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Golden Nuggets: Should the NCAA Keep Teams Closer to Home?

Cam Inman says the NCAA needs to be more focused on preventing teams from traveling excessively during early rounds of the tournament.

When colleges are slashing staff and hiking tuition, the NCAA Tournament should keep teams closer to home. It would cut down on travel costs (which go on the NCAA's tab), and it would liven up arenas with more fans who have a rooting interest beyond their office pools.

"We'd love to have all of the teams stay as regionally close as possible," Dan Guerrero, chair of the NCAA Division I men's basketball committee, said on a Monday conference call. "But if you did that, you'd really be manipulating the seed lines."

Seed lines? We're talking about seed lines? Outside of the top three or four seeds — whom the committee has become quite adept at identifying and preserving— the tournament serves as an early-round crapshoot every March.

We need more than so-called upsets (see: No. 12-over-No. 5, No. 11-over-No. 6). We need more of a local touch.

Would it be so sacrilegious to make Cal a No. 6 seed in San Jose instead of the No. 8 status it'll take into Jacksonville (Fla.) on Friday night against Louisville?

Would Saint Mary's be offended if, instead of going as a No. 10 seed to Providence (R.I.), it received a No. 11 mark and a Thursday night date in San Jose?

San Diego State is an 11th seed, and UC Santa Barbara a 15th, and those automatic qualifiers (by virtue of winning their conference tournaments) certainly could have fit in San Jose. Instead, such spots feature No. 11 Washington (vs. No. 6 Marquette) and No. 14 Montana (vs. No. 3 New Mexico).

Non-California-grown teams also are having to dart cross country. Why? To fulfill the NCAA's motto: Play basketball, see the country at 30,000 feet, text your relatives back home, watch us collect television revenues at your fans' expense.

"I've always felt the people who support you, the parents of the kids, should be in a position to see their team play," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said in a Monday conference call. "When you move a team 3,000 miles, it makes it more difficult for everybody. I never thought that was right."

After the jump Calvin talks more about his knee, Wilner and Ratto give opposite takes on Cal's bracket matchups, former Cal coach Todd Bozeman gives some insight on playing Louisville, and more.

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Exactly
To be successful against Louisville, Cal has to avoid turning the ball over while keeping fresh legs against Louisville’s tough, physical style of play.

That’s definitely right. I mentioned in another post that Louisville, on the road, beat Connecticut despite being crushed on the glass by 28 rebounds. That’s because Connecticut turned it over way too many times.

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by Rated-R Superstar on Mar 16, 2010 5:31 PM PDT reply actions  

Now I’m more worried about Louisville. We lack the depth to have fresh legs. Randle doesn’t handle being physically harassed too well (he is too TO prone when harassed). On paper it doesn’t sound like a very great matchup for us.

by LEastCoastBears on Mar 16, 2010 6:55 PM PDT up reply actions  

He picked against us last year, too. The Prez is toads a hatter.

"atomsareenough—cleaning up CGB one day at a time until we finally get that press pass." - Berkelium97

by atomsareenough on Mar 16, 2010 9:05 PM PDT up reply actions  

I’m also guessing he has a severe case of east coast bias.

"atomsareenough—cleaning up CGB one day at a time until we finally get that press pass." - Berkelium97

by atomsareenough on Mar 16, 2010 9:05 PM PDT up reply actions  

……he was right last year.

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by TwistNHook on Mar 16, 2010 9:06 PM PDT up reply actions  

That doesn’t disprove my assertion that he’s a hatter.

"atomsareenough—cleaning up CGB one day at a time until we finally get that press pass." - Berkelium97

by atomsareenough on Mar 16, 2010 9:09 PM PDT up reply actions  

His brother in law needs to stop beating us before he stops hating.

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by Avinash Kunnath on Mar 16, 2010 9:26 PM PDT up reply actions  

Good point.

"atomsareenough—cleaning up CGB one day at a time until we finally get that press pass." - Berkelium97

by atomsareenough on Mar 16, 2010 10:21 PM PDT up reply actions  

I think the issue, at least for our traveling across the country, is that they messed up the locations for our seeding/pods (1,16,8,9) – New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Buffalo, Jacksonville. Probably this was just to follow the #1 seeds but they screw the lower seeds, in this case the #8s – UNLV, Gonzaga, Cal, Texas – as they are very west coast based.

I can understand, if this is why they did it this way, in that a west coast pod (SJ or Spokane) for this section of the bracket would have a #1 seed traveling over 1000 miles which is an awful reward for being a #1 seed. However, if they are going to be so concerned about the #1 seeds then they should allow themselves some flexibility in the later seedings such that they don’t cause three teams to travel across the country just to avoid the same fate for one team.

I’m going to do some playing around and see if adding more sensitivity to travel really jacks up the seeds as much as they say it does.

by tmoran3020 on Mar 17, 2010 12:41 AM PDT reply actions  

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