This is part two of a series of posts on if I was the Director of the Department of Sports and what all I would do if I was in charge. Last time was about the NBA, this time it's college basketball. Last week was the end to another run of March Madness and partly from that run came the idea for this series. This entry will tie in well to last one as there will be some ideas that will be helpful in both arenas. So, if I were in charge of college basketball...
*No more one and done athletes. Like I mentioned with the NBA post, if a high schooler wants to jump straight to the pros fine but if he signs with a university he stays a minimum of three years and puts himself on track to graduate if he leaves early. Give a real emphasis to "student athlete" and not just "barely a student just so they're able to play one year and then leave".
*Scholarships are a 4 year commitment not a 1 year commitment renewed 4 times. I will probably use this instance as well when I talk about college football but the argument is good here as well. If a university is signing a student to a scholarship it should be for the length of the time that the student will be there. That student can be assured that their scholarship won't be yanked away and given to somebody else on a whim.
*With regard to automatic bids, power conferences can give them to regular season champs, mid-majors to tourney champs. Power conferences can still have tourney champions and get some bonus (better seeding in NCAA tourney) if they win but don't have to worry about a regular season power conference champion being an at-large bid in the NCAA tourney. For the mid-majors, their conference tournaments can be highlighted because of keeping the tourney champ as the automatic bids.
*Have the automatic qualifiers ranked as the higher seeds (1-8) and at large bids as the lower seeds (9-16). This is probably the most out there one but I think it make things interesting. It would assure mid majors that are really good that they will not be ranked no lower than an 8 seed and at large teams that were so so would be ranked no higher than a 9 seed. On top of that, the last 8 at large teams would be the ones playing in the "First Four". Automatic qualifiers from mid major schools shouldn't be the majority in the "First Four". It should be teams that were on the bubble that should be playing in Dayton. Make them earn their way into the tourney.
*Gus Johnson should call March Madness games again. This year, Gus wasn't calling games because he doesn't work for CBS. There should be a contract that allows him to work March Madness games. I know that Jay Bilas for a time worked March Madness games while working also at ESPN. They could do the same for Gus. March Madness isn't the same without Gus. That should be fixed.
That is part two of "If I Were in Charge of". Feel free to go back and check out other posts in this series and leave a comment on how you would change things if you were "in charge".
Showing posts with label march madness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label march madness. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Random Sports Reflections
*It seems that even with the NFL in the off-season, it is still dominiating headlines. The main thing being Peyton Manning going to Denver. After a couple of weeks of meetings with different teams, Peyton decided to go with Denver. In some ways it wasn't surprising but in some ways it was given that the other two teams in the running was San Francisco (which was in the NFC Title game last year) and Tennessee (the state where he went to college). The domino effect was that Tim Tebow was then traded from Denver to the New York Jets, which in and of itself was kind of a shocker given they already have a starting QB in Mark Sanchez & there was a team in Jacksonville which seemed like a great fit (not far from where Tebow went to college, could step right in and be the starter). It will be interesting how Tebow will fit in with the Jets. I know he'll want to be the starter but it'll be hard to supplant Sanchez unless he gets hurt or plays really really bad. It'll also be interesting how the faith aspect will come into play given the Jeremy Lin phenomenon that took place for a few months before dying out. Will Tebow garner as much or more than Lin did? Will it be for a sustained period? It's only March but there's enough stories that'll probably last until training camps start.
*I've been keeping up with March Madness and my brackets have been decent to poor. One of these days I'll have a bracket that's like top notch. The final four is Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas & Ohio State (out of which I consensusly picked 3, missed out with Louisville). I do get the feeling this is shaping up to be another 2008. That year of course Kansas beat UNC on it's way to the title game. Kansas also faced off against a team coached by John Calipari. Kansas wasn't thought of to win the title. John Calipari's team had the best player in the country. See what I mean? Don't be surprised come Tuesday morning if it's Rock Chalk Jayhawk being bantered about. What would be even more eerie is if Calipari then decided to take the NY Knicks job and then it's found out that Anthony Davis had some kind of academic issues and then Kentucky was put on probation like Memphis was with Derrick Rose. Food for thought...
*The MLB regular season started today in Japan with the Mariners and the A's. I caught the game from about the 6th inning on. A couple of things: 1) I love watching live sports in the morning. It's nice to be able to tune in and see sports live while eating breakfast or getting ready for work. 2.) I am getting old. There was a statistic given during the game that Ichiro was the first M's player to get 4 hits in an opening day game since Ken Griffey Jr. did it in 1990. 1990 as in 22 years ago. Yes I am getting old. 3.) For what it's worth, the M's are in 1st place. 161 games to go but it's a good start.
*I've been keeping up with March Madness and my brackets have been decent to poor. One of these days I'll have a bracket that's like top notch. The final four is Kentucky, Louisville, Kansas & Ohio State (out of which I consensusly picked 3, missed out with Louisville). I do get the feeling this is shaping up to be another 2008. That year of course Kansas beat UNC on it's way to the title game. Kansas also faced off against a team coached by John Calipari. Kansas wasn't thought of to win the title. John Calipari's team had the best player in the country. See what I mean? Don't be surprised come Tuesday morning if it's Rock Chalk Jayhawk being bantered about. What would be even more eerie is if Calipari then decided to take the NY Knicks job and then it's found out that Anthony Davis had some kind of academic issues and then Kentucky was put on probation like Memphis was with Derrick Rose. Food for thought...
*The MLB regular season started today in Japan with the Mariners and the A's. I caught the game from about the 6th inning on. A couple of things: 1) I love watching live sports in the morning. It's nice to be able to tune in and see sports live while eating breakfast or getting ready for work. 2.) I am getting old. There was a statistic given during the game that Ichiro was the first M's player to get 4 hits in an opening day game since Ken Griffey Jr. did it in 1990. 1990 as in 22 years ago. Yes I am getting old. 3.) For what it's worth, the M's are in 1st place. 161 games to go but it's a good start.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Reflecting After First Weekend of March Madness
I can safely say that this first weekend of March Madness is probably one of the craziest in my lifetime (30 years). The first day alone saw buzzer beaters, overtime, upsets galore and lots of excitement. Most of my brackets are busted (thanks to Northern Iowa's win), the only ones that aren't are homer brackets (meaning go UT and U-Dub!). Several things that stood out this weekend...
*The two teams I root for made it to the Sweet 16 and potentially could make the Final Four. Going into the tourney I thought only one had that chance (U-Dub) but Tennessee played well their first two games and were helped by upsets in the toughest region. Both will face the #2 seeds in the Sweet 16 but don't be surprised if these two underdogs make the Final 4
*A new phrase has joined the English language..."Going sharpie". This was coined by CBS analysits Greg Anthony and Seth Davis on their tweets. It means a team is pretty much going to win so they write in permanent marker on their brackets (Sharpie). I like the phrase. I will say this...my college roomates and I did something like this as a tradition starting back a decade or so ago (wow...can't believe it's been that long ago). Instead of a Sharpie, we used highlighters to mark our brackets we had posted on our living room wall. Orange or Yellow= correct pick, Green or Pink=incorrect pick. So if you hear me using the phrase "going sharpie" now you know the context.
Hopefully next weekend will live up to the standard that the first weekend set. If it does, then it should be a doozy of a weekend.
*The two teams I root for made it to the Sweet 16 and potentially could make the Final Four. Going into the tourney I thought only one had that chance (U-Dub) but Tennessee played well their first two games and were helped by upsets in the toughest region. Both will face the #2 seeds in the Sweet 16 but don't be surprised if these two underdogs make the Final 4
*A new phrase has joined the English language..."Going sharpie". This was coined by CBS analysits Greg Anthony and Seth Davis on their tweets. It means a team is pretty much going to win so they write in permanent marker on their brackets (Sharpie). I like the phrase. I will say this...my college roomates and I did something like this as a tradition starting back a decade or so ago (wow...can't believe it's been that long ago). Instead of a Sharpie, we used highlighters to mark our brackets we had posted on our living room wall. Orange or Yellow= correct pick, Green or Pink=incorrect pick. So if you hear me using the phrase "going sharpie" now you know the context.
Hopefully next weekend will live up to the standard that the first weekend set. If it does, then it should be a doozy of a weekend.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Reflections on March Madness 2010
It's Wednesday and it's the eve of March Madness. The next four days starting tomorrow is one of my four favorite days of the year, especially Thursday and Friday. I love watching the tournament and the excitement that comes with it. I have filled out brackets but before breaking down the brackets, here's some random reflections on college basketball.
*I'm not the first to say that the selections committee did a not great job and I won't be the last. It's a tough job but they could've done better than stacking the Midwest region with the overall #1 seed and the East with the #2 seed and making the South and West lighter. Also, Tennessee should've gotten higher than a 6th seed in the Midwest, you beat the #1 and #2 overall teams in the country and that gets you only a 6th seed in the toughest region?
*With all the talk about raising the amount of teams to 96 and such...I'm neither for nor against that yet. I will say this, if I was running the show this is what I would do. I would make the 31 automatic bids the top seeds (so roughly 1-7 or 8 seeds). That way A) it doesn't penalize the teams that won their way into the tournament like the mid-major schools and B) you still have the top teams in the top conferences as the 1 or 2 seeds because typically if they're that good they'll win their conference tournament. You then have your remaining 34 at large teams be the lower seed 8-16 with the last two "bubble" teams play in the play-in game. Of course that will never happen but it's a nice thing to think about.
*One thing that I have been reminded of in recent weeks is something that I talked about a while back in one of my video posts. I talked about how at least I am trying to talk positively about the teams I root for and not talk negatively about teams that are rivals or those I don't necessarily like. And for the most part, I've done a good job. If my team has won, I was excited and said great things about my team but I didn't denegrate the other team. If my team lost, I said they put up a good effort and gave the winning team their due. What has disappointed me is that I've seen, read and heard those friends of mine who haven't done that. They have made it a point to say bad things about the other team for no reason it seems like. Case in point. I have several friends who root for Kentucky. In the last few weeks when Tennessee played them in basketball, they made it a point to make snarky (a word I use sometimes that means like a sarcastic putdown) comments both when Kentucky lost and when they won. I don't know why they felt they had to say those things, maybe they're around Tennessee fans who make those kind of comments around them and they feel they need to respond in kind, I don't know. I know my tendency deep down is to respond like that if people are saying those kind of things and I kinda wanted to respond to them like they were responding but instead I thought about what good that would do and instead chose to say good things both about my team and theirs. I think definitely those who are pastors and ministers like myself need to be reminded that our words do mean something and they have an impact like our actions, and that includes being a sports fan. One cannot separate being a fan and being a follower of Jesus, because it's all wrapped into the person God has made you and called you to be. I'm not perfect in this but I'm trying and hopefully that will end up being edifying to God.
Now...onto the brackets. Just like last year I filled out 14 brackets (10 on ESPN, 3 on Facebook and 1 on Yahoo). I went with a variety of ways of filling out the brackets. Some were scientific (Strength of Schedule, Average of RPI and Strength of Schedule, Records vs. Top 25) and some were simply not scientific (Mascots, Numbers out of a Hat, Completely Random, First Impressions). Here are some thoughts on the brackets:
*I'm not buying some of the easy upset picks that a lot of the "experts" are going with, and not just because I'm a Tennessee guy. I don't think Tennessee or Vanderbilt will be upset. In fact, I think Vandy will be a sweet 16 team. Some sleeper teams I'm picking are Utah St., Washington, Minnesota and Cornell.
*I have seen a lot of Big 12 games living in Kansas City. It is a tough conference and Kansas is a very tough team. They have talent + experience which to me is a deadly combination. I think a lot of people think that Kentucky is the top team like a lot of other people think Kansas is the top team. I've seen both teams and there's no question, Kansas is better. Kentucky does have talent but Wall is too much of a kamakaze point guard who has a propensity to turn the ball over and have a Kobe Bryant mentality of shooting shots. Cousins is a player who could just as easily take his team out of a game as well as keep them in it with his attitude. Their best player to be honest is Bledsoe. When you're top three players are all freshmen, I do think that's not a formula for tournament success (see Michigan in 1993 with Fab 5). Kansas has the depth and talent with Collins, Aldrich, and the Henry twins. Along with that talent they have experience with Collins and Aldrich being seniors. That will play a factor to me as the tourney goes on.
I have two brackets in which I'm thinking are my best. In my first bracket I have in my final four: Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia and Villanova and in my second bracket I have the same with the exception being Baylor instead of Villanova. I have in the championship game in both brackets Kansas and West Virginia with Kansas taking the title.
Good luck to everyone filling out the brackets and hope you enjoy watching some basketball!
*I'm not the first to say that the selections committee did a not great job and I won't be the last. It's a tough job but they could've done better than stacking the Midwest region with the overall #1 seed and the East with the #2 seed and making the South and West lighter. Also, Tennessee should've gotten higher than a 6th seed in the Midwest, you beat the #1 and #2 overall teams in the country and that gets you only a 6th seed in the toughest region?
*With all the talk about raising the amount of teams to 96 and such...I'm neither for nor against that yet. I will say this, if I was running the show this is what I would do. I would make the 31 automatic bids the top seeds (so roughly 1-7 or 8 seeds). That way A) it doesn't penalize the teams that won their way into the tournament like the mid-major schools and B) you still have the top teams in the top conferences as the 1 or 2 seeds because typically if they're that good they'll win their conference tournament. You then have your remaining 34 at large teams be the lower seed 8-16 with the last two "bubble" teams play in the play-in game. Of course that will never happen but it's a nice thing to think about.
*One thing that I have been reminded of in recent weeks is something that I talked about a while back in one of my video posts. I talked about how at least I am trying to talk positively about the teams I root for and not talk negatively about teams that are rivals or those I don't necessarily like. And for the most part, I've done a good job. If my team has won, I was excited and said great things about my team but I didn't denegrate the other team. If my team lost, I said they put up a good effort and gave the winning team their due. What has disappointed me is that I've seen, read and heard those friends of mine who haven't done that. They have made it a point to say bad things about the other team for no reason it seems like. Case in point. I have several friends who root for Kentucky. In the last few weeks when Tennessee played them in basketball, they made it a point to make snarky (a word I use sometimes that means like a sarcastic putdown) comments both when Kentucky lost and when they won. I don't know why they felt they had to say those things, maybe they're around Tennessee fans who make those kind of comments around them and they feel they need to respond in kind, I don't know. I know my tendency deep down is to respond like that if people are saying those kind of things and I kinda wanted to respond to them like they were responding but instead I thought about what good that would do and instead chose to say good things both about my team and theirs. I think definitely those who are pastors and ministers like myself need to be reminded that our words do mean something and they have an impact like our actions, and that includes being a sports fan. One cannot separate being a fan and being a follower of Jesus, because it's all wrapped into the person God has made you and called you to be. I'm not perfect in this but I'm trying and hopefully that will end up being edifying to God.
Now...onto the brackets. Just like last year I filled out 14 brackets (10 on ESPN, 3 on Facebook and 1 on Yahoo). I went with a variety of ways of filling out the brackets. Some were scientific (Strength of Schedule, Average of RPI and Strength of Schedule, Records vs. Top 25) and some were simply not scientific (Mascots, Numbers out of a Hat, Completely Random, First Impressions). Here are some thoughts on the brackets:
*I'm not buying some of the easy upset picks that a lot of the "experts" are going with, and not just because I'm a Tennessee guy. I don't think Tennessee or Vanderbilt will be upset. In fact, I think Vandy will be a sweet 16 team. Some sleeper teams I'm picking are Utah St., Washington, Minnesota and Cornell.
*I have seen a lot of Big 12 games living in Kansas City. It is a tough conference and Kansas is a very tough team. They have talent + experience which to me is a deadly combination. I think a lot of people think that Kentucky is the top team like a lot of other people think Kansas is the top team. I've seen both teams and there's no question, Kansas is better. Kentucky does have talent but Wall is too much of a kamakaze point guard who has a propensity to turn the ball over and have a Kobe Bryant mentality of shooting shots. Cousins is a player who could just as easily take his team out of a game as well as keep them in it with his attitude. Their best player to be honest is Bledsoe. When you're top three players are all freshmen, I do think that's not a formula for tournament success (see Michigan in 1993 with Fab 5). Kansas has the depth and talent with Collins, Aldrich, and the Henry twins. Along with that talent they have experience with Collins and Aldrich being seniors. That will play a factor to me as the tourney goes on.
I have two brackets in which I'm thinking are my best. In my first bracket I have in my final four: Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia and Villanova and in my second bracket I have the same with the exception being Baylor instead of Villanova. I have in the championship game in both brackets Kansas and West Virginia with Kansas taking the title.
Good luck to everyone filling out the brackets and hope you enjoy watching some basketball!
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Aftermath of Week 1 of March Madness
The first weekend of March Madness has come and gone and with it a lot of cheering, booing, excitement and marking on brackets. After the first weekend of the tourney, I have only one team that I'm rooting for still in it (Gonzaga). My other two teams were elimated in the first and second rounds (Tennessee and Washington).
There weren't that many upsets. As far as "Cinderella" teams remaining in the Sweet 16 there is only Arizona (12 seed) and I don't know if I would call them a Cinderella team. In some ways, it's starting to shape up like last year with four #1 seeds in the Final Four with so many favorites winning.
As far as my brackets go, several bit the dust early and some are still doing pretty good. My best overall bracket is one that saw me pick 14 out of 16 for the second round and still has it perfect all the way to the championship game. It'll be interesting after next weekend how my brackets will look.
There weren't that many upsets. As far as "Cinderella" teams remaining in the Sweet 16 there is only Arizona (12 seed) and I don't know if I would call them a Cinderella team. In some ways, it's starting to shape up like last year with four #1 seeds in the Final Four with so many favorites winning.
As far as my brackets go, several bit the dust early and some are still doing pretty good. My best overall bracket is one that saw me pick 14 out of 16 for the second round and still has it perfect all the way to the championship game. It'll be interesting after next weekend how my brackets will look.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
March Madness Brackets
It's that time of the year again. Yep March Madness :) Part of my favorite time of the year. And along with that comes filling out brackets. And I'm not the only one filling out a bracket. All across the country, people are filling out brackets in office pools, among friends, online on sites such as ESPN.com, Facebook and others. Sportscasters, athletes, and celebrities have filled out brackets. Even President Obama has his bracket filled out and posted. It is an event that draws a lot of attention.
Before I shared about my brackets, I wanted to share some video (from ESPN.com) about some people filling out brackets. First is Dwayne Wade and Samuel L. Jackson:
The second is of President Obama:
Now on to my brackets. This year I filled out the most brackets I've ever filled out (14). 10 of those on ESPN.com, 3 on Yahoo.com, and 1 on Facebook (via CBSSports.com). I filled them out in a variety of ways. I went with the scientific (Each team's record vs Tournament teams, record the last 12 games, Power rankings) as well as the random (school mascots, flip of a coin, drawing numbers out of a hat).
I do have my one go-to bracket. In that bracket, this is my final four: Louisville, Missouri, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma. The championshp game: Louisville vs. Pittsburgh. Champion: Pittsburgh
Good luck to everyone filling out brackets!
Before I shared about my brackets, I wanted to share some video (from ESPN.com) about some people filling out brackets. First is Dwayne Wade and Samuel L. Jackson:
The second is of President Obama:
Now on to my brackets. This year I filled out the most brackets I've ever filled out (14). 10 of those on ESPN.com, 3 on Yahoo.com, and 1 on Facebook (via CBSSports.com). I filled them out in a variety of ways. I went with the scientific (Each team's record vs Tournament teams, record the last 12 games, Power rankings) as well as the random (school mascots, flip of a coin, drawing numbers out of a hat).
I do have my one go-to bracket. In that bracket, this is my final four: Louisville, Missouri, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma. The championshp game: Louisville vs. Pittsburgh. Champion: Pittsburgh
Good luck to everyone filling out brackets!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Day 1 of The Madness
Today is one of the best days of the year. Today is day 1 of March Madness. So far, the favorites have won out and of course this has made my bracket not perfect. My "best" bracket has 6 out of 8 correct with the morning sessions. I don't think that will hold out and that there will be some upsets before the day is over with.
I'm disappointed that I won't be able to watch Tennessee's first round game tomorrow. I will be on the road going to visit my family and friends for spring break. I'm hoping to be home in time to watch the night games, which include Vandy and Memphis.
Hope your brackets are holding up!
I'm disappointed that I won't be able to watch Tennessee's first round game tomorrow. I will be on the road going to visit my family and friends for spring break. I'm hoping to be home in time to watch the night games, which include Vandy and Memphis.
Hope your brackets are holding up!
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