The big schools take center stage in Missouri and Illinois as district play begins on both sides of the river. Teams in Missouri Classes 4 and 5 and Illinois Classes 3A and 4A will begin their postseason next week.
Here is a brief summary of the upcoming Missouri district playoffs.
Class 5
District 1 (at Seckman): Jackson is the No. 1 seed followed by No. 2 Oakville. Both are favored to meet in the championship game.
District 2 (at Lafayette): Always a wide-open district featuring the Rockwood and Parkway schools. Lafayette is the top seed, followed by Parkway South.
District 3 (Parkway North): CBC is the top seed and favored to move on with a solid Parkway Central in at No. 2.
District 4 (at Kirkwood): A very competitive district with top seed Webster Groves, followed by No. 2 Kirkwood and No. 3 Vianney.
District 5 (at Troy): Wide open district without a clear-cut favorite. Fort Zumwalt West is the No. 1 seed, but Francis Howell, Holt and Timberland could challenge.
District 6 (at Fort Zumwalt East): An excellent district with Fort Zumwalt South as the top seed, but No. 2 Fort Zumwalt North is very good as well. Howell Central is not bad either at No. 3.
District 7 (at Hazelwood West): The Suburban North district is always competitive. Hazelwood Central is the No. 1 seed, but No. 2 McCluer North and No. 3 Hazelwood East are also major threats.
District 8 (at SLUH): Loaded Chaminade is the No. 1 seed, but No. 2 Ladue and No. 3 SLUH both can provide some strong competition. Another very strong district.
Class 4
District 3 (at Hillsboro): No. 1 seed Affton is having a very strong year, but No. 2 Festus and No. 3 Lutheran South are also quite capable teams.
District 4 (at DuBourg): Bayless drew the No. 1 seed, but No. 2 Gateway Tech, No. 3 St. Mary’s and No. 4 DuBourg will also challenge.
District 5 (at Vashon): A very good Jennings team is the No. 1 seed. They will be challenged by No. 2 Miller Career Academy or No. 3 Soldan.
District 6 (at MICDS): Host MICDS is the No. 1 seed with Priory, Normandy, Westminster, University City and Clayton all having a shot to win it.
District 7 (at St. Charles): A loaded district with No. 1 Duchesne being a state contender, but No. 2 St. Charles and No. 3 St. Charles West also having excellent teams.
On the girls’ side, much of the action in Class 4 will be concentrated in the District 5 and 6 tournaments. Nationally ranked Incarnate Word Academy is the top seed in District 5 at Vashon. Coming in at No. 2 is a talented and very dangerous Miller Career Academy team. In District 6, host MICDS is the top seed. These are probably the top three teams on the Missouri side of the river.
On the Illinois Side, there are two Class 4A regional tournaments involving metro east teams. The Quincy Regional features No. 1 seed and No. 2 Alton, which have split their two regular season meetings this season. The Belleville West Regional features Southwestern Conference teams O’Fallon, Belleville East, East St. Louis, Collinsville and Belleville West. No need to list the seeds. It will be a free for all.
Class 3A regionals tournaments involving metro east teams will be at Althoff and Triad. The Althoff Regional will be hot as it features South Seven Conference rivals Althoff and Cahokia. The Triad Regional features No. 1 seed Alton Marquette.
 (If you want to see complete brackets of the postseason tournaments for boys and girls, you can go to mshsaa.org to see the Missouri brackets and IHSA.org to see the Illinois state brackets. You can also follow Earl Austin Jr’s basketball reports on earlaustinjr.com.)
