Outside the Bubble: High School Basketball Descends on Birmingham as Final Four Kicks Off Today

If you leave the friendly confines of Samford and head over into Birmingham proper, you might notice the restaurants are just that much more crowded and fewer cars are getting through the lights. Well wonder no longer. The Alabama High School Athletic Association is once again hosting the Final Four and championships for men's and women's basketball, with this year having 2 venues as the BJCC is currently undergoing renovations. A majority of the games will be held at the Birmingham Crossplex's Bill Harris Arena with games being played every day starting today until next Saturday (except for this Sunday). Game 1 every day tips off at 9am. Starting next week, UAB's Bartow Arena will also be used to host the 6A and 7A schools, with games on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. While my school pride initially led me to wish that Samford would have been chosen to host some of the games, a quick drive around campus reminded me of our limited amount of parking.

For those wanting to watch live basketball, tickets are being sold to the public for $12 a pop, which includes a processing fee. However, if you have class or if you don't want to have to pay for parking and still walk for a while, I would suggest getting a month long subscription to nfhsnetwork.com. This would allow you to either live stream any game that you want and listen to some interesting commentary, or you could watch a replay of any game on demand. (We here at insandoutsofthebubble take no responsibility for readers being distracted from class while watching a game). The month long subscription costs $10.99.

Several local schools will be playing for a championship. On the men's side 5A Ramsey (Birmingham) is scheduled to play tomorrow at 4:30pm. 6A Mountain Brook (Coach Bucky McMillan's former school) will play at UAB on Monday at 4:30pm and 7A Oak Mountain and Spain Park (Hoover) will both be playing at UAB. Oak Mountain will play at 11am and Spain Park will play at 4:30pm. On the women's side 6A Chelsea will play at UAB at 2pm on Monday and 7A Hoover and Hewitt-Trussville (Trussville) will play at UAB on Thursday. Hoover plays at 9am and Hewitt-Trussville will play at 2pm.