The District 11 basketball playoffs will have a different look this year - a very different look.

More classes, an added qualification standard, teams from outside the district participating, and significantly more PIAA state tournament berths available being among them.It's definitely not your parent's District 11 Tournament."You will notice some differences," said Tamaqua School District Superintendent and District 11 Basketball Chairman Ray Kinder. "Some were mandated by the PIAA, some were decisions we made in District 11, and some came about through compromises with other districts."For the most part, I think our teams and fans will like the changes. Like anything new, there might be some things we need to tweak or change in the future, but I'm looking forward to the postseason and expecting everything to run smoothly."Although there are several significant changes from recent district tournaments, the catalyst for all the changes was the increased number of classifications for the sport. While a number of PIAA-sponsored sports will have an extra classification this school year, basketball joins football, baseball and softball as the only sports with six classes."I know some people think adding extra classes just waters things down, but I think our coaches and schools like it," said Kinder. "Who does it hurt to have a few extra district and state champions?"I think the answer to that is no one. So in that respect, I think it's a good move."Two of the changes that fans will notice right away will be in the makeup of the tournament fields.Once again, all teams with a .500 or better record in league play or overall will automatically qualify for districts. The change is that for the first time in recent memory, teams that fall short of the .500 qualifying mark could also make it into the postseason.That's because all 12 playoff classes (six boys and six girls) will have a minimum number of participants in their field. If there aren't enough .500 or better teams to fill the field, teams with losing records will be added to reach that minimum number."The reason we decided to establish a minimum number of participants is we didn't want teams to get a bye right into the finals," said Kinder. "With some classifications having a small number of teams, there was the possibility that there wouldn't be enough .500 teams to guarantee that wouldn't happen."This way, everyone will have to earn a spot in the district championship game by winning at least one postseason game."The minimum number will be different in each class. Kinder said that the formula for determining the minimum is the total number of eligible teams in that class, divided by two, roundup up to the nearest even number. For example, in 1A boys there are 10 teams. That number is divided by two to get five teams. That number is then rounded up to six.The other change is the influx of teams from other districts into the District 11 tournament brackets.The Class 1A boys and 1A girls fields will both have District 2 teams. The Class 3A boys, 3A girls, and 4A boys fields will all include District 1 teams."The PIAA mandated that," explained Kinder. "When districts don't have enough teams in a certain classes, the PIAA combines districts into subregionals."The committee people in those districts then get together and work out things like seeding formulas, playing dates and selection of sites."Kinder said the process is a give and take and came off without a snag."The committee members from District 1 and District 2 were really easy to work with," said Kinder. "We got some things we wanted like them agreeing to use our power rating formula and we agreed to some of their requests like no preferential seeding for league champs."When it comes to where games will be played when a District 11 teams meets a team from another district, Kinder said that will be decided based on what team is the higher seed."In District 11, we play our quarterfinals, semifinals and finals at neutral sites. In District 1, they play at the home gym of the higher-seeded team right through the semifinals," said Kinder. "So we agreed that we would use the rules of the district of the higher-seeded team when it came to picking a location."One of the advantages of incorporating teams from other districts into the field is some additional state berths in those classes.On the whole, District 11 will have 13 more berths in the PIAA tournament this season, going from 19 last season to 32 this season. Part of that is due to the two additional classes in both the boys and girls field, but also because District 11 will basically be a subregional in five of the 12 playoff fields."State tournament berths are based solely on the number of teams eligible in each class," said Kinder. "So having a few additional teams in some of the classes could mean receiving an extra berth in the tournament."One change that wasn't made was in the power rating formula used to seed teams. This will be the third year that the current system is in place. The rankings are updated daily and fans can access them by going to the District 11 website (http://www.districtxi.com/) and then going to RESOURCES / GENERAL INFO / POWER RATINGS FOR FANS.With the regular season rapidly approaching the midway point, the battle to qualify for districts and the jockeying for seeding position will be heating up.It won't be long before basketball fans will be getting their first look at the new-look District 11 playoffs*******DOUBLE TROUBLE … While the season hasn't even hit the midway point yet, there is only one Times News area boys player to have scored double figures in every one of his team's games.The Panthers' Tristan Blasko has managed at least 10 points in all nine of PV's contests. The junior has hit exactly 10 points on three occasions. Blasko, who is averaging 13.67 points per game, has a high game of 19 and has helped the Panthers start the year with a 4-5 record.*******KINGS OF DECEMBER … The Lehighton boys basketball team went undefeated during the 2016 portion of their 2016-17 season.The last time a Times News area boys team didn't lose a game in December was 2006, when Northern Lehigh went 11-0 during the month.Over the past four season, the Indians are now a combined 29-5 in December games.*******ALL IN THE FAMILY ... Thad and Jamie Zuber led the Tamaqua boys and girls teams respectively in scoring on Tuesday, Jan. 3. Thad poured in 27 of the Raiders' 41 points in the 55-44 victory over the Eagles and Jamie scored a game-high 14 points to lead the Lady Raiders to a gigantic Schuylkill League Division 1 overtime win over Blue Mountain.*******TWO TO TANGO ... During the Fillies' 52-48 overtime loss to Loyalsock on Dec. 22, Brenna Karnish and Emily Schaud supplied a majority of the Marian offense. The duo combined for 14 of the team's 17 field goals, and 39 of their 48 points.*******TWO IN A ROW ... The Northern Lehigh girls' basketball program is on a two-game win streak with victories against Pen Argyl and Palmerton. The program's last winning streak of at least two games was on Feb. 7, 2012, when the Bulldogs won three straight led by Aimee Oertner, Jess Olewine, and Tina Bastardi.