96 Teams in the NCAA Tournament is the worst idea since the BcS selection process.

ncaaBBX

In the NBA, they play 82 games to determine which 14 teams don’t make the playoffs. Anyone that thinks that the regular season of the NBA is great basketball has to have their vision and sanity checked. For the most part only the last 10 minutes of regular season games between contenders show a level of intensity that is “must see” TV.

Now the NCAA is considering expanding the tournament to 96 teams. The top 32 team would get first round byes. What?????

First of all, this tournament is the ONLY thing that the NCAA does that they haven’t screwed up. It is great just the way it is. Putting all those teams into the tournament is like a high school championship where every school gets to play even if they lost every game. That is just plain dumb.

If the RPI was used to pick the 96 teams this year, #96 would have been Arizona with a 16-15 record. Why in the world would you want a just above 500 team into the playoffs? It doesn’t make sense. In addition, it makes the regular season almost meaningless.

Second, if you have to expand the tournament, give the top 2 … Read more at FryingPanSports

My thoughts on the second week of the NCAA Tournament.

Fryingpan Sports

My thoughts on the second week of the NCAA Tournament.

By Bill Smith

Lots and lots and lots of chalk. The top 3 seeds dominated the play in the second week of the NCAA. Over all, the committee was right about the top dozen teams.

In the tournament, quality depth is critical.

As I said in My thoughts on betting the NCAA Tournament—For entertainment purposes only depth is critical for surviving and moving on. North Carolina’s depth was a major factor in both of their wins. In the critical minutes at the end of games their opponents had their hands on hips searching for a breath of oxygen while the NC starters were rested.

Don’t worry about top seed teams that lost early in their conference tournament. NC moved on while Duke failed to make the final 4.

After the first weekend, beware of the one man team. As good as Blake Griffin is, it is far too easy to stop a single player. Griffin will be the first choice in the NBA draft if he comes out (which he will). Even though he scored 23, NC found ways to keep him down when it counted.

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