On Thursday, March 16, the three-day Girls Basketball Semifinals and Finals of the Michigan High School Athletic Association opened at the Breslin Student Events Center on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing.

But, on Thursday, March 16, the printed Lansing State Journal had not a single story or picture about that event. Not one.

Not even with local favorite Pewamo-Westphalia of the LSJ coverage area scheduled to play at 2:50 p.m. that day.

This slight, although serious, is not uncommon. Since the court-ordered change of girls basketball season from fall to winter, girls basketball is not only played in the shadow of high school boys basketball, it is buried in the growing heap of hype for NCAA “March Madness.”

Now, forced by changing NCAA policies for the Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament that create conflicts for MHSAA tournaments in late March, the MHSAA has an opportunity to rethink and perhaps rework schedules for its girls and boys basketball seasons and tournaments.

It’s complicated and it would be contentious, but a winter sports schedule that ended every MHSAA winter tournament two weeks earlier would remedy many problems. It could cause a few new problems as well.