Conference tourney primer, and a rant
Posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 3:37 PM
Filed Under:
Rants, Conference tournaments
The Madness is here.
Tuesday kicked off 13 glorious days of college basketball tournaments (click here for a complete schedule). Nearly 300 teams are vying for 31 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament awarded to conference tourneys champions. (That includes the Ivy League, which doesn’t hold a tourney, but gives its bid to the regular-season champ).
Those who don’t win place their fate with the seeding committee on Selection Sunday when the field of 65 is announced at roughly 6 p.m. ET. Most know these tourneys are their only shot at going dancing.
Chuck Burton/AP |
Stephen Curry
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But before I get into the primer for conference tournaments, let’s turn to Kyle Whelliston of the Mid-majority, the man who spends his year watching teams from those (mostly) one-bid leagues. His daily essays are required reading for any fan, especially this time of year.
Today’s subject: How many mid-major teams will earn at-large bids?
His answer: Who cares? His primary concern is with the 23 automatic bids reserved for mid-major teams, and how well those teams will perform in the NCAA tournament. That’s it, end of story.
As always, it’s an impassioned, well-written essay, but just reeks of bitterness toward the NCAA tournament. The guy doesn’t care for at-large bids.
League tourneys not only determine who gets to hang a banner, storm the floor and grab that golden ticket, they represent the same exact elimination-style test that awaits at the Biggest Dance of all. And as I say every year, if you don't win your conference tournament, you don't deserve to go to the NCAA's.
That’s a bit harsh given that teams have played an entire conference slate (anywhere from 16 to 20 games) just to earn a seed for the conference tournament, which then determines if you’re going dancin’. Should the regular season be discounted just because you had a bad tourney game?
After all, the NCAA tournament tries to be inclusionary, which isn’t easy when there are just 65 spots for more than 330 D-I teams. About 20 percent of schools have a chance at winning it all. But Whelliston would prefer the NCAA went back to the days of a 25-team tournament when only conference tournament winners were involved.
The NCAA went off the gold standard three decades ago, and the Division I market is as random and chaotic as that of the dollar.
OK, fine. But it’s never been a tournament of champions.
The thing started as an invitation tourney, no title necessary. The first 12 years consisted of at-large bids (Indiana finished 2nd in the Big Ten when it won the NCAA trophy in 1940). Even when conference tournament winners automatically qualified starting in 1951, anywhere from 6-12 at-large bids also were awarded because there were so many independent teams floating around – Louisville, Notre Dame, Marquette, Pittsburgh, to name a few.
At-large teams won three times (San Francisco in ’55, Loyola in ’63 and Texas Western in ’66) before 1975, the first year multiple teams from one conference were allowed. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, it’s been won 11 times by schools that didn’t win the conference tournament.
The expansion isn’t perfect. BCS schools receive a disproportionate number of at-large bids. A sub.-500 record isn’t the end if you’re in the Big East or ACC, but Utah State’s 13-2 WAC record may not be enough if the Aggies don’t win the conference tournament crown.
Is it fair? Probably not. If Utah State or Davidson or Siena don’t make it to the Dance, I’d be pissed if I were them. But without expansion, they’d never even have that chance. Give ‘em a chance, I say.
Still, I agree with Whelliston’s central point: Mid-majors winning games in the NCAA tournament is the most important thing when it comes to weighing how successful mid-majors were in a given season.
So what if George Mason didn’t win the Colonial League tournament OR the regular-season title in 2006? Isn’t it far more important that the Patriots reached the Final Four? So what if Davidson completed a perfect 2007-08 campaign in the Southern Conference. Their run to the Elite Eight is their lasting mark.
And who will make this year’s big run? The next few days will give us a good indication.
Start with these mid-major gunslingers. Only one or two will be dancing, so watch ‘em while you can.
As for conference primers, I’ll post a few choices. The first is from ESPN’s Pat Forde, who offers quickie scouting reports on the 14 mid-major and low-major conference tourneys starting up. I’m rooting for Eric Maynor and Ben Woodside to go dancin’.
If you have 15-25 minutes handy, I strongly recommend this Championship Week primer from Mike Rutherford over at CardChronicle.com. He covers just about every conceivable topic, from six squads bubble teams should cheer for to 20 players to watch and the crappy tournaments to avoid. Great stuff.
Or, if you'd like to go conference-by-conference, check out Rush the Court. They've been doing wrap ups of every league and previewing their tournaments. Previews for the Sun Belt, Patriot League, Missouri Valley, Horizon League and Ohio Valley are already up.
