Overtime

When I first heard that the CIAC was holding its boys and girls state basketball championship games at Mohegan Sun, my initial reaction was: What, the brothel was booked?

I’m hardly Puritanical, but the thought of holding a high school sporting event at a casino just didn’t seem right. Since then I have to admit I’m moved a little more toward the middle, but I’m still not sure.

The CIAC is one of the most feckless organizations around, and the one thing you can count on is that faced with a tough decision, it almost universally will do the wrong thing. I am sure it will be well compensated by the casino. The teams will be cared for and their expenses covered. There are separate entrances into the arena to keep students out of the casino. The players will get an electric atmosphere. And Mohegan Sun is certain to get some extra patrons to the slot machines and into rooms.

I’m still cynical, but I will take a wait-and-see approach.

All eight title games will be played on March 20-21.

One aspect that has not gathered much discussion is how this is affecting the girls tournament. Because the girls season starts a week earlier than the boys’, the CIAC has had to stretch out the girls tournament.

In Class L, for example, there has been a six-day hiatus between the second round and tonight’s quarterfinals. There will be another four days until the semifinals, and then four or five more days until the final.

Those are pretty long layoffs, and most of the girls coaches I have spoken to have been critical of the format.

Trinity Catholic was eliminated in the second round, but has played in the final four times since 2002.

“I’m not crazy about it,” Trinity coach Tom Kriz said. “I believe in momentum. Even though you are thankful to give kids some time to rest, I think momentum is more important and the kids are playing on adrenaline.”

Kriz’s sentiments have largely been the party line, but surprisingly one coach who is in favor of the new format is Fairfield Warde’s Dave Danko, whose team is undefeated and the top seed in Class L. It plays East Lyme tonight.

“I’m one of the coaches who doesn’t mind it,” Danko said. “We’ve had some kids with the flu so it has given them time to recover. And it has helped us game-plan. I had the opportunity to drive out to Long Island to get tape of East Lyme and got tapes on Daniel Hand (the school the Mustangs beat in the second round). I kind of like it.”

If the rumors are correct, this will be a one-year situation. Word is the CIAC is going to push the start of the girls season back a week next year to get it on the same schedule with the boys.

That would be a rare wise move by the state’s sanctioning body.

Trinity Catholic, the top seed in Class L, and Hillhouse, No. 1 in LL, will be unable to meet in the boys basketball state tournament, but not for the reasons that Academics coach Kermit Carolina believes.

And that is too bad. Because a contest between the programs currently ranked No. 1 (Hillhouse) and 3 (Trinity) in the writers’ poll would be a real grudge match.

Carolina accused the Crusaders in last Thursday’s New Haven Register of avoiding his team by not moving up to LL.

“It’s really unfortunate that Trinity Catholic didn’t join the field of LL,” Carolina told the Register after Hillhouse won the SCC title with a win over Hamden on Wednesday. “We are looking forward to the challenge of playing these teams, but we are very disappointed Trinity Catholic chose to stay down instead of coming up where the big boys are at.”

Considering Trinity’s track record of always playing in the toughest field, Carolina’s words drew a frosty response from Crusaders coach Mike Walsh.

“First of all we haven’t ducked anybody in the years I’ve been here,” said Walsh, whose program has won five state titles and been to the final on five other occasions since 1995. “We won the first Division I title and we don’t duck anyone, especially a team that lost to Fairfield Prep last year in the second round.”

A lot of people have wondered why the Crusaders are playing in Class L. According to Walsh, he was under the assumption his team, which lost in the LL final to Crosby a year ago, would remain in that classification. He said he was contacted by the CIAC on a Thursday in late October and was told he had to notify the state’s governing body by the following day if he wanted to move up from L to LL.

“We thought we were already in LL and at that point we didn’t have enough time or even know who was going to be in LL and who was going to be in L,” Walsh said. “There was not a lot of communication with the CIAC.”

Walsh said Harding, another program with a tradition of seeking to play against the state’s top teams, was in the same situation and also remained in L.

Ironically, it is debatable which is the better field this year. There are probably more top teams in LL and greater depth in L.

Carolina might be getting a break avoiding the Crusaders. In 2005 the teams played an epic semifinal in the LL Tournament, which Trinity won in triple overtime, 75-73. UConn guard Craig Austrie, who was a senior at the time, hit a game-tying 3-point shot with four seconds left in the second overtime, then blocked a shot by the Academics’ De’arie Allick at the end of the final overtime to preserve the victory.

The Academics had a 14-point lead in the third quarter and many people still believe Carolina helped cost them the game by substituting too often, frequently taking out hot players seemingly without reason.

I was there — it is one of the best high school games I have ever covered. Let’s just say Hillhouse did not benefit that night from having Carolina on the bench.

Carolina’s words last week were ill-informed at the very least, and bordered on stupidity.

“The thing that bothered me the most is a coach saying something about another coach,” Walsh said. “In our profession you have to respect the job and what a coach does. To say something like that is either immaturity or arrogance. You just don’t make those comments about another coach.”

Suffice it to say Walsh will not be spending his spare time rooting for the Academics as he tries to lead the Crusaders to the Class L title.

“They could see a bunch of great teams from our league like Stamford High and Bridgeport Central,” Walsh said. “If they are fortunate enough to make it to the championship and we are fortunate enough we wouldn’t mind setting up a game.”

In the haste of deadline I omitted an important note from my Trinity Catholic game story tonight: George Washington coach Karl Hobbs was at the game to scout Tevin Baskin. Hobbs appears to be high on the list of people interested in the Crusaders’ 6-foot-6 center.

Trinity Catholic fans who had hoped that form would hold in the opening round of Class L did not get the desired help. As expected, lower seeds Bassick and Bulkeley both won. The winner of their second round game would face the Crusaders, if they get by Woodstock Academy, in the quarterfinal round on Monday.

Both Bassick and Bulkeley are mercurial teams that, on the wrong night, could pose a host of problems. Trinity has always had trouble with the Lions.

The biggest upset happened in the bottom half of the draw, with No. 7 Middletown falling to Pomerpaug.

That part of the bracket almost really got disrupted as No. 10 Torrington needed overtime to beat Kennedy and No. 3 New London had a tougher than expected time in a 72-66 win over Wethersfield.

The FCIAC went 2-1 as Warren Harding advanced while New Canaan was eliminated.

The Crusaders, if they continue to play like they did tonight, would seem to have a fairly smooth road to the final. If you believe, like many, that No. 2 Stratford is overrated, they could be looking at a possible title game against New London.

Ever since the state tournament draw was released, Trinity Catholic boys basketball coach Mike Walsh was concerned. Walsh, of course, is always worried about his next opponent, but this time his angst had greater validity.

The Crusaders were coming off a double overtime loss to Stamford in the FCIAC championship game after blowing an 11-point lead in the final 2 1/2 minutes of regulation. And their opening round opponent in the Class L field, E.O. Smith, was a deceptive 10-11, with wins over New Britain, Rockville and Bulkeley.

As it turned out, Walsh  — and the Crusaders — had a relatively peaceful night. A 16-2 run early in the second half propelled them to a convincing 61-39 victory and a second-round meeting Thursday night against Woodstock Academy.

There was a lot to like about Trinity’s performance. The team played with tremendous energy and the defense, which always gets overlooked but if often its greatest commodity, was terrific.

Tevin Baskin’s line might have looked a little odd — 19 points and just one rebound — but that was due to a good job slowing the Panthers’ 6-foot-7 center, Tyler Olander, who likes the 3-point shot. He made just two of them and scored a very quiet 20 points as Baskin was drawn away from the basket most of the night.

Takari Smalls, who gets overshadowed by his teammates but would split votes with defensive stopper Ryan Adkins for the team’s most underrated player award, had 12 points and 12 rebounds to give the team a quick lift.

But perhaps the most encouraging effort of the night came from Eric Jean-Guillaume. After a disappointing FCIAC Tournament, in which he played three sluggish games and missed the front end of two one-and-ones down the stretch of regulation against Stamford, the Trinity point guard had a bounce-back game, scoring 16 points.

Most important, Jean-Guillaume did not force shots as he did most of the week at Fairfield Warde, and often looked to pass first and shoot second. It was the type of effort Jean-Guillaume has provided throughout the regular season, and one the Crusaders are going to need for four more games if he and fellow seniors Baskin and Adkins are going to win a state title before they graduate.

Sean Patrick Bowley of the Connecticut Post, Dan Farrand of the Danbury News-Times and I shot a 40-minute video in which we analyze all four classes of the CIAC Boys Basketball Tournament. It is broken into four segments, one on each class, and just got posted on the Advocate’s home page. In addition, we will be running our breakdowns in tomorrow’s paper.

Here is a brief look at schools in the immediate area, in order of their chances of winning a state title:

1. Trinity Catholic. Last year the Crusaders had one of the toughest draws in state history and navigated it all the way to the Class LL title game and nearly upset Crosby. This year they are the No. 1 seed playing in Class L and have a much more favorable path. In fact, Tuesday’s opening round contest against E.O. Smith may prove the most difficult until the semifinals, when they could meet Rockville or Northwest Catholic. The other half of the bracket is much more difficult, with New London, Middletown and Torrington the favorites to make it to the championship.

The Crusaders’ chances should come down not to who they play but how they play. After going through the regular season unbeaten, they had a poor FCIAC Tournament, looking sluggish in the first two rounds and then blowing an 11-point lead in the final three minutes of regulation to Stamford before falling in double overtime.

Tevin Baskin has to get back to dominating, Eric Jean-Guillaume has to regain his spark and the Crusaders have to hope their lack of depth is not exposed again. If so, Trinity has an excellent chance of taking home one trophy this season.

2. Stamford. The Black Knights could lose tomorrow in their Class LL first-round game with Newtown and this year will be considered a success. Their dramatic win over Trinity was one for the ages.

The team’s performance in the early rounds will likely depend on its mindset. Are the players satisfied or still hungry? There is a long line of FCIAC champions in all sports who have fared poorly in the state playoffs.

The guess here is that the No. 5 Black Knights will stay hungry. They have a take-over player in Chris Evans, while 6-foot-6 center Mark Ellis finally is playing to his potential. He has been a dominant force the past month. The rest of the supporting cast is good.

Stamford has a difficult quarterfinal game looming against New Britain. It should be able to get by that. More difficult would be a potential semifinal against No. 1 Hillhouse, which is deep and loaded.

That will be a huge test. But people said the same thing about the game with Trinity.

3. New Canaan. The 28th-seeded Rams are in the same half of the draw with Trinity Catholic in L. And if they can get by a very good Northwest Catholic team in the first round, they could make it all the way to a semifinal meeting with the Crusaders.

4. Greenwich. The Cardinals have a toss-up opening game with Danbury in Class LL. Up next would be Hillhouse.

5. Norwalk. It would be a major shock if the 24th-seeded Bears get by Hartford Public in the Class LL first round.

From the “what a surprise” department: Stamford Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr, who tonight had planned on attending his first athletic contest since he got the job, just sent a note to the parents who had invited him saying he will be unable to attend the Stamford High School girls basketball team’s state playoff game.

We will give Starr a break: the girls game was moved from 7 p.m. until 5 because the school’s boys team will be playing in the FCIAC championship game tonight in Fairfield.

Then again, no one involved honestly believed Starr was going to show up in the first place.

Here are the pairings for the CIAC Boys Basketball Tournament, which begins this weekend: