Only 34 teams remain from the league of 86 with two days of playoff basketball now in the books.

With the snow days increasing the amount of teams making the playoffs in an already gigantic league, making brackets that please everyone could be a hard task to manage; but the basketball staff seems to have gotten it right.

“I definitely think the brackets were set up very fairly compared to how it’s been in the past,” said Tom Solis, member of the Sigma Nu Gold team and referee for the league.

Andrew Fultz, the sport leader for basketball, said multiple factors play into how teams are distributed on the bracket. First taking the teams overall record into account and then the sportsmanship rating comes into effect as well.

The league holding so many teams’ means the league must also employee numerous referees. But only the best continue their job come playoff time.

“I sit down with a guy that helps me out and we just kind of see who’s available and how their performance has been throughout the year,” Fultz said. “Then the better ones will move on and hopefully when we get to the championship game we’ll have a well prepared staff.”

A lot of weight is put on the shoulders of referees anytime playoffs roll around in any sport but Solis believes the refs have been doing a solid job of putting together well-reefed games.

“I really do think they’ve done great. A lot of times people just need to stop complaining about calls,” Solis said. “Eventually an official is going to make the call, but at the same time you can’t expect that they are going to give you everything.”

Solis and Fultz both agree that the level of competition has stepped up from where it was just a year ago. Not a lot separates the top teams in the bracket from the bottom.

“I think tomorrow we are going to have a lot of extremely close games,” Fultz said. “We’re going to see if we can get Lantz for the hall versus fraternity and hall versus sorority championships next Thursday.”

No. 1 seeds Lambda Chi Green and Sigma Nu Gold head the fraternity brackets while the hall brackets have No. 1 seeds Sigma Fly and Hard Body leading the pack. Deee Zeee What allows heads the bracket on the women’s side.

“With the fraternity championship they have so many points that goes into winning just the fraternity bracket that sometimes we kind of see that’s once they have already established that win they kind of take the next game lightly,” Fultz said.

With that said, Fultz also added that the past two years the all campus championships have been really competitive games, and he expects nothing less as the playoffs carry on.

Chad Grimm can be reached at 581-7944 or at ctgrimm@eiu.edu

Billy Finlay, a senior marketing major, goes for a layup Monday for the Pissers, Sigma Pi fraternity’s intramural basketball team, in the recreation center of Lantz Arena. (Jasmine Randle

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