By: Chris Harlan, Thursday, February 14, 2019, TRIB-LIVE
Good bye or bad bye?
Consider, each of the past two years, Fox Chapel drew a first-round bye and then lost in the quarterfinals to a team that hadn’t rested. This time, the Foxes didn’t receive a bye, and coach Zach Skrinjar is OK with that.
“I’m happy that we’re playing a little bit earlier,” said Skrinjar, whose team drew the No. 6 seed in Class 6A. “I think any coach would like to play sooner than later, just because that’s what we’re used to. We’ll see. If we win Tuesday, I’ll like what we did a lot more.”
Seventeen boys basketball teams received a bye in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs when brackets were announced Tuesday, so they’ll need to find ways to fill their free time.
Upper St. Clair drew the fourth seed and the final bye in the Class 6A bracket over Butler and Fox Chapel. It’s a new challenge for longtime USC coach Danny Holzer, who wasn’t certain whether the bye is good or bad.
“It’s the first time we’ve had the bye, so I’m not sure,” Holzer said. “I’ve already reached out to some of my good friends that have had the bye before, and just kind of picked their brain a little bit.”
The WPIAL needed byes to fill the playoff brackets once basketball expanded to six classifications in the 2016-17 season. In the two seasons since, WPIAL teams with first-round byes went 28-7 in the quarterfinals. But Class 6A teams with first-round byes have gone 3-5.
Fox Chapel has eight days between its regular-season finale and Tuesday’s playoff opener against No. 11 Seneca Valley. Upper St. Clair has a 15-day wait before its first game in the quarterfinals on Feb. 23.