Jon Blaze
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
March Fairness??????
First, I'm going to start posting the link to my stories on here so they are more accessible. Don't know why I haven't been doing that from the start, just hadn't. But since I've been pretty hot the last couple of days - remove all the fire alarms cuz they going off all over the building hot - I've decided to finally do so.
So here's my column on the coach of one of our high school teams extremely bummed out that his team didn't make it to the state tournament. And a piece on this inner city basketball gym that is closing its doors after housing a basketball league for about 25 years.
Of course with it being March all the media hoopla is geared towards March Madness that starts Thursday. While many of you will be checking phones and websites to find out scores during the day, I'll be at work with the T.V. right over my computer enjoying all the action. I Rule, yes (fist pump).
I'm having a hard time understanding why many of the T.V. people don't understand why the coaches of Florida A &M and Niagara had a problem playing in the play-in game. The whole reason for having a conference tournament is to decide who will get an AUTOMATIC bid into the big dance. FAMU won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament while Niagara went through the Metro Atlantic tournament unbeaten. So why do these schools have to play in a play-in game? Throw RPI's and SOS's out the window on this. It's bad enough that these teams are virtually playing for the right to go one and done in the tournament as the winner of the play-in gets the reward of playing a #1 seed, in this case Niagara who defeated FAMU 77-69 travels to play Kansas on Friday.
The analysts all listed the play-in game as a way to draw exposure to the programs saying that for one night they are the only game on and they get all the attention. Sounds good. But in reality, Tuesday night there were NIT games on between two bigger programs who despite it being the NIT, I still opted to watch. Every basketball fan alive knows that the tournament officially starts on Thursday so tonight's game was more like the junior varsity game.
I don't think that the playoff game is a bad thing, I just believe that it should be played between the last two at large teams picked by the committee. They didn't win their conference tournaments and since they are truly bubble teams it adds to the suspense of the game. Imagine if it had been Syracuse, who didn't get into the tournament, versus Stanford, who did get in, battling for a #12 seed or so. How spirited would that game be with both teams fighting to continue the season. And giving the winner a #12 seed would give the winner hope considering that every year a #12 beats a #5.
The committee has a hard job picking the top 34 at large basketball teams in the country. It's a job that I don't want, but lets take the time to really consider changing the play-in game, because this weekend the Florida A& M Rattlers got all excited about earning an opportunity to wear their dancing shoes and all of a sudden they can't get into the party.
So here's my column on the coach of one of our high school teams extremely bummed out that his team didn't make it to the state tournament. And a piece on this inner city basketball gym that is closing its doors after housing a basketball league for about 25 years.
Of course with it being March all the media hoopla is geared towards March Madness that starts Thursday. While many of you will be checking phones and websites to find out scores during the day, I'll be at work with the T.V. right over my computer enjoying all the action. I Rule, yes (fist pump).
I'm having a hard time understanding why many of the T.V. people don't understand why the coaches of Florida A &M and Niagara had a problem playing in the play-in game. The whole reason for having a conference tournament is to decide who will get an AUTOMATIC bid into the big dance. FAMU won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament while Niagara went through the Metro Atlantic tournament unbeaten. So why do these schools have to play in a play-in game? Throw RPI's and SOS's out the window on this. It's bad enough that these teams are virtually playing for the right to go one and done in the tournament as the winner of the play-in gets the reward of playing a #1 seed, in this case Niagara who defeated FAMU 77-69 travels to play Kansas on Friday.
The analysts all listed the play-in game as a way to draw exposure to the programs saying that for one night they are the only game on and they get all the attention. Sounds good. But in reality, Tuesday night there were NIT games on between two bigger programs who despite it being the NIT, I still opted to watch. Every basketball fan alive knows that the tournament officially starts on Thursday so tonight's game was more like the junior varsity game.
I don't think that the playoff game is a bad thing, I just believe that it should be played between the last two at large teams picked by the committee. They didn't win their conference tournaments and since they are truly bubble teams it adds to the suspense of the game. Imagine if it had been Syracuse, who didn't get into the tournament, versus Stanford, who did get in, battling for a #12 seed or so. How spirited would that game be with both teams fighting to continue the season. And giving the winner a #12 seed would give the winner hope considering that every year a #12 beats a #5.
The committee has a hard job picking the top 34 at large basketball teams in the country. It's a job that I don't want, but lets take the time to really consider changing the play-in game, because this weekend the Florida A& M Rattlers got all excited about earning an opportunity to wear their dancing shoes and all of a sudden they can't get into the party.
Labels: Let's Be Fair
posted by Da Arsonist at 4:47 AM
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