Don't get Chris McNesby started.
Actually, that's not necessary because McNesby, Roman Catholic High's basketball coach, needs no push to address at length, and with passion, his now-favorite subject: perceived lack of common sense in District 12's distribution of spots for the PIAA state basketball tournament.
After Roman thumped Samuel Fels, 73-41, Thursday night at Southern to determine the third/fourth seeds in Class AAAA, McNesby didn't wait for a question when approached by a Daily News reporter.
Instead, immediately, he did the asking, wanting to know why District 12 continues to stick with its current system, which happens to be based on equality.
Wait. Isn't equality always a good thing?
Members of the basketball programs at schools such as Archbishop Ryan and La Salle would disagree. Maybe even at Cardinal O'Hara and Father Judge, as well.
Here's the deal: When the Catholic League joined D-12 for the 2008-09 school year, it was agreed that two teams apiece from the CL and Public League would advance to the AAAA state playoffs.
However, this season, in a down year for Pub AAAA, it's likely, say, five of that classification's top six teams could be found in the Cath.
"The way it's set up now makes no sense," McNesby said. "If the eventual goal is to win a state title, which it should be, we should be sending the four best teams. That gives us the best chance, right? We're pretty angry about this."
Joe Sette, athletic director at Archbishop Wood and a former coach, is the CL's basketball moderator.
Though he said he hasn't quite sensed anger from McNesby, he did acknowledge that McNesby has pushed hard for an open tournament and that others have done the same.
Alas, there's a pretty substantial roadblock. Sette said D-12's 20-member executive committee, comprised of everything from administrators to parents, includes 13 with Pub ties and seven with Cath.
"Chris is fond of saying to me, 'Make this happen, Joe.' It's not that easy," Sette said. "This isn't a dictatorship. And there's definitely a political side to this."
While D-12 has experienced great success from AAA on down since becoming part of PIAA for the 2004-05 school year, AAAA has been a disappointment. Only one team, Simon Gratz in '07, has advanced as far as a semifinal and just two others, Roman in '10 and La Salle last season, have earned spots in the quarterfinals.
This season, there were six CL AAAA schools and 14 in the Pub.
"I wouldn't support a change in the system at all," said Ben Dubin, the PL's basketball chairman. "You don't make changes over one bad year. Do people forget that a Pub school [Frankford] won the AAAA City Title last year?
"We're a much larger league [66 schools to 14]. We deserve half the spots. The reason District 12 gets four schools in the AAAA state playoffs is because of our size and the Pub is the big reason for that."
Funny he should mention that. Sette noted that the setup for next year has already been finalized. D-12's number of AAAA state qualifiers will be reduced to three, though the AAA total will rise from four to five.
"Back when the Catholic League came into the PIAA, the agreement was, to be 'fair,' each league would send the same number of teams to states when the total was four, and there'd be a Public-Catholic playoff for the third spot when the number was three.
"I'm always being asked by our guys to present a format to change that . . . I haven't been successful. I do feel if we did have some kind of mini-tournament to determine the seeds, it would tilt in our favor."
Should breath be held?
Only, more than likely, if blue is your favorite facial color.
Contact staff writer Ted Silary at silaryt@phillynews.com.
