Common Questions Answered about Basketball Post-Season Play
By Darryl Beasley, Assistant Athletic Director | Thursday, January 24, 2013 10:50 AM
The spring is an exciting time for basketball teams, players and coaches. All the hard work culminates with the start of postseason competition. It brings new expectations of the players and coaches.
Before starting the postseason competition, we would like to address some frequent questions about district ties and warm-up games and post-season reporting.
District Ties and Warm-up games
The girls’ district certification date will be Saturday, Feb. 9, and the boys’ district certification date will be Saturday, Feb. 16.
As the basketball district competition is coming to a close, some districts may have two-way or three-way or more schools ties.
If you find yourself in a district with two schools tied, the district executive committee may authorize a single elimination game provided only one other matched game is played that calendar week. The tie-breaking game may be in addition to the 21 allowed games but not as an exception to the school week limitation.
If a game was played previously during the school week, the tiebreaker game can only be played at the end of the last instructional day of the week, excluding holidays. Usually, games are played at the end of the school day on Friday or played on Saturday.
If three or more schools are tied, the district executive committee may authorize a tournament provided only two matched games have been played that week. Schools must use the procedure in Constitution and Contest Rules, Section 1203, Duties of Athletic District Executive Committee.
These tournament games may be played in addition to the total number of games and tournaments allowed for the season, if a game was previously played during the school week.
The tiebreaker games can be used like a tournament format ONLY on consecutive days (e.g., “Thursday, Friday, Saturday” or “Thursday, Friday” or “Friday, Saturday”).
Coaches often ask if their team is allowed to play a “warm-up game” at the end of district play. Teams can schedule a warm-up game before their first play-off game if they have not reached their 21-game allowable season limit. Teams who have exhausted their 21-game allowable season limit are given a UIL one-game exception under the following conditions:
1. The one-game exception can be used only by the first place teams in the 1A, 2A and 3A Conferences.
2. The one-game exception can be played only at the end of the last instructional day of the week, excluding holidays, with no loss of school time or any time on Saturday.
Post-Season Reporting
It is the responsibility of the winning team to report scores on the Playoff Game Result Form immediately following the contest. This Playoff Game Result Form will be used from bi-district to regional and semifinals rounds. It is important for coaches to report game scores after each playoff contest because 1) the UIL uses it as the official score, 2) it is used in our official record book and 3) it updates our bracket(s) on our website.
The Next Round Game Information Form is a one-page form requesting information about your next game. After the first playoff game, the information must be reported on the next day following your contest. Reporting the next round game information will allow your community and the rest of the state to know the time and site of your next game.
Below are information links for teams entering the post district competition:
1. Playoff information packet, http://www.uiltexas.org/basketball/post-season-packet
2. Basketball Playoff Game Results Form, https://www.uiltexas.org/machform/view.php?id=44
3. Basketball Next Round Playoff Game Form, https://www.uiltexas.org/machform/view.php?id=45
4. Basketball Financial Report for Playoff Games, https://www.uiltexas.org/files/athletics/forms/bb-playoff-financial-form1.pdf
• If the play-off game is played at a “home” gym, the home team is responsible for submitting the report.
• If the play-off game is played at a “neutral” site, the designated “home” team is first responsible for making sure the report is submitted to UIL.
Teams qualifying for the regional tournament must fill out the team information form online. Failure to submit this form may result in the school not appearing in the State Basketball Tournament program. This form must be submitted via the website no later than Wednesday, Feb. 20 for girls’ basketball and Wednesday, Feb. 27 for boys’ basketball.
1. Basketball Team Information Form (Regional Qualifiers) –Girls, https://www.uiltexas.org/forms/team-info-basketball-girls
Boys, https://www.uiltexas.org/forms/team-info-basketball-boys
The information above has been included in the sport manuals. Post-season procedures are broken down by sub topics (bi-district, area, quarterfinals, regional, semi-state and state). Under each sub topic are procedures to be completed by the winning team before proceeding to the next playoff round along with the team information form. This same information is provided in the playoff information packet located on our website under athletics.
We hope this information will assist you in postseason play. For some of the veteran postseason coaches, this may be a routine, and I applaud you for knowing the information for breaking ties, warm-up games and informational link to post district information. I recommend you mentor some of the new coaches experiencing the playoffs for the first time.