Public League unveils new basketball conferences, changes city tournament format

The Public League has completely revamped its basketball setup. The Red Shield/Red Star conference alignment has been scrapped after one season.

This year the Public League will divide teams into four directionally-based divisions of eight teams in the Red conference. There are four directionally-based divisions of nine teams in the White conference and nearly the same in the Blue conference. The Blue Central has just eight teams.

Last season there were 12 teams in the upper-division Red Shield and 12 in the Red Star.

Here’s the new alignment for the Red.

Red Central: Dyett, Englewood, Hyde Park, Kenwood, King, Perspectives-Leadership, Perspectives-MSA, Phillips.

Red North: Amundsen, Lake View, Lane, Lincoln Park, Northside, Payton, Taft, Young.

Red South: Bogan, Brooks, Ag. Science, Fenger, Julian, Morgan Park, Lindblom, Simeon.

Red West: Clark, Crane, Curie, Farragut, Manley, Marshall, North Lawndale, Westinghouse.

This is close to the traditional set up that many city basketball fans grew up with. Public League broke into two basketball “super conferences” in 2017. That setup combined the South and Central into one division and the North and West into one division.

Through all the various conference alignments, the Public League’s end of season tournament which crowns the city champion has remained about the same and featured 32 teams.

This year brings the first major change to the city tournament in 22 years. For the first time since 2002, every Public League basketball team will have a chance to win the city title. All 107 teams will take part in the city tournament.

The tournament will begin with four sectional play-in tournaments that start on Jan. 27. Teams from all three conferences (Red, White, Blue) will take part in four directionally-based tournaments. The Red Central, White Central and Blue Central teams will be in one tournament and the Red South, White South and Blue South in another. Same with the North and West.

The final four teams from each directional tournament advance to the city championship tournament. That 16-team bracket begins on Feb. 12. The city championship is Feb. 20 at UIC.

“I like going back to the traditional Red West and Red Central format,” Westinghouse coach Rafie Fields said. “I wish they would have allowed us to [play each division rival twice, home and away]. Instead of trying to do the conference tournament. Talking with the other coaches I think that would have satisfied everyone.”

Under the new setup each of the teams plays division rivals just once. That decreases the Public League conference season to eight games. Last year they played 11 games.

The superconference setups forced teams to travel all across the city for 5 p.m. starts. That was a major issue for coaches.

“This is a lot better than traveling an hour and a half to Taft or Simeon or Brooks for a conference game,” Curie coach Mike Oliver said. “The games won’t be held up by transportation so much anymore.”

Oliver also believes the return to the old format will encourage more students to attend games.

“It will build the rivalries back,” Oliver said. “Our students get up to play against the West Side teams. They don’t really know anyone who is at Taft or Brooks. But these kids are from the same neighborhoods. It will build the excitement back up.”