The Madness of March

One of my favorite times of year if wrapping up. March Madness which starts with the conference basketball tournaments and extends through the NCAA and NIT tournaments offers some of the best entertainment and stories for the money of any sporting event. This year's tournament has as usual been no exception.

However, I must say that I disagree with SEC Commissioner Mark Slive and the Selection Committee by not including more teams from the non major, or non-BCS, conferences. This is unfair and politics at it's worst.

The argument goes like this: Schools like Creighton, St. Mary's, etc. who have excellent teams, but play in conferences that are not as good overall as the ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, or the Pac Ten, need to have tougher non-conference schedules in order to increase their strength of schedule and RPI which play into the tourney selection committee's decisions.

The reality is that for mid-major schools, who do not have the budget of the schools in BCS conferences cannot afford to simply schedule who they want to play. Furthermore, a school like Syracuse knows that it's suicide to go play at Creighton before Christmas. Syracuse has a long and tough Big East Conference schedule awaiting them upon their return from the Christmas break. Regardless of how good they are, at that point in the season, Creighton has a good chance of beating them, or any other team from a power conference on their home floor. Jim Boheim is smarter than that. Hence until conference play starts he rarely plays outside the state of New York before January. He knows that the key for a school like Syracuse to go to the tournament EVERY year is to schedule 10-12 virtually guaranteed wins at home before the conference schedule starts. This is done by paying schools more money than they can turn down to travel to Syracuse and play on Syracuse's home court. These are typically lower level DI schools and mid majors. This ensures Syracuse 10-12 wins before conference play, in order to go to the NCAA Tournament, they simply then have to go about .500 in the Big East. They do this by winning all or most of their home games and trying to merely steal 1 or 2 games on the road. At the end of the season they have 25 wins, a high RPI, perhaps an upset against a number 1 such as UCONN as they did this year, and they are without question a tourney team.

A Creighton type team on the other hand has played half of their non-conference games on the road, sometimes at schools who are tournament quality teams, and then turn around and play in very underestimated conferences in which they have to win outright in order to go to the tournament. UNC, Duke, UCLA, Kentucky, Villanova, UCONN, Michigan St. and other schools from those prgrams don't schedule teams like Creighton in fear of losing a game that could significantly hurt their RPI. It's easier to schedule games they are all but guaranteed to win. And Creighton simply cannot afford to buy a game from UNC, UCLA, Duke, Louisville, etc. who have virtually unlimited budgets to come play them.

Yet, the committee suggest that scheduling is Creighton's problem. Shame on you Mike Slive and the rest of the Tournament Committee! I know your job is tough. But the best tournament in recent memory, and one that will be talked about forever was a few years ago when George Mason made it's amazing march to the Final Four by knocking out Goliath after Goliath with big plays and buzzer beaters. It won't happen every year, but it's watching small schools and those communities behind them that make the NCAA tournament one of if not the greatest sporting event on earth, and 100 times better and more exciting than the NCAA's coveted "Bowl Championship Series!"

Give the mid majors who have had great seasons the benefit of the doubt! Also, give the teams that will go and play those mid majors from the power conferences extra consideration as well. We don't want the Tournament to become a joke like the BCS is!

I would like to also give a big round of applause to the Athletic Director and fans of North Carolina State University! You are the biggest idiots in collegiate basketball and I wish nothing but mediocrity for you for the next 25 years!

Herb Sendek took over the N.C. State basketball program 12 years ago. He propmptly lost 2 years in a row in the NIT to the venerable Pete Carril and his Princeton Tigers. Sendek took stock of himself and his program and changed the way he approached coaching. For the next 8 years Sendek was constantly in the hunt for the ACC regular season Championship & went to 5 consecutive NCAA Tournaments tying the record set by the wildly popular Jim Valvano. He was also named coach of the year in a conference with coaches who had won a half dozen national championships among them.

This was not good enough for N.C. State fans however who are not aware of the fact that they are not Duke and they are not UNC, BUT that Sendek had N.C. State competing with those teams annually. The fans voiced their opinion, and N.C. State athletic director Lee Fowler allowed them to run him out of town to Arizona State because he either felt the same way or didn't have the back bone to stand up to them.

Regardless, Sendek has turned the program at Arizona State around by finishing 4th in the Pac Ten, making it to the conference tournament finals and making yet another trip to the NCAA tournament. N.C.State meanwhile sat at home as they were ACC cellar dwellers for the last 2 years. Good job!

For any A.D.'s wanting to make a really smart move for their school, Sendek is one of the very best coaches in the country! And you won't learn that from Jay Bilas or Dick Vitale!

Oh yeah, Mitch Barnhart the athletic director at Kentucky who fired Tubby Smith just a few days ago fired the guy HE hired to replace him, Bill Gillespie. Why isn't Barnhart held accountable as Gillespie has been? He made the bad hire!

Tubby Smith has resurrected a Minnesota program and took them back to the NCAA tournament and is being mentioned for the job in Arizona. Nice job Barnhart. You and Gillespie should have to share moving expenses!

Congratulations to Tyler Hansborough. He is the ACC's all-time leading scorer and is making his second trip to the Final Four. Tyler has played all 4 years at UNC and is one of the toughest competitors I have ever seen. I know because I was a tough competitor and I don't see many that impress me, and he does. A kid like Hansborough is what makes NCAA sports the best there is. Here's wishing him the best this week. And any NBA GM thinking this guy can't help you win, you're an idiot! He's not a 20-10 guy for the next 12 years, but he will be an asset for someone.

Congratulations to Coach Scott Drew and his Baylor Bears for making the NIT final four in Madison Square Garden. Drew took over a program coming off of massive NCAA violations and the murder of one of it's players. Drew who came to Baylor from Valparaiso has made consistent improvements ever since arriving in Waco. His brother Bryce made one of the most memorable shots in NCAA tourney history over 10 years ago against Ole Miss, look for Scott Drew's team (wherever he may be coaching) in future NCAA tournaments.