3 interesting things we noticed with the release of 2024 IHSA basketball playoff assignments
Assignments were released Wednesday for the Illinois High School Association basketball postseason.
Here are three interesting things that come out of those groupings, from which the IHSA soon will build the 2024 state tournament pairings. The playoffs culminate with the girls and boys state finals next spring in Normal and Champaign.
Four ranked teams, two regionals
Ranked teams litter just one-half of the Class 3A East Peoria Sectional complex.
Four of the state's top 10 teams — including the top three in No. 1 Peoria High, No. 2 Lincoln and No. 3 Galesburg — are all in the same sub-sectional. Those three and No. 6 Morton will be separated into two regional sites in Galesburg and Genseo. Dunlap and Richwoods, which will be looking for an upset, are also in that field.
In the other sub-sectional, No. 9 Washington has the chance to play one of those fellow ranked teams — or a Cinderella squad could make a run to East Peoria.
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Peoria teams give Class 2A a new look
With the Peoria Notre Dame and Manual boys in Class 2A now, both head to the Canton Sectional at Alice Ingersoll Gymnasium and give it a new look.
Along with the Irish and Rams, the sub-sectional also includes Bloomington Central Catholic, Clinton, Downs Tri-Valley, El Paso-Gridley, Eureka, Deer Creek-Mackinaw, Illinois Valley Central, Normal U-High, Tremont and Olympia, which will host one of the regionals.
Manual is ranked No. 3 statewide, while PND, which hosts the other regional, is No. 7. Top-rated Taylor Ridge Rockridge is in the other sub-sectional feeding into Canton.
On the girls side, PND slides into 2A and will be in the sub-sectional where Canton is the host. The fourth-ranked Irish will head to either the IVC or Macomb regional. In the other sub-sectional, No. 5 Deer Creek-Mackinaw, Eureka, El Paso-Gridley and Manual are teams to watch.
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'Peoria' sectional in Pontiac
Add Pontiac to the list of Class 3A schools to host the so-called "Peoria" Sectional.
Pontiac will be home to the Peoria-area 3A boys teams with the winner heading to the Elite Eight. The sub-sectional has so many great teams highlighted by reigning state champ Metamora along with No. 4 Richwoods and No. 10 Morton. Limestone and Geneseo will be the regional hosts.
In the last decade and a half, Galesburg, LaSalle-Peru, Ottawa and Rock Island also have hosted the sectional. Those schools stepped when a Peoria-area school wasn’t using Bradley’s Renaissance Coliseum as the sectional site.
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: 2024 IHSA basketball playoff assignments analysis what we learned
