Week 8 picks

Technically, the playoffs start next week.

In reality, for four teams, the playoffs start Friday.

Worland, Cody, Meeteetse and Hulett all play unofficial play-in games in their final games of the regular season. The winner of Worland-Cody earns the No. 4 seed from the Class 3A West Conference and will travel to play Douglas in the first round; the winner of Meeteetse-Hulett earns the fourth seed from the Class 1A six-man North Conference and makes the trip to Baggs to play Snake River in that classification’s quarterfinal round.

Win, you keep playing next week. Lose, you don’t. Just like the playoffs. Simple as that.

Worland has to make the trip to Cody to play the Broncs; the game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Both squads have identical 1-4 conference records, having both beat Jackson, but Worland sports two more victories overall thanks to nonconference victories over Rawlins and Torrington. Cody, meanwhile, is just 1-7 this season after four nonconference losses and an 0-5 start to the season.

In six-man, Meeteetse makes the long trip across the northern half of the state to face Hulett in a 2 p.m. game. The two teams were rivals in the old nine-man league of the early 1990s — the Longhorns beat the Red Devils in the 1993 nine-man championship game — but they haven’t played each other since 1994. Both teams are winless in conference play, but Hulett has experienced the thrill of victory over three South Conference teams while Meeteetse is 0-7.

I’m keeping the picks simple here; I’m going with the home teams, Cody and Hulett.

And, just maybe, the winners of these two games will benefit in a way their first-round opponents can’t: They’ll already understand the feeling of what it really means to play in a playoff atmosphere. After all, that’s what this week basically is for these four teams.

(Cody leads Worland series 38-32-1; Meeteetse-Hulett series is tied 3-3.)

Here are the rest of this week’s picks, with projected winners in bold. If your computer can’t read bold type, you’ll just have to trust me (and you should probably buy a new computer):

Thursday
Class 1A 11-man
Wyoming Indian at Shoshoni: The Wranglers have been swooning a bit as of late — losers of three of four — but they have the added push of wanting to get into the postseason playing in their favor. 6 p.m. (Sho 22-6-1)
Friday
Class 4A
Kelly Walsh at Cheyenne Central: KW will probably keep it close and interesting, but the Indians have too much firepower — and too much momentum from three straight solid victories. 6 p.m. (CC 22-15)
Laramie at Evanston: Just like the KW-Central game, this one pits one team trying to make the playoffs against one team that’s already guaranteed its place in the postseason. 7 p.m. (Lar 11-10)
Natrona at Gillette: It’s always — ALWAYS — tough for NC to win in Gillette. Mustangs haven’t won there since 2004. Don’t be surprised to see the Camels pull off the upset in this one, especially since both teams already have playoff seeds secured. I’m still picking NC, though…. 7 p.m. (NC 34-17)
Rock Springs at Cheyenne South: The quickly improving Tigers know if they win, they’re in. 7 p.m. (First meeting)
Sheridan at Cheyenne East: It’s a long trip and the T-Birds are a good team, but Sheridan has been on quite a roll lately. 6 p.m. (She 19-11)
Class 3A
Buffalo at Rawlins: I’ll be honest: When working through playoff scenarios earlier this week, I worked through all the scenarios where Buffalo lost. Then I realized that Buffalo was playing Rawlins and those scenarios were worthless. 6 p.m. (Buf 15-2-1)
Douglas at Torrington: The Bearcats already know their playoff seed, but they don’t want to lose any momentum in the final week of the regular season. 7 p.m. (Tor 54-26-2)
Jackson at Star Valley: How will the Braves respond to a difficult loss last week? That question, plus the rivalry game angle, makes this one a bit more unpredictable than you’d think. 7 p.m. (SV 59-14)
Powell at Green River: Both of these teams are playing at a really high level right now. Both teams are threats to win the state title. Both want home-field advantage in the first two rounds. Game of the week? Try game of the year. 7 p.m. (Pow 5-4)
Riverton at Lander: The Tigers have been one of the most pleasant surprise teams this season. They want to make sure to win the big one, though — the one the folks in Fremont County will be talking about all offseason, no matter what else happens the rest of the year. 6 p.m. (Riv 58-49-7)
Class 2A
Big Horn at Newcastle: This is a big one in terms of playoff positioning. The winner guarantees a home playoff game but, thanks to 2A’s parity, doesn’t guarantee an easier trip to Laramie. Taking the Dogies just because it’s a home game for them. 7 p.m. (BH 2-0)
Burns at Wright: Is there a hotter team in 2A right now than Burns? Other than maybe the Broncs’ first-round playoff opponent, Lovell, maybe not. 7 p.m. (Wri 11-7)
Greybull at Lyman: Oooohhh. Loving this matchup. Both teams would love to win this one to keep the momentum going into the playoffs. 3 p.m. (tied 5-5)
Lovell at Big Piney: These two teams have been experiencing long seasons in 2011 for completely different reasons. 3:30 p.m. (Lov 5-3)
Moorcroft at Glenrock: The Herders’ loss last week may just be the wake-up call they’ve been searching for. They are more dangerous now than ever before. 7 p.m. (Glk 11-7-1)
Mountain View at Kemmerer: Don’t overlook this game on your 2A schedule this week. It won’t mean much next week, but there is a lot of pride on the line and two good teams clashing that want to end the season right. 3 p.m. (MV 17-15)
Thermopolis at Pinedale: The Bobcats know they can’t afford a slip-up here. 7 p.m. (The 4-0)
Class 1A 11-man
Burlington at Cokeville: The Panthers of 2011 are looking a lot like the Panthers of 2010. And we all know how that turned out. 1 p.m. (Cok 10-1)
Lingle at Southeast: All season, it hasn’t mattered who Southeast lines up against. The Cyclones just win. 6 p.m. (SE 22-10)
Riverside at Wind River: The Cougars need a lot to go their way to make it into the postseason. The most critical is a win here. The problem is they’re playing a Riverside team that has won five in a row. 6 p.m. (Rsd 11-9)
Saratoga at Rocky Mountain: That is a really long trip, but the Panthers know what’s at stake: In every scenario, if Saratoga wins, it’s in the playoffs. 4 p.m. (RM 4-0)
Sundance at Normative Services: The Wolves’ last win came in 2009… over Sundance… in Sheridan… in the final game of the regular season. Tread carefully, Bulldogs. 7 p.m. (tie 1-1)
Upton at Lusk: Is consecutive shutout No. 5 within Lusk’s reach this week? 7 p.m. (Lus 9-5)
Class 1A six-man
Farson at Snake River: Both teams already have their postseason invitations set. That doesn’t mean they won’t take this one seriously. Noon. (SR 4-2)
Hanna at Ten Sleep: This one is an interesting showdown of the two No. 3 seeds in the postseason. It will be fun to see how the middle of the North stacks up against the middle of the South. 1 p.m. (Han 2-0)
Interclass
Wheatland at Natrona JV: The 2011 season sort of spiraled away from the Bulldogs, but a victory here could be enough to point the program in the right direction for 2012. 5 p.m. (NA)
Saturday
Class 1A six-man
Dubois at Guernsey: Since losing to Snake River, the Rams have won five in a row — by an average of 44 points per game. 2 p.m. (Gue 1-0)
Midwest at Kaycee: Speaking of North vs. South, here’s another one. The two No. 2 seeds in six-man face off in the final week of the regular season. Once again, it’ll be interesting here to see how two like seeds from the two conferences match up. 3 p.m. (Kay 3-1)
Open: Pine Bluffs

There it is. Those are my final picks for the 2011 regular season. What do you think? Feel free to post a comment below and we can start talking matchups this week, matchups next week, matchups you want to see in Laramie….

–patrick