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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
College Basketball
College basketball is the best sport in America (right now). (Then professional football, then who cares!) The best part of the best sport is the NCAA tournament. There's a movement afoot to double the size of the field:
Rectifying that problem will be at the top of the agenda this week when college coaches try to persuade the NCAA to expand the tournament during the men's and women's basketball committee meetings in Orlando, Fla.
It is an idea that has the strong support of [Bo] Ryan, who is on the board of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and Marquette's Tom Crean.
If the coaches get their wish and the field grows to 128 teams, 39.3% of the 326 programs nationwide would qualify.
This is, I believe, a lousy idea. No #16 seed has ever beaten a #1 seed -- so you improve a great tournament by having the #1 seed play a #32 seed? I don't get that.
Now, this change would definitely improve the quality of the final 64 teams in the tournament -- some teams earn their way into the national tournament by winning their conference tournament. The best team in the weakest conference is not always better than the worst team in the ACC -- this change would allow more major conference teams into the national tournament, who would typically beat up on the champions of the weak conferences in the first round.
Does that make the tournament better? I don't know. I know that it more or less guarantees the Badgers a first round win in the tournament, provided they don't draw North Dakota State.
This would also mark the end of the NIT, which allows any team with a winning record and an ability to sell tickets.
2 Comments:
Don't worry Hammer, my Bison aren't eligible for the tournament until 2009. But by then the crop of freshmen that beat the Badgers will be seniors and they'll be bracket-breakers for sure.
By 
, at
9:50 AM
I've never been so relieved that a game wasn't televised. Hard to believe the Badgers shot 22% from the field. (Tucker was 2 for 18, Taylor 6 for 24). You tip your cap to NDSU for playing good defense, but you also give credit to the law of averages. Sometimes a team just has a bad shooting night.
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