Ark Valley News - Hornets seeded fifth in Jam, open with Ulysses again

Hornets seeded fifth in Jam, open with Ulysses again
By Randy Fisher
Last Updated: January 17, 2019

The calendar shows it's the third week of January.

The schedule shows it's tournament time for Kansas high school boys basketball.

In Valley Center, that means it's time for the January Jam. The 36th annual event will be held Jan. 17 through 19 at Valley Center High School.

Hornet coach Ty Unrau calls this the best Jam field since he's been at Valley Center.

"It's tougher than previous years," he said. "Heights is there and (was) undefeated (at the time of seeding). Garden City, Seaman and Ulysses each have one loss (at the time of seeding)."

For the fourth time in the past five Jams, Valley Center opens with Ulysses.

With tournament seeding based upon pre-Christmas records, the Hornets are seeded fifth, while the Tigers are fourth. Valley is 2-1 against the Tigers in the Jam, having lost last year 53-51. Unrau calls them a tough opponent.

"They return a good core of players from last year's team, including their big man and some good outside shooting guards," he said. "They are a much better defensive team than last year's squad and have played a very solid schedule."

The Hornets hope to improve upon finishes of fourth, fifth and sixth under Unrau.

"It's going to be tough," he said. "I think we're a formidable opponent. It's time to be on the winner's side."

First-round games Jan. 17 have Valley Center and Ulysses tipping off at 6 p.m. The other half of that bracket has the No. 1 seed, Wichita Heights, against eighth-seeded Blue Valley at 8 p.m. The Hornets will play Jan. 18 at 5 p.m. if they lose and at 8 if they win.

The Jam opens at 3 p.m. Jan. 17 with second-seeded Garden City taking on seventh-seeded Wichita Northwest. Also in that bracket are third-seeded Topeka Seaman and fourth-seeded Maize South who play at 4:30 p.m. The losers will tangle Jan. 18 at 3:30 p.m. and the winners at 6:30.

The final day, Jan. 19, has Hot Shot, Three Point and Slam Dunk contests starting at 9:30 a.m. The rest of the day has the seventh-place game at noon, followed by the fifth-place game at 1:30 p.m., third place at 3 and championship at 4:30.

When asked who he thought were the teams to beat this year, Unrau replied "Heights, Heights and Heights."

"Heights won big over Southeast," he said of the Falcons, Class 5A's top-ranked team. "They are very athletic and play an aggressive zone defense that leads to their transition game."

Last year's championship game had a familiar ring to it: Wichita Southeast and Topeka Seaman for the third time in four years. Southeast won the tournament in 2016 over Seaman. The Golden Buffaloes were not in the 2017 tournament, which Seaman won. In 2018, Southeast captured its sixth January Jam championship trophy with a 77-76 win over the Vikings

Valley Center is a two-time winner of the Jam: in 1984, the tournament's first year, and again in 1995. Seaman (2017) and Maize South (2015) have one title each.

No other team in this year's field has won a Jam championship. Wichita Northwest was runner-up in 2015, and Garden City finished third in 2013.