards, etc. That's not life!
The expense of Far East isn't even an option. If it were, DODDS would only allow the best 2 teams per area to go in order to save money.
Bogopogo...how is the nature of football different than the nature of basketball? Do you mean that in football we don't give second chances and coddle our kids? Where do we draw a line? Maybe all sports should be best-out-of-three? That would allow the truly best team to rise to the top. Instead of calling the defeated team the loser, let's call them the almost winner! Athletics is all about working hard, doing your best, upsets, dealing with defeat, and at times playing up on emotion in order to slay Goliath.
We are doing our kids a disservice by having these coddling attitudes. When they go back to the States, they will not experience the same feel-good attitudes.

I have a poster in my classroom that says "The price of defeat is the undeniable knowledge that everyone around you knows you are a failure." Is that harsh, yes. Is that the way athletics is...YES.