DIVISION FOUR BOYS BASKETBALL BRACKET UPDATE

SPORTSDESK - We had no plans to update this bracket. A week ago, things looked fairly stable and we thought most were locked into their place. Wrong!

Edgar has been on a tear. Spencer is carrying a big stick. Pacelli is fading fast. Auburndale upended at home. Marathon is coming on strong. Who exactly has Neillsville beat?

What a mess.

To be a fly on the wall during the seed meeting in Marathon on Sunday.

Should Edgar beat Newman Catholic on Friday they will have won nine straight, including five of those nine on the road, one against Auburndale (52-47). Auburndale gets undefeated Stratford at home on Friday, if they were to fall, coach Weinfurter will argue with Edgar for the two seed. An Edgar team they needed multiple overtimes to beat in their first meeting and the aforementioned home loss to the Wildcats. They would share the same conference mark and be the owners of two Stratford losses compared to Edgar's one (Edgar gets Stratford for the second time after the seed meeting).

The four/five line is as straight forward as a plate of cooked spaghetti. Both Neillsville and Spencer won their home games against each other. Neillsville a little cleaner at home 63-46. Spencer benefited from a Neillsville foul forty feet from the basket with 1.1 on the clock that sent senior, Brett Kasch, to the free throw line to can both shots and get an improbable 61-60 win. Spencer defensively confounded the offensive minded Warriors all day and has played top tier defense of recent. Neillsville has two solid wins against D5 Greenwood during conference play, beat D2 Antigo (7-12) and D3 Black River (13-7) is their best non-conference win. Spencer has only Abbotsford as a non-conference win, our projected 12 seed. Yet, with a win on Friday at Colby, will be the only Cloverbelt team at the seed meeting that can claim a conference championship as they will be a half game clear of Neillsville on Sunday.

Our previous number five, Pacelli, has only one win since January 25th and that was to 2-17 Weyauwega-Fremont. Hence the free-fall to seven, and if they can't beat Port Edwards, who they're currently tied with at 5-5 in conference, could swap spots with eight seed Marathon.

While that's going on, Stratford should be able to walk into Marathon on Sunday, take a confident bow, and leave the meeting with the one seed.