Seeding challenge

I felt like I was in the twilight zone this weekend when the seedings came out for the Region 2-AAA tournment that starts Monday at Northside.

I had plenty of questions, like I did last year, and no answers. I didn't see a good end for this. I talked to a variety of coaches and other Muscogee County School District employees and got a variety of answers for how something was done.

I got the first bracket and saw Hardaway was No. 3 and Columbus was No. 4. This made sense because everyone said the whitebook was the tiebreaker.

A few hours later, I received another bracket and the two schools were reversed. What happened?

I asked everyone what changed? And the answer always started....."Well you see Robert...."

I still had questions. I didn't know what the tiebreaker was and I was trying to fiure out what the right seeding was.

I knew this much... Both Hardaway and Columbus finished the region with a 14-6 record. The teams split the two regular season games – Hardaway won the first meeting 70-58 on Nov. 17 and the Blue Devils won the second meeting 62-58 on Jan. 11.

So I opted to get the region's by-laws and solve the problem for myself. So I did that, I found out the tiebreaker was best winning percentage against Class AAA teams.

I told myself, well Hardaway is the No. 3 seed because they won more games in the Christmas tournament. I failed to process that the Lady Hawks beat Russell County -- not a AAA team.

After reviewing the schedule, a few more times it dawned on me. (OK, I'm not that smart.) They have the same record. Both teams are 15-7.

And finally at 7:30 Sunday, tournament director Nathan Laney called me to tell me it would come down to a flip. Like I had just a few minutes earlier, Laney figured out the tiebreaker.

So there will be a coin flip. And then they'll play basketball.... Yes, basketball.