While this year’s 2nd Region girls’ basketball tournament will be traditional in its scheduled dates, the 2nd Region boys’ tournament will be a bit different and you may need to put it in your mobile device or on your Google calendar to keep up with the changes. And, you can thank the NCAA tournament for the shuffle.
The schedule for this year’s regional tournament was recently set by the 2nd Region athletic directors.
The 2nd Region girls’ basketball tournament, which is being played at Christian County High School, is the first to start this year as the Girls’ Sweet 16 is being played first at Rupp Arena. The girls’ tournament will play quarterfinal matchups on Monday, March 3, and Tuesday, March 4.
The girls’ tournament then takes Wednesday, March 5, and Thursday, March 6 off. The girls’ semifinals will be Friday, March 7 with the championship game Saturday, March 8.
The 2nd Region boys’ basketball tournament, which is at Madisonville-North Hopkins this year, will start on Wednesday, March 5, and Thursday, March 6, which is the ‘norm’ for whichever regional tournament starts second. Here is where the changes come into play.
Normally, the boys’ semifinals would then be on the following Monday, with the championship game on Tuesday, just ahead of the start of the Girls’ Sweet 16. This year, the boys’ semifinals will be played on Tuesday, March 11. The boys’ will then take a week off while the Girls’ Sweet 16 is being played and then come back and play the regional championship game on Tuesday, March 18.
The reason for the shuffle is that, due to UK hosting first-round men’s NCAA Tournament games on Thursday, March 20, and Saturday, March 22, there is a week off between the Girls’ Sweet 16 and the Boys’ Sweet 16 this year.
Should the boys’ regional tournament have stayed on its ‘normal’ schedule, the 2nd Region boys winner would have had at least 14 days off after the regional title game before playing its state tournament opener.
So, 2nd Region officials decided to spread the tournament out a bit to cut the time off between the tournaments down some and avoided playing the semifinals or finals on days of the NCAA tournament, which could have an impact on gate receipts of the regional tournament.
Again, this year’s state tournament dates are:
Wednesday, March 12-Saturday, March 15 – Girls Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
Wednesday, March 26-Saturday, March 29 – Boys Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
