Sunday, March 16, 2008

Bob Knight: He's Right

So I have pondered the question for a couple of years now, it seems to come up every time the tournament has decisions to make. Should the NCAA expand the tourny? Bob Knight gave two suggestions, both of which I think would work well, one of which is the best advice the tourny committee has probably ever gotten.

Knight's first suggestion was to simply add one more game to the tournament, whether it be for all teams (which would allow 128 in) or just some (which would allow more deserving teams such as Virginia Tech and Arizona State to get in). His defense was that the highest seeds (13-16) which often consist of conference winners from garbage conferences who are nowhere near the 65 best teams. He proposed that teams ranked 1-64 get to play at home, which could be good as it would allow the best teams to have another home game, and give the best 64 teams an edge at getting into the tournament.

The second option that Knight listed was better than his first, and is the best thing that the tournament can do. Eliminate the Auto-bid. ELIMINATE THE AUTO-BID. It would make sure that no teams who lucked their way through the tournament (Georgia) or played bad but won a conference that was so bad that no teams were near the top 65 were kept out. There would still be mid majors like Gonzaga, Drake, Butler, Xavier and Memphis among others. This would also ensure that the teams that are now on the bubble, who people thought were easily among the best 65 teams in. Yes, there would still be questions about who were on the bubble, but at least teams wouldn't have to sit on the outside knowing that Coppin State has a chance and they don't. Teams in bad conferences would still have a chance, they would simply have to win games against other bad teams, or play a good schedule and have a decent record. A lot of teams such as Virginia Tech could probably dominate some of these garbage conferences. This would mean that the best 65, or at least the best 60, would get into the tournament, and it would make the opening round games more competitive, as well as allowing teams to be rewarded for their top 65 seasons.

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