Is bigger better?
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese fox trots around that question like a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
He’ll tell you how exciting his 16-team league is and how he’s spoken to members of the NCAA Tournament selection committee who have assured him that their charge is to invite the 65 best teams to the Big Dance.
If that means taking 12 teams from the Big East, so be it.
“In 1991, we had nine teams and they took seven,” said Tranghese. “Why can’t a 16-team league get 10 teams?”
Uh, because there are a lot of other power conferences out there such as the ACC, where Duke has usurped national champ North Carolina, the Big Ten, where Michigan State is primed for another run, the Big 12, where only the strong survive, the Pac 10, where defense is an option and the SEC, where Kentucky is king.
Those leagues might start a basketball civil war if the Big East is seen to be dominating the landscape.
And let’s not forget about those quality teams coming out of the non-power leagues. Gonzaga, Nevada, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Creighton, Manhattan and Winthrop should come with NCAA Tournament Pepcid packets for their first-round opponents.
And what about those schools in the power conferences that have discovered basketball isn’t merely a diversion between spring and fall football?
Wasn’t that a marvelous run by West Virginia last season? Is Miami really the sleeper in the ACC? Oklahoma has a power game that has nothing to do with an extra blocker?
How about the schools that are recapturing their basketball glory? Villanova came one phantom travel call away from upsetting North Carolina in last year’s tournament. Ben Howland has UCLA poised to win the Pac 10. Ohio State’s Thad Matta has signed everyone but John Havlicek.
And don’t even get started on the great players in little TV places: East Tennessee State point guard Tim Smith and LaSalle power forward Steve Smith are as good as it gets at their positions. St. Peter’s shooting guard Keydren Clark is seeking to become just the third player in history to lead the NCAA in scoring all four years!
With all this quality and depth, there’ll be madness every night.
“All I know for sure is that there are a lot more good teams today than ever before,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “I’ve been saying that four or five years. And I’d hate to see a really good team get left out of the tournament.”
So what’s the fix?
“Expand the tournament,” Boeheim said as matter-of-factly as if he were asking a Jersey diner waitress for more Russian dressing.
Expand the tournament?
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone interested in it except me,” said Boeheim. “And honestly, I don’t know how much good it would do [for the tournament]. But I know there are more good teams and I know one day a good team is going to get left out. Then someone’s going to say, ‘Maybe that old Boeheim knew what he was talking about it.'”
The Big East will fuel talk on the possibility of expansion. Some programs, including those with rich basketball traditions such as Marquette and DePaul, might have good seasons and not get at-large berths. Carolina, which lost four first-round draft choices, isn’t a preseason Top 25 pick. Kansas is in transition.
What happens when those programs, plus Indiana, UNLV, Maryland, Temple, and even St. John’s get it going again?
“Basketball isn’t football,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “You don’t need five years. You get a couple of good classes; you get them to buy in; good things can happen. It’s not a secret. A lot of programs are making it happen.”
The idea of expanding the tournament has been discussed, but don’t expect anything soon. CBS’ $6.2 billion deal to television the NCAA Tournament runs through 2014 and with The Masters coming on the heels of the Big Dance, there’s no wiggle room for expansion.
But the history suggests an expansion is on the sundial, if not the calendar. Eight teams played in the tournament from 1939-50. The number doubled to 16 in 1951 and increased to 24 in 1954, the first year it was televised.
It took 26 years before the next expansion; 24 doubled to 48 in 1980. And in 1985, the NCAA Tournament, with 64 teams, joined the Super Bowl as an American happening. By 2014 it will have been 29 years since the last expansion.
“By then, 16-team leagues could be the standard,” said Boeheim. “If you hang around long enough, you learn things change.”
THE POST’S ALL-AMERICA TEAM
POS. PLAYER SCHOOL
PG Daniel Gibson Texas
SG J.J. Redick Duke
PF Craig Smith Boston College
SF Rudy Gay UConn
C Shelden Williams Duke
THE FIELD OF 65
CONFERENCE CHAMPS
America East: Albany
ACC: Duke
Atlantic 10: George Washington
Atlantic Sun: East Tennessee St.
Big East: Connecticut
Big Sky: Sacramento St.
Big South: Winthrop
Big Ten: Michigan St.
Big XII: Texas
Big West: Cal State Northridge
Colonial Athletic Association: Old Dominion
Conference USA: Memphis
Horizon: Detroit
Ivy: Penn
MAAC: Iona
Mid-American: Ohio
Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts
MEAC: South Carolina St.
Missouri Valley Conference: Northern Iowa
Mountain West: Utah
Northeast: St. Francis, N.Y.
Ohio Valley: Tennessee Tech
Pac 10: Arizona
Patriot: Bucknell
SEC: Kentucky
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Northwestern St.
SWAC: Southern
Sun Belt: Western Kentucky
WAC: Nevada
West Coast: Gonzaga
AT-LARGE
ACC: Boston College, Miami, Maryland, North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest
Atlantic 10: Charlotte, Xavier
Big East: Cincinnati, Georgetown, Louisville, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia
Big Ten: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio St., Wisconsin
Big XII: Iowa St., Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas Tech
Missouri Valley: Creighton
Pac 10: Cal, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, Washington
SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, LSU
ELITE EIGHT
Michigan St., Iowa St., Oklahoma, Kentucky, Texas, Villanova, Duke, Connecticut
FINAL FOUR
Michigan St., Iowa St., Oklahoma, Kentucky
LENN ROBBINS’ TOP 25
1. MICHIGAN ST.
Lost to North Carolina in national semifinal
Coach: Tom Izzo
Key player: C/F Paul Davis
Paint: Midway through last season, bought into the coach from Iron Mountain, Mich.’s toughness.
2. CONNECTICUT
Lost to N.C. State in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Jim Calhoun
Key player: SF Rudy Gay
Paint: Is Gay ready to follow in the footsteps of UConn stars such as Rip Hamilton, Caron Butler and Ben Gordon?
3. TEXAS
Lost to Nevada in NCAA 1st round
Coach: Rick Barnes
Key player: PG Daniel Gibson
Paint: This team was Elite Eight bound until LaMarcus Aldridge (hip) got hurt and P.J. Tucker (academics) got lazy.
4. DUKE
Lost to Michigan St. in NCAA regional semifinal
Coach: Mike Krzyzewski
Key player: SG J.J. Redick
Paint: When the going gets tough in the Big Dance, why does Redick lose his step?
5. KENTUCKY
Lost to Michigan St. in NCAA regional finals
Coach: Tubby Smith
Key player: C Randolph Morris
Paint: Paging Mr. Morris, please pick up the blue and white courtesy phone and start dominating.
6. OKLAHOMA
Lost to Utah in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Kelvin Sampson
Key player: PG Terrell Everett
Paint: Everett was so good, he forced Drew Lavender to transfer.
7. LOUISVILLE
Lost to Illinois in NCAA national semifinal
Coach: Rick Pitino
Key player: SF Juan Palacios
Paint: How far behind does the knee injury to Kansas transfer David Padgett set back the Cards?
8. IOWA
Lost to Cincinnati in NCAA 1st round
Coach: Steve Alford
Key player: PG Jeff Horner
Paint: Experience and toughness make this a team to fear in March.
9. WAKE FOREST
Lost to West Virginia in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Skip Prosser
Key player: PG Justin Gray
Paint: Chris Paul left for the NBA. It’s your show Mr. Gray.
10. ARIZONA
Lost to Illinois in NCAA regional final
Coach: Lute Olson
Key player: PG Mustafa Shakur
Paint: Does the concept of team mean anything to these guys or is everyone auditioning for the NBA?
11. MEMPHIS
Lost to St. Joseph’s in NIT semis
Coach: John Calipari
Key player: PG Darius Washington
Paint: Washington’s missed free throws with no time left kept them from the Big Dance. Watch him dance this year.
12. VILLANOVA
Lost to North Carolina in NCAA regional semifinal
Coach: Jay Wright
Key player: SG Randy Foye
Paint: The injury to Curtis Sumpter means Foye will have to play some power forward, which causes matchup nightmares.
13. GONZAGA
Lost to Texas Tech in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Mark Few
Key player: F Adam Morrison
Paint: Zags can score on anyone; and anyone can score on them.
14. BOSTON COLLEGE
Lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Al Skinner
Key player: PF Sean Williams
Paint: Eagles are going to need this sophomore big man to give Craig Smith some relief.
15. UCLA
Lost to Texas Tech in NCAA 1st round
Coach: Ben Howland
Key player: F Cedric Bozeman
Paint: Year 3 of the Howland Era: Play hard on defense or take that seat at the end of the bench.
16. WISCONSIN
Lost to NC State in NCAA regional final
Coach: Bo Ryan
Key player: G-F Alando Tucker
Paint: Forget Ryan’s system, Tucker can flat out take over a game.
17. MARYLAND
Lost to South Carolina in NIT semis
Coach: Gary Williams
Key player: PG Sterling Ledbetter
Paint: If Sterling develops into a less-selfish and steadier player than John Gilchrist, Terps will be golden.
18. IOWA STATE
Lost to North Carolina in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Wayne Morgan
Key player: PF Shawn Taggert
Paint: Led by Curtis Stinson of The Bronx, Cyclone’s backcourt is great but they need the freshman Taggert to play big.
19. SYRACUSE
Lost to Vermont in NCAA 1st round
Coach: Jim Boeheim
Key player: PG Eric Davenport
Paint: Davenport is a freshman; then again, so was a guy named Carmelo Anthony.
20. ILLINOIS
Lost to North Carolina in NCAA title game
Coach: Bruce Weber
Key player: PG Dee Brown
Paint: Last year was magical; this year, Brown will have to be twice as good.
21. ALABAMA
Lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in NCAA 1st round
Coach: Mark Gottfried
Key player: PG Ronald Steele
Paint: Steele took some dents as a freshman, but the soph is ready to emerge as a premier floor leader.
22. STANFORD
Lost to Mississippi St. in NCAA 1st round
Coach: Trent Johnson
Key player: F Dan Grunfeld
Paint: If Ernie’s son, the soul of this team, is recovered from knee surgery, no team is grittier.
23. NEVADA
Lost to Illinois in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Mark Fox
Key player: F/C Nick Fazekas
Paint: If 7-footer Chad Bell can give Fazekas any help, the Wolfpack own the WAC.
24. GEORGE WASHINGTON
Lost to Georgia Tech in NCAA 1st round
Coach: Karl Hobbs
Key player: F Regis Koundjia
Paint: Former UConn assistant Hobbs has taught the Colonials to win; now comes the next step: win big.
25. CINCINNATI
Lost to Kentucky in NCAA 2nd round
Coach: Andy Kennedy (interim)
Key player: Ex-coach Bob Huggins
Paint: The long-time coach was forced out, leaving a wild card that could implode or explode.
