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- High School Basketball Year
During the final few weeks and days of the high school basketball season, there is always an eye on qualifying for postseason play. Leading up to Selection Sunday for college basketball, all the basketball analysts talk about the bubble teams, quality wins, and who’s going to the dance and who’s going to be left out.
For high school basketball state tournaments, a team often is required to have a certain number of wins to qualify for the post-season play. In Massachusetts a team can qualify by being one of the top 32 teams in a division or winning 50% of the games.
So with a twenty game schedule, the magic number for most teams is 10. And several teams during the final weeks of looking to get to that magic number.
The magic number also can be associated with the league championship, towards the end of the season. There are usually two or sometimes more teams vying for that league championship. Just like major league baseball teams look for the magic number to get into the playoffs, league rivals are watching the standings.
How Does the Magic Number Work?
Let’s look at an example. If Team A has a one game lead with three games remaining, for example heading into the final game. If two teams are tied the magic number is one. One win will guarantee at least the co-championship. Similarly, one loss by the other team guarantees a co-championship. Two is the magic number for an outright championship won win by the team and a loss by the opponent will make for a single champion.
This scenario happens in many leagues and often a league champion is not decided until the last minute of the play. One of the many reasons that make high school basketball fantastic. It also illustrates how high school basketball can be totally heartbreaking and uplifting at the same same time.
Get out to a local high school gym and see all the excitement.