By Bruce Campbell, Commentary
Enid News and Eagle
ENID — Now that we know Enid will be going east again for the 6A basketball playoffs, we can speculate a little where the Pacers and Plainsmen might be going.
Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association has announced it will release the pairings on Feb. 11.
The seedings will be determined by the OKRankings.com coaches poll.
The Plainsmen currently are No. 12 in the poll. That would make them, according to the current rankings, the No. 7 seed in the east behind No. 2 Broken Arrow, No. 4 Muskogee, No. 7 Edmond Memorial, No. 9 Norman North, No. 10 Putnam City North and No. 11 Jenks.
Assuming No. 2 would be bracketed to play No. 7 in a regional final, the Plainsmen could be headed to Muskogee for the first round of the playoffs.
Broken Arrow, Edmond Memorial and Norman North are in line to be the other regional hosts if the rankings hold up.
Assuming Enid as the No. 7 seed would play the No. 10 seed in the first-round elimination game, the Plainsmen appeared headed to be facing No. 19 Owasso in the first round.
The Plainsmen beat the Rams 64-60 in two overtimes in the Skiatook Tournament Jan. 8.
Of course, this could all change in the next rankings.
No. 18 Ponca City, the No. 9 current projected seed, might have helped their chances by beating Enid last Tuesday.
The Plainsmen (11-6) are going to have a hard time moving up in the poll.
Of their last five 6A opponents, only No. 14 Lawton Eisenhower is ranked in the top 20. Sand Springs, Stillwater, Lawton and Bartlesville aren’t ranked.
Lawton Ike is the highest ranked 6A team Enid has beaten this season.
The Pacers are not ranked in the top 20 currently.
That could be very bad news for the EHS girls if the current rankings hold up.
In the girls, only five eastern-bound teams aren’t ranked in the top 20 — Bartlesville, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Enid and Stillwater.
No. 5 Union would be the top seed, followed by No. 6 Norman North, No. 8 Jenks, No. 9 Edmond Memorial, No. 10 Shawnee, No. 12 Sand Springs, No. 13 Ponca City, No. 14 Putnam City North, No. 15 Sapulpa, No. 16 Owasso and No. 17 Muskogee.
Union, Norman North, Jenks and Edmond Memorial would be in line to host.
The Pacers have two games left with current top 20 teams — No. 7 Lawton and Sand Springs. Win those and EHS has a good chance to improve on its ranking.
That might be a tall order. EHS lost at Sand Springs 45-29 on Dec. 8 and to Lawton, 48-39 at the Mabee Center Dec. 19.
The important thing for the Pacers is to win as many games as possible to ensure a No. 3 seed.
Enid has not beaten a top 20 6A team this season, losing to Sand Springs, Ponca City twice (47-39 and 39-18) and Owasso (66-34).
They do have wins over Bartlesville (54-33) and Stillwater (49-41) in the race to avoid the No. 4 seed and having to play the host team in the elimination round.
Both the Pacers and Plainsmen were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last season.
Campbell is a News & Eagle sports writer.
