Post by rainman on Nov 3, 2007 6:58:41 GMT -5
Tranghese seeks justice
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— The timing was strange, it being Big East Media Day, a time to celebrate what the best basketball conference in America has, not a time to beg for more, yet this was the time Commissioner Mike Tranghese began his plea to see that justice is done his league in March.
A year ago it was true madness, at least in the eyes of those who make up the 16-team Big East, that former NCAA champion Syracuse, coached by a Hall of Fame member in Jim Boeheim, and possessing a resume that often would lead you directly into the NCAA tournament was bypassed.
True, the Big East had produced six NCAA teams without Syracuse, but the times they are a-changing, as Bob Dylan once sung. In fact, Tranghese might as well have mouthed Dylan’s lyrics as he began his impassioned plea.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Tranghese was less eloquent as he strongly made his point.
“I didn’t say it last year but I can’t tell you how disappointed I was that Syracuse did not get into the NCAA Tournament. I looked at it. I studied it. I can’t for the life of me figure out how Syracuse was left out,” he began, quickly getting to his point.
“I do not want this league taken for granted because we have 16 teams. I have coaches who feel we’re being arbitrated against,” he said.
The NCAA selection committee is reluctant to put more than six teams from a conference into the NCAA field for fear of snubbing some mid-majors who also have done all that has been asked of them, albeit in a far less demanding conference.
It comes down to point-counterpoint between the Big East and the mid-majors with the Big East playing the role of the ugly stepsister trying to keep Cinderella from attending the ball.
The question, quite simply, is whether or not there should be a limit on the number of participants a conference should have in the NCAA Tournament and what should be considered in getting there.
The aforementioned Mr. Boeheim spoke of the snub of his team this way.
“If the Big East getting 37 percent of its teams into the tournament is the way it should be, then there’s a problem,” he said, having already done the math and noting that 6 is 36.67 percent of 16. “Last year the Big 10, the Pac 10 got more than 50 percent into the tournament and that’s a crop. We had better teams.
“Don’t look at it as Syracuse. West Virginia was obviously a good team. They had problems early, but they came on. People say they didn’t have the wins,” he said.
As it worked out, by season’s end, they had 27 victories and an NIT championship.
“And that team got NO consideration for the tournament,” Boeheim said.
While not being drawn into whether or not WVU belonged in the tournament, to say nothing of Syracuse, new WVU coach Bob Huggins did take note of what the Big East means to college basketball.
“If there is not a Big East team in the Final Four it’s an upset,” he said. “You think of ESPN, which is the college basketball station, and it was built by its relationship with the Big East.”
And so you ask, if the idea is to get as many deserving teams into the NCAA as is possible, why in the world would the conference have expanded its conference schedule from 16 to 18 games?
Do they not beat up on one another enough already?
Think of it this way, as Boeheim did.
“If that’s two extra games each for 16 teams or 32 games. The Big East will go 16-16 in those games, since they are against each other. Now, if they had scheduled non-conference games, they would go what, 20-12 or better,” he said.
The problem is that the top teams in the Big East — teams like Syracuse — are so high profile that TV demands them for non-conference national games against powers from other leagues, meaning they not only beat up upon themselves in conference play, but wind up with a difficult non-conference schedule.
“To me, playing 18 conference games doesn’t help our cause getting into the NCAA Tournament,” Connecticut’s Hall of Fame Coach Jim Calhoun said.
“Other leagues will benefit from us playing 18 games against each other,” is the way Marquette’s Tom Crean saw it.
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— The timing was strange, it being Big East Media Day, a time to celebrate what the best basketball conference in America has, not a time to beg for more, yet this was the time Commissioner Mike Tranghese began his plea to see that justice is done his league in March.
A year ago it was true madness, at least in the eyes of those who make up the 16-team Big East, that former NCAA champion Syracuse, coached by a Hall of Fame member in Jim Boeheim, and possessing a resume that often would lead you directly into the NCAA tournament was bypassed.
True, the Big East had produced six NCAA teams without Syracuse, but the times they are a-changing, as Bob Dylan once sung. In fact, Tranghese might as well have mouthed Dylan’s lyrics as he began his impassioned plea.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Tranghese was less eloquent as he strongly made his point.
“I didn’t say it last year but I can’t tell you how disappointed I was that Syracuse did not get into the NCAA Tournament. I looked at it. I studied it. I can’t for the life of me figure out how Syracuse was left out,” he began, quickly getting to his point.
“I do not want this league taken for granted because we have 16 teams. I have coaches who feel we’re being arbitrated against,” he said.
The NCAA selection committee is reluctant to put more than six teams from a conference into the NCAA field for fear of snubbing some mid-majors who also have done all that has been asked of them, albeit in a far less demanding conference.
It comes down to point-counterpoint between the Big East and the mid-majors with the Big East playing the role of the ugly stepsister trying to keep Cinderella from attending the ball.
The question, quite simply, is whether or not there should be a limit on the number of participants a conference should have in the NCAA Tournament and what should be considered in getting there.
The aforementioned Mr. Boeheim spoke of the snub of his team this way.
“If the Big East getting 37 percent of its teams into the tournament is the way it should be, then there’s a problem,” he said, having already done the math and noting that 6 is 36.67 percent of 16. “Last year the Big 10, the Pac 10 got more than 50 percent into the tournament and that’s a crop. We had better teams.
“Don’t look at it as Syracuse. West Virginia was obviously a good team. They had problems early, but they came on. People say they didn’t have the wins,” he said.
As it worked out, by season’s end, they had 27 victories and an NIT championship.
“And that team got NO consideration for the tournament,” Boeheim said.
While not being drawn into whether or not WVU belonged in the tournament, to say nothing of Syracuse, new WVU coach Bob Huggins did take note of what the Big East means to college basketball.
“If there is not a Big East team in the Final Four it’s an upset,” he said. “You think of ESPN, which is the college basketball station, and it was built by its relationship with the Big East.”
And so you ask, if the idea is to get as many deserving teams into the NCAA as is possible, why in the world would the conference have expanded its conference schedule from 16 to 18 games?
Do they not beat up on one another enough already?
Think of it this way, as Boeheim did.
“If that’s two extra games each for 16 teams or 32 games. The Big East will go 16-16 in those games, since they are against each other. Now, if they had scheduled non-conference games, they would go what, 20-12 or better,” he said.
The problem is that the top teams in the Big East — teams like Syracuse — are so high profile that TV demands them for non-conference national games against powers from other leagues, meaning they not only beat up upon themselves in conference play, but wind up with a difficult non-conference schedule.
“To me, playing 18 conference games doesn’t help our cause getting into the NCAA Tournament,” Connecticut’s Hall of Fame Coach Jim Calhoun said.
“Other leagues will benefit from us playing 18 games against each other,” is the way Marquette’s Tom Crean saw it.
