The anatomy of a sectional upset – nwitimes.com

Brandon Grubl was frustrated when his friends from the Porter County Conference spoke with him on March 5, 2011.

The slight was used as fuel before he boarded a bus in route to a very big stage.

His basketball buddies told him what almost everyone in the Region and the state of Indiana had already concluded.

Grubl's Morgan Township team had no chance in its sectional championship game at Bowman Academy.

"All my friends said they were going to the Merrillville-Valpo game instead," Grubl remembered on Wednesday night. "Nobody believed in us."

In 2009, Bowman beat the Cherokees 82-66 to win the championship. In 2010 it was 98-70, as the Eagles cut down the nets and went on to win the Class A state championship.

Morgan coach Matt Bush gathered his underdogs in the hallway and said one thing to his team.

"If you don't think we have a shot in this game, then walk out now."

Grubl went out and scored 22 points as his Cherokees shocked Bowman 53-49, in one of the Region's biggest sectional upsets.

Considering that the Eagles returned to state championship games the following three Marches is proof of this David vs. Goliath tale.

"A few of us, the vets, felt like we had a shot," Grubl said. "We knew we had to keep it close in the beginning, and if we did that, we'd beat them in the end. We knew all the pressure was on them.

"We were playing with house money."

As the 107th IHSAA boys basketball tournament tips off on Tuesday, one thing is certain.

"There will be upsets all over the state," E.C. Central coach Pete Trgovich said. "It happens every year."

Trgovich won a state title at E.C. Washington in 1971, when his Senators were the heavy favorites in every game. But when he led the Cardinals to the 2007 Class 4A state championship over Indianapolis North Central, E.C. was a heavy underdog.

In Trgovich's last three seasons as the Cards coach -- 2006, '07 and '16 -- his team has cut down the nets at the sectional.

"You have to prepare for anybody and everyone," Trgovich said. "You have to understand the regular season doesn't mean anything. There is a difference. A lot of people say we got a good draw because we got the bye.

"But I'd rather be playing. I also don't like having seven days off."

E.C. Central (13-9) will play the winner of the Morton (13-9) and Highland (9-13) winner. If the Cards get past the semifinal, they'll be in the championship on their home court.

"We can't play down to our competition," said E.C. senior Jermaine Couisnard, who carries a 27.5 scoring average into the tournament. "We have to go out there and play one game at a time. We can't worry about a game we don't have, just the next one."

That was the philosophy Tom Johnson's 1998 Crown Point Bulldogs team had. C.P. entered the tournament with seven losses. Few thought they had a shot at anything.

And in such a scenario history can be made.

"We had a group of kids who believed," said Johnson, now coaching at Greater South Shore Conference co-champion Wheeler. "No one picked us to do anything.

"So it became an 'us against the world' mentality in our locker room."

Crown Point upset Merrillville 60-49 to win the program's first sectional championship since 1986. As they prepared to play a Hammond team with four Division I players in the old one-game regional, something happened.

"The blizzard hit after we won," Johnson said. "The roads were impassable and we only missed one day of practice. Our parents found 4 by 4s and were going around picking up kids to get them to the gym."

Crown Point shocked the Wildcats 61-56. Then, played toe-to-toe with Zach Randolph's Marion team in the semistate before falling 76-63.

"Those were the most competitive kids I've ever coached," Johnson said. "They hated to lose more than they liked winning."

Clint Swan now coaches the Bulldogs, a similar group trying to make history and win the program's third straight sectional championship. The teams in the Class 4A Michigan City Sectional have a combined 100 wins.

It is, without question, one of Indiana's toughest sectional. And for the first time in the last three seasons the Bulldogs are the favorites, getting a draw that has Valparaiso, Michigan City and Merrillville all on the other side.

"If one team is an overwhelming favorite, which we're not, they can't get caught looking ahead," Swan said. "You can't ever take any night off. This group has kept it simple. It's always, 'The next play. The next practice. The next game.'"

Purdue-bound Sasha Stefanovic knows his team is the favorite for the first time in his career. The Bulldogs snuck up on people in the past. In fact, his half-court shot at the end of regulation allowed C.P. to beat Valpo 59-54 in double overtime in last year's championship game.

"Not really," Stefanovic said when asked if he feels a target on his team's back. "We know everyone is going to give us their best shot. We just have to go there and play our game, play fearless.

"It's the sectional. It's going to be gritty not pretty."

Griffith coach Gary Hayes is in his 16th year as a coach in Indiana, his fifth leading the Panthers. Griffith has won the last two sectionals at the Hammond Civic Center. When he was coaching at Lake Station years ago, winning a sectional was a much tougher task.

"I always thought the hardest game to play is opening night, the first game, if you're the favorite," Hayes said. "Upsets can happen there if your kids aren't ready to go. I've seen it happen."

Griffith will play Hammond in the second game Tuesday night. The Wildcats beat the Panthers earlier in the season.

And for the second March in a row, Valparaiso coach Barak Coolman will have to do just that. The Vikings open against Michigan City on the Wolves home court. If they survive they get Merrillville. And if they survive most believe they'll get C.P.

Coolman won three straight sectionals at Fort Wayne Northrop from 2011 through 2013. He played the favorite in the first game each year, yet his team found a way to sidestep any upsets.

"In the first game everyone's going to have nerves and jitters," Coolman said. "You have seniors thinking it could be their last game. A big part of not getting upset is relaxing and playing your game. Do the things you did in the regular season when you had success.

"There is only one good draw and that's getting a bye all the way into the regional."

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The anatomy of a sectional upset - nwitimes.com