By PEDRO VELAZCO
Tribune columnist
March 12, 2008 11:14 pm
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Tuesday night, as I put a headline on the Oral Roberts-IUPUI story, I wondered, is there anything more deflating in sports than to say such-and-such team “hopes to get an NIT bid?”
It means that team has lost in its conference tournament and its dreams are over, but the squad hopes that an NIT experience will somehow fill the void left by not going to the Big Dance.
It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a broken heart.
I often wonder if we should even bother having the NIT. Surely, I hope that IUPUI gets an NIT bid so that Drew Conner and the Jaguars can get some measure of satisfaction after a 26-victory season. But the NIT tastes especially bitter to a small-conference school.
Any mid-major or low-major team that makes the NIT had a fantastic season just to be considered for a bid. That team probably finished first or second in its league and had 20-plus wins.
Big-conference schools that make the NIT didn’t have great seasons. They had all year to contemplate not being NCAA-worthy as they languished in the middle or bottom of a BCS league. That team spent the last two months losing to league schools that are NCAA-worthy, so not making the big tourney is less devastating.
The smaller schools have just one shot to make the tourney. They have to win the conference tournament and anything less means a hard crash back to earth. That’s why winning the conference tournament brings out a court-charging euphoria for the small schools.
That’s also why the best thing you can do during this week of college hoops is watch a small-conference championship, not the quarterfinals or semifinals of the Big Ten tourney.
I’ve watched four of these mid-major or low-major conference tournament title games this week and they pack the biggest emotional punch of the season until the NCAAs. But much like the NIT, I have to ask, should we even have the conference tournaments?
Why have conference tournaments?
So far this season, most of the automatic bids have gone according to form. As of Wednesday afternoon, a dozen leagues had handed out their automatic bids and only a couple leagues had upsets which took out the top seeds. But why do the top teams have to go and prove it all over again in a conference tournament?
The reward to each league for running a league tourney is getting the championship game on ESPN or ESPN2. It’s often the only league game on those networks all season, but is that worth the risk of losing the top seed and then worrying that that team won’t get a bid to the tournament?
That’s the situation Virginia Commonwealth finds itself in. VCU topped the Colonial Athletic Conference by three games. But William and Mary upset VCU, and co-second-place squad George Mason ended up winning the tournament. The current bracketology chatter shows VCU to be on the wrong side of the bubble. So the Colonial throws away a season’s worth of work for a two-hour slice of exposure, and VCU pays the price.
I’m going to keep watching conference title games all week. I can’t wait for the Mid-American Conference title game, but the MAC tourney is always rife with upsets and I’ll cringe if top team Kent State doesn’t win it all.
I may love the conference title games, but that doesn’t mean they’re a good idea. More and more each year, I think the Ivy League is the only league left with the right idea. The Ivy doesn’t play a tournament. Cornell won the regular season with a spotless 14-0 league record. There’s no reason to make the Big Red prove their worth all over again in a three-day dash at a neutral site.
Hoosiers in the NCAAs
Butler won the Horizon League title late Tuesday night giving the state our first team into the tourney. Besides the Bulldogs, a handful of former Hoosier high schoolers are already in the tournament.
As ever, the state exports a lot of guards and small forwards. Best of the bunch of expatriates already in the tourney is Western Kentucky guard/forward Courtney Lee, who gets to finish his senior season in storybook fashion — in the NCAAs. A long-time mainstay for the Hilltoppers, the Indianapolis Pike product is averaging 20.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
Austin Peay junior guard/forward Kyle Duncan (Indianapolis Ben Davis) averages 6.9 points and has started 30 games. Belmont freshman guard/forward Jordan Campbell (Indianapolis North Central) averages 7.2 points and has started 13 games. Cornell junior guard Adam Gore (Monrovia) has started all 27 games and averages 10.1 points. George Mason senior Jordan Carter (Indianapolis Brebeuf) is a bit player for the Colonials.
Tribune sportswriter Pedro Velazco feels optimistic for the first time in years about his Ball State Cardinals despite a six-win season. He may be reached by e-mail at pedro.velazco@kokomotribune.com
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