More Tournament Stuff

Since I first read this story on ESPN.com , I have been dying to give my two cents. But first, I wanted to hear what others were saying so I bit my tongue, read the message boards, a bunch of articles, and then read the comments on the articles which were hilarious by the way. So this is my take…

Obviously it’s a compromise, The NCAA didn’t want to offend every small conference and have the Distinguished Gentleman from wherever asking for a probe into conspiracy charges against the NCAA ala Orrin Hatch vs. The BCS. The NCAA also didn’t want the big conferences upset that their teams had to play an extra game on short rest just for television ratings. So, they combined it, two games of small conference champion vs. small conference champion and two games of bubble team vs. bubble team.

The key for Winthrop is not to be a 16 seed, isn’t that the hope anyway. The Eagles have been to the tournament nine times, only four of those times have they been a 16 seed. So if you play well in non-conference games, win the regular season, and win the tournament you get out of playing in the “First Four.” If you are a 16 seed, in theory there should be earning first round money for winning. The round of 64 will be called the second round, so the NCAA will give out a little money for the winners of “First Four”.

With all of that said, I am not really a fan of the 68-team bracket but I wasn’t a huge fan of the 65-team bracket. It doesn’t really matter to me how many teams there are, I want Winthrop to do as well as it can in the tournament and that means not being a 16 seed. Let’s not forget 16 seeds have NEVER beaten a 1 seed. So, the odds weren’t real good before.

Let’s continue to grow the program so when we advance to the NCAA Tournament we don’t have to worry about being a 16 seed. And if we are a bubble team as an at large team, like 2007 could have been. Then we should be more than happy to play a big name opponent for the chance to make a run in March. My feeling is it is always better to be playing meaningful games in March than watching them on TV.

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