By MICHEAL COMPTON / micheal.compton@bgdailynews.com

March Madness will have a few more stops and starts for boys’ prep basketball teams with the Sweet 16 much later than usual this year.

The state tournament is scheduled to run March 26-30, a week later than normal. Rupp Arena will not be available the previous weekend due to serving as one of the host sites for the NCAA Tournament. The extra week has stretched out the proposed Region 4 Tournament at E.A. Diddle Arena, with the event Monday March 10, more than a week after the district tournament.

First-round games are scheduled to be played March 10-11, with the semifinals scheduled for March 17 and the championship game March 19. The region tournament cannot be played while the Girls’ Sweet 16 is playing – meaning dates from March 12-16 are not available.

This option is a compromise to playing the normal schedule, then having the region champion take two weeks off before playing in the state tournament.

When asked about the schedule during Monday’s Paul Gray Media Day at Bowling Green High School, local coaches were not happy with the long layoffs.

“When you look at that schedule, it is crap,” Bowling Green coach D.G. Sherrill said. “Whatever team is the regional champion, you take the complete flow away from the season. Could you imagine the NCAA Tournament, they have all these conference tournaments and then you sit a week or two before you play that tournament? From a coaching perspective, if I am coaching one of those teams, I have to go back and I have to find a way to fill that space.”

Russellville coach Phil Todd agreed that the layoffs are not ideal.

“No coach likes that,” Todd said. “Nobody wants to wait that long, if you get to the finals and win it and then you’ve got to wait longer. Practice is hard. You would rather play a ball game. If you have to wait around, you can lose your momentum. The kids are just eager to get out there.”

Barren County coach Warren Cunningham said there is some precedent for coaches with the typical schedule usually consisting of a four- or five-day break between the first round and the semifinals, but this is definitely a unique situation.

“Sometimes there has been a pretty good gap anyway, if you play the first night and then get to the semis,” Cunningham said. “If we are fortunate enough to get in that position then we will deal with it, but it’s just kind of one of those weird things that happen. It is just a matter of dealing with it if you are fortunate enough to get to that point.”

While some coaches are already looking ahead, Warren Central coach William Unseld said it’s something he’s not even thinking about yet.

“We’ve got to get there first,” Unseld said. “We haven’t talked about it. Region, state – they haven’t done that yet, so they have to earn their way. When they start winning some games, we will start having conversations. If we are fortunate to get there we will have to find a way to navigate that time off and make sure we give them time to rest, while also working and keeping our rhythm.”

The layoffs do provide some benefit according to Sherrill, but ultimately the stops and starts are going to be a disadvantage for everyone.

“The benefit of that is, if you got injuries or kids nicked up then you’ve got a chance to recover on that,” Sherrill said. “So there is that benefit. But if your team is healthy and playing well, that can flatline a basketball team. We’ve been blessed to be there a few times. You want that continuity. You want to keep playing.”