Boys’ basketball notebook: Pairings set for Crossover event at Alliant Energy PowerHouse

CEDAR RAPIDS — It’s called the MVC-CIML High School Basketball Crossover, but it’s not just the Mississippi Valley Conference and Central Iowa Metro League that are crossing over Jan. 4 at downtown’s Alliant Energy PowerHouse.

The 14-school, seven-game mega-event also includes members of the Mississippi Athletic Conference and Iowa Alliance Conference as well.

It’s about having teams play each other that ordinarily wouldn’t play each other to help with rankings and postseason seedings. Pairings for the first part of the Crossover were set Thursday, and there are some juicy matchups.

Such as Cedar Falls and West Des Moines Valley. CF went into its game Thursday night against Ankeny with a 4-0 record, as impressive an early season resume as there is in Class 4A.

The Tigers have blown out good teams from Linn-Mar and Iowa City West thus far and ended Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s 46-game regular-season win streak Tuesday night. Valley (4-1) beat Kennedy in last season’s 4A state championship game and is seeking its third consecutive championship.

Valley has so far played without standout guard Zay Robinson, an Iowa State football signee who has been trying to heal from an injury incurred during football season. Six-foot-9 center Trevin Jirak is a University of Northern Iowa commit.

The CF-Valley game will conclude the Crossover, with a starting time of 7 p.m. Iowa City Liberty (1-4) and Bettendorf (2-2) open it at 10 a.m.

Then it’s Cedar Rapids Prairie (2-1) and Ames (5-1) at 11:30 and Iowa City West (3-2) against defending Class 3A state champion Davenport Assumption (2-2) at 1. West features senior forward Jack McCaffery, a Butler University signee.

Linn-Mar (4-1) and Ankeny (2-3) follow at 2:30, then it’s a potentially terrific game at 4 that pits top 10-caliber 4A teams Waukee Northwest (3-2) and Dubuque Senior (3-0). Kennedy (3-1) draws Johnston (5-1) at 5:30.

Tickets to the event will be sold at the PowerHouse and cost $10 for adults and $5 for students. A second Crossover event will be held at Valley High School on Feb. 8 that includes Valley, Kennedy Liberty, Ankeny, Northwest, Johnston, Dallas Center-Grimes, Des Moines Roosevelt, Sioux City East, Western Christian and Norwalk.

“I have been in conversations with coaches across the state every year about seeding when it comes to substate and the state tournament,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen, who was the brainchild behind the Crossover events, which began last season. “There is no perfect system, but the Iowa High School Athletic Association has been a great partner with the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association to modify the system seeding criteria from coaches recommendations.

“In hopes of creating more clarity to the process, I thought it would great to have in-season matchups from the best teams across the state. This is also going to allow the student-athletes on each team to play in an arena that will be a special experience for them.”

— North Linn senior guard Mason Bechen leads the state in scoring average at 38.0 points per game. Decorah junior center Cael LaFrentz is fourth at 33.4.

Keota senior forward Billie Kindred is the state’s top rebounder in the early going at 18.3 per game. North Fayette Valley’s Cael Reichter is second at 16.3

Reichter helped NFV remain unbeaten with an overtime Tuesday night win over South Winneshiek, scoring a school-record 39 points, recording 22 rebounds, five steals and four blocked shots.

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