Jay Greeson of the Chattanooga Times Free PressMy father simply loves college basketball.
Beyond his faith, my father's list is family, job and then college hoops (and some would say that order varies occasionally since the man was late for his own wedding because UNC-Davidson went down to the wire in an Elite Eight game 43 years ago this Thursday).
Anyway, each year leading up to the NCAA draw he says in his direct and purposeful way, "I think it's going to be an interesting tournament," and when filling out a bracket he says in an equally direct manner, "That's why they play the games."
After a crazy Sunday that featured a slew of big-time conference titles followed by the Big Dance card that will be the highlight of the gambling calendar (more than $12 billion -- yes billion with a "B" -- is expected to be wagered, with more $3 billion of that from the 100 million people who fill out brackets), here are a few observations after the dust settled.
-- First, let's discuss the conference tournaments. No not the winners, because frankly, who cares, right? There should be zero major conference tournament finals on Selection Sunday. Nada. If you think the college basketball regular season is marginalized by the Big Dance, what about the SEC tournament final? If someone mentions Vanderbilt this morning, are you more apt to know that by beating Kentucky on Sunday the Commodores won their first SEC conference title since 1951 or that they will play Harvard in the smartest NCAA first-round game of all time?
This is an easy fix, too. Simply flip the order. Have the power conferences play on the weekend before Selection Sunday. That would give fans, players and coaches some time to savor the moment. Let the one-bid leagues have Selection Sunday all to themselves. It would put the Southern Conference final and its ilk on CBS or ABC rather than ESPNU or The Ocho or wherever it may be.
Plus, the one-bid leagues are playing for their lives, which secures win-or-go-home stakes. Sure, UK and Vandy each wanted to win Sunday, but each knew that there was more hoops to be had. (Plus, by flipping the power conference tournaments and the mid-major tournaments, the smaller leagues will get more invested interest from the bubble big boys.)
-- Second, Cuonzo Martin's Tennessee Volunteers played their worst game in their biggest game, shooting terribly in Friday's bubble-busting loss to Ole Miss. Hey, it happens to everyone, and this happened to UT. That The Conz had them even in position to be considered was a huge accomplishment with a team picked 11th in the SEC in November. Plus, UT got a No. 1 seed in the NIT and figures to be among the favorites in that draw.
-- Third, did anyone else notice the lack of bellyaching at the committee this year? Not surprisingly, we have three theories on this. First, we believe that the talking heads on CBS and ESPN were informed that there would be minimal NCAA-bashing this year. Call it a conspiracy if you want, but there was very little from the Seth Greenberg Memorial Camera where a dejected coach was asked how he felt. (That's named in honor of Greenberg, the Virginia Tech coach, who has had his bubble popped something like 49 consecutive years.) Second, the committee did a pretty solid job of getting the draw correct, and most of the field was pretty clear-cut. Finally, let's call it the VCU aftershocks. Many of the big-time college hoops folks bashed Virginia Commonwealth getting into the field last year, and we all remember how they went from the Dayton play-in game to the Final Four. Even ESPN ace Jay Bilas bagged on the Rams, and there was certainly more than one serving of crow tossed around by VCU.
-- Someone asked last week about a sports bucket list, and here's one to add: Going to Las Vegas for the first two days of the NCAA tournament and wall-to-wall basketball. And that would most definitely make for an interesting tournament, right, Pop?
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6273.