|
|
|
Wednesday, July 11
Updated: July 12, 2:06 PM ET
NCAA hopes to make good tourney better
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
|
|
The NCAA Tournament selection committee is making a radical move in the hopes of cutting down on lost class time and improving the interest in the host first and second-round cities by altering the bracket.
The move, expected to be announced Thursday, means there will now be 16 "pods" of four teams each placed at the eight sites.
The committee presented one of its finest brackets in 2001, with the only complaint coming from Alabama, which thought it deserved to be included. But the committee rewarded teams for scheduling tough teams by adding 16-14 Georgia with its top 10 schedule.
A few seeds were considered too low, like Gonzaga's No. 12 and St. Joseph's No. 9, but on the whole the committee was widely praised. Except for its geographic placement of the teams.
The NCAA was hit hard for sending four teams from the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area to Boise, Idaho, for the West subregional. Maryland and Georgetown moved to Anaheim for the Sweet 16 and Maryland then won the West to go to Minneapolis.
The Terps were essentially on the road for three weeks, including the ACC tournament in Atlanta. This is commonplace for a team from the East going out West. Connecticut went through the same thing when it came out of the West in 1999 before it won the national title.
While fans might enjoy heading to a different city or a warmer climate, the NCAA had no defense for allowing a team to practically miss the whole month of March.
NCAA president Cedric Dempsey had used lost class time as a reason for why the organization supported getting rid of the exempted tournaments in November. But the NCAA couldn't respond to the same question about March.
Dempsey emphasized this point to the men's basketball selection committee before they met last week in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
And outgoing committee chair Mike Tranghese got the message, implementing what is by far one of the most dramatic shifts in the bracket since the field was expanded to 64.
Picture a bracket the way it normally looks with East, West, Midwest and South in four corners. The difference is two "pods" of four teams that are next to each other in the East, could end up being in two different first and second-round sites, depending on the locales of the top seeds.
Committee members told ESPN.com that the charge was to protect the top 16 overall seeds and keep them as close to home as possible. The seeding won't change with the best four teams being No. 1 seeds and so on down to No. 16.
But the matchups could be a dream for a local site.
For example, one of the eight first- and second-round sites next season is in St. Louis. If Missouri and Illinois, two nearby schools, are both No. 2 seeds, then they both could be in St. Louis, in two separate pods. Missouri would play a No. 15 seed, possibly a Midwest or South-based team, while Illinois would play a similar 15 seed if it's available. The 7-10 matchup with Missouri could be a Midwestern-type team if one exists in the seven slot. The 7-10 matchup for Illinois could be the same. Then, Missouri would go to its preassigned locale for the Sweet 16. If Missouri were the No. 2 seed in the South, then the Tigers would end up in Lexington, Ky. If Illinois were the No. 2 seed in the Midwest, then a winning Illini team would move on to the Midwest Regional finals in Madison, Wis.
The second weekend will look the same as it always has with four teams all slated to be in a specific region. But the first- and second-round sites will give fans and television a rare treat to lock up a packed arena. Can you imagine Duke and North Carolina both in Greensville, S.C., next March, but not playing each other?
Oklahoma City could host Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, but not against each other. Washington D.C. could do the same with Maryland and Virginia. The other four first- and second-round sites in 2002 are Albuquerque, Sacramento, Chicago and Pittsburgh.
The set four regional sites are Syracuse in the East, Madison in the Midwest, Lexington in the South and San Jose in the West, feeding into the Final Four in Atlanta.
The bracket shouldn't be too confusing, but will have more locations on it to differentiate the pods going to each site.
The committee has been criticized for being too stodgy in the past, but the past two seasons has made radical changes and been proactive in trying to adjust to any new concerns. Creating more interest locally, correcting a hypocritical position on lost class time and showing a willingness to change will be the trademarks of this move.
Tranghese will be sorely missed, but he has left a lasting legacy in his one year as committee chair with the emphasis on stronger scheduling and a move to keep the top teams closer to home the first weekend.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
|
|
|
|
