Countdown to Selection Sunday

I know football has taken center stage but it's never too early to look ahead to basketball season. Saw this story at Yahoo! Sports about the upcoming (expanded NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament). NCAA Selection Sunday (March 13th, 2011) is only 184 days away.

The first four opening round games will be played at the UD Arena in Dayton, OH March 15 & 16. Great move by the NCAA top brass for awarding UD the extra games. The boost in extra revenue for the Dayton economy will be welcomed and it's a well deserved accolade to basketball fans in the Miami Valley.

No matter how good or bad the Flyers are on the court (lately they have been solid - 2010 NIT Champs) 10-12 thousand pack the arena for each game. UD Arena (home of the University of Dayton Flyers) is a great place to watch a game and a definite home court advantage for the Flyers. They are 509-183 at home.

The Flyers have only made the NCAA Tournament seven times since 1979.

And some not-so-good-news for the the Tennessee Vols basketball program.

According to the Associated Press the NCAA has contacted head coach Bruce Pearl and a assistant about possible recruiting violations. Combine that with players arrested on guns and drug charges, football players involved in a brawl and a separate investigation into former head football coach Lane Kiffin for possible violation... you get (not-so) good times on Rocky top.

NCAA Tournament Expansion News

College basketball fans (especially those who love March Madness) mark April 29th on your calendar. That is the day NCAA officials will meet in Indianapolis and tournament expansion could be topic of discussion and ultimately decided.

The NCAA has until July 31st to opt out of the final three years of it's current 11 year $3 billion dollar deal with CBS.

Why opt out of a perfect marriage? Money of course. The NCAA is looking into expanding the current 65 team tournament to as many as 96 teams.

My stance on the issue is biased - I work for a CBS affiliate (KFVS) and can't imagine what it would be like not having the tournament on KFVS. The current tournament does not need a major overhaul. It could use a tweak here or there but not something as drastic as adding 31 more teams.

I briefly wrote about this in an earlier post dated March 15th.

I bring this up again after reading a great article from the Indy Star on NCAA Tournament expansion. If it's inevitable expansion will happen I like the idea written about in the article (CBS & Turner teaming-up to get the broadcast rights).

Racers Deserve to Dance

The NCAA Tournament dream for the Murry State men's basketball team can come true with a pair of victories this weekend in Nashville beginning with Friday nights Semifinal game against Eastern Illinois. The Racers swept the regular season series against the Panthers winning by 16 in the first meeting and 9 just ten days later.

A loss in Nashville could turn the dream into a nightmare which could last more than a week untill the NCAA Selection Show. Most bracket projections have only one team from the OVC playing in the tournament. Of course that would be the winner of the conference tournament with no other OVC team receiving an at-large bid.

In years past that formula has been correct, but this year the predictable tried and true recipe used by the Selection Committee needs a little tweaking. To borrow from Chef Emeril Lagasse, the process could use some "Bam".

This quote from Emeril fits the situation.

“I had these recipes that say do this, do that. Who MAKES these rules?”

I would love to see that written on the dry erase board in the Selection Commitee's "War Room". Variety is the spice of life - the NCAA Tournament could use some out-of-the-box forward thinking.

By no means is the OVC a power conference or one which can even be mentioned with the likes of the ACC, Big East, SEC, Big XII or even the mid-majors (MVC, Horizon, etc.).

As of Thursday March 4th the OVC ranks 20th in RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) out of 33 Division 1 leagues.

RPI Rankings: Conference
1. Big XII
2. Big East
3. ACC
4. SEC

5. Big Ten
9. MVC
33. Great West

Simply looking at the overall RPI and it's easy to see why it appears Murray State needs to secure the OVC's automatic bid. Dig deeper and you'll see the Racers have done everything possible (short of going undefeated) to get an at-large bid. They dominated the regular season (17-1) in the OVC, nearly won road games over Cal (RPI 23) and Lousiana Tech (RPI 80), won all 15 home games and have a 28-4 record heading to Nashville. Honestly! What more could you ask for.

Bypassing Murray State for a .500 team from a power conference would be a huge injustice and continue to devalue the importance the regular season. You can't blame coach Kennedy, Ivan Aska, Tony Easley, Isaiah Canaan or the rest of the team for playing in a bad conference, but you can reward a team for doing what great teams do...Dominate their opponent.


Coach Kennedy talks about the struggles for national recognition.