NCAA (a/k/a Kollege Keystone Kops) Strikes Again

So let’s see. Agents are enriching college athletes’ families and friends like Extreme Makeover. Former players and other alums are running amok trying to build new ties. And boosters are still luring recruits with tales of their institution being the promi$ed land.

And the NCAA goes ballistic on a college freshman over his Facebook page?

File this as yet another chapter of College Sports’ Keystone Kops, under “you couldn’t make this up.”

North Carolina State freshman Taylor Moseley received a “cease and desist” letter from the NCAA after its “investigators” uncovered, after weeks of intense discovery no doubt, the kid had created a Facebook group imploring John Wall, a 6-4, 185-pound senior point guard from Word of God Academy in Raleigh, N.C., to attend N.C. State.

Wall (above) might be the nation’s most coveted recruit.

The group – called “John Wall PLEASE come to NC State!!!!” – attracted more than 700 members. But it apparently violated NCAA Division I Bylaw 13.02.13.

The rule targets “individuals who would develop a social networking site or use an existing one to send recruiting messages to prospective student-athletes,” according to NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson. “Those communications are not allowed.”

The letter to Moseley said: “Should this activity not cease and/or it continues in the future, we will have no choice but to take further action.” Such “action” might include barring the student from getting even student tickets to games or “disassociating” the school from the student, like some scofflaw booster.

Way to go, NCAA. Now we are all criminals.

All of us who are fans. All of us who would like to see our alma mater land the best athletes.

All of us who have integrated the newest communications technology into our lives. And that’s a lot of us. Some estimates say there are nearly 200 million Facebook members in four languages.

That could mean a lot of C & D letters. And a lot of silliness. Not to mention millions of possible violations of First Amendment free-speech rights. “NCAA legislation hasn’t caught up with technology, and that’s being discussed nationally,” Michelle Lee, N.C. State’s interim associate athletic director for compliance told the Charlotte News & Observer.

All Moseley did was what fans across the nation have done for years, use whatever means available to induce a top recruit to attend their school. A generation ago, there might have been telephone calls or letters or even fresh-baked desserts delivered to their home.

Later it became e-mail and even later text messages to recruits. Many, if not most, come from other kids, students, not big-bellied, deep-pocketed boosters.

Where does it end?

And is this may be just a start. Not surprisingly, there are several Internet-based sites encouraging (begging?) Wall to attend various schools. (According to the News & Observer, Wall is still choosing among Duke, Memphis, Baylor, Kansas, Miami, Kentucky and N.C. State)

Moseley deleted his original group, then launched “Bring a National Title back to NC STATE!” Wall’s name is nowhere on the site, only his picture.

Smart kid. No doubt, the NCAA keystones are on the case, while the those who are truly out there tainting a system continue to run amok.

AP photograph

OU a Hoops School? What Would Bud Do?

The Sooner was college hoops' monster in '09

My calendar’s all outta sync. Yeah, I know it’s March, and I’m well aware that it’s Spring (although Winter’s still got a death-grip on things here in the Northeast).

But growing up in Oklahoma (Tulsa), there were only two true seasons – football and spring football. Otherwise, we all hibernated.

Now I’m watching the highlights last night and there’s Bob Stoops, the Sooner football coach, sitting courtside at an Oklahoma City Thunder game, not too far from former OU quarterback J.C. Watts (he spent a bit of time in Congress, too, but we don’t care about that). Both guys looked kinda out of place, but they were there.

A couple of weeks ago, budding-star golfer Anthony Kim, who teed it up at Norman, sat courside at a Sooner basketball game, cheering a team that is threatening to alter OU status as a pure-bred don’t-talk-to-me-’bout-no-hoops football school.

What in the name of Bud Wilkinson….

The Sooners were actually a concussion away from being the No. 1 team in the nation this season. Star/stud Blake Griffin went down early against Texas in late February, and the Sooners lost only their second game of the season, 73-68.

Still, they’re one of the strongest teams still standing in the NCAA tournament (yes, I have them going to the Final Four) and yet they still seem like they’re crashing a party.

Then there’s the women’s team, which stands as one of the few squads with a chance to collar UConn and possesses its own legit star in center Courtney Paris. She magnanimously promised to pay back her scholarship if the Sooners don’t win the national title.

Not a single other school whose team finished the season in the top 20 has a football team that played in a BCS Bowl this past season (OU lost to Florida in the BCS title game; Gator basketball this season was a no-show). And certianly none of them would ever dare call themselves a football school.

Among the men’s Sweet 16, several schools have had decent football teams, but none live and breathe the sport like we do.

This isn’t OU’s first foray into the hoops near-elite. In the 80s, Wayman Tisdale once gave us a reason to don our red. And though it might be hard to recall given recent events, Kelvin Sampson stoked the first fires for Sooner hoops, guiding team to eight consecutive 20-win seasons, 10 NCAA tournaments and a trip to the Final Four (2002) from the mid-90s into just a few seasons ago.

But under vibrant new leadership (head coach Jeff Capel, and his counterpart, women’s coach Sherri Coale), and with Griffin and Paris showcasing Norman as a viable place for the region’s best talent, this team might actually succeed where their predecessors could not – stir Sooner nation for another season.

And I’m sure Bud Wilkinson wouldn’t mind a bit.

Was Jay Bilas Suddenly Billy Packer II?

The big dogs will still bark. Many of college basketball’s best teams, the ones that will surely crowd into everyone’s Final Four, are still my favorites despite losing in their conference tournaments, some of the early in the week. In fact, they might even be better off than teams that survived the annual pre-postseason gauntlets.

Of course, that view makes me irrelevant and, well, stupid, according to ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. In an article in Sunday’s New York Times, Bilas, who holds the contrary view on the value of winning conference tournaments, dismissed anyone who disagreed with him on this as if they were not worthy of breathing the same air.

“The people who say these things are not important,” he said, “and that losing early is a good thing are idiots.”

Well, there you have it. Agree with me or whither away, scum.

C’mon, Jay. As your ESPN colleague Mark Jackson would certainly say: You’re better than that.

Or you should be.

Right now, it seems Bilas has stepped square into the void left by the departure of Billy Packer, the opinionated, ascerbic and dismissive analyst who resorts to putdowns in debates rather than reasoned arguments.

Saying someone is “not important” or an “idiot” just because they disagree with you, especially over something as subjective as the value of conference tournaments,  smacks of desperation, the type of language used when you don’t have anything smart to say.

And Jay Bilas is a very smart guy.

The reason few mourned Packer’s departure is that he’d worn on us. His constant putdown of mid-majors found less and less support with each “upset” that came to mark March Madness. By the time he was replaced by Greg Anthony, who’s more reasoned and analytical (now there’s a radical approach for an analyst), Packer was about the only college hoops fan in the nation who didn’t appreciate the Little Programs That Could (and Often Did).

Now here comes Bilas on blast. Or Packer, the Remix? Billy Deux?

Bilas can offer asute perspectives, but only if we hear them. When they’re not overwhelmed by bombast and bravado, which can happen when any of us covers the same sport, breathes the same air, season after season.

In the same article, Bilas said: “I’m not sure that aside from North Carolina we have a super great team this year.”

In a season when there was a different No. 1 at every commercial break, was there really any “super great team?”

On Sunday’s post-selection show, Bilas pummelled Dick Vitale as if he was Larry Holmes and Dickie V was an aging Ali. You’d have thought they were debating the AIG bonus plan, not whether Arizona deserved a spot in the Dance.

Bilas said they did; Vitale said they did not.

By the way, the Wildcats didn’t deserve a bid. Of course, my idiot opinion is just not important.

Photos: ESPN/New York Daily News

Sparring over No. 1 Seeds is Madness

Blake Griffin isn't alone in thinking his team is The 1

The madness has already begun. Unfortunately. Specifically, the insipid debate over which teams will secure No. 1 seeds for the 2009 NCAA tournament.

My umbrage is not over who gets the seeds. Not at all. After a season in which the overall top ranking was treated like a potato just out of the microwave, five teams, maybe six, can lay claim to being one of the top four teams in the nation and deserving of a No. 1 seed: Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Connecticut, Oklahoma and Memphis. Even Louisville, having beaten Pitt in their only meeting, can make a why-not-us? claim (though the Pitt win should be trumped by last month’s loss to underachieving Notre Dame, which probably won’t qualify for the 65-team field)

No, I’m annoyed because the debate over who gets the top seeds is the most nonsensical debate in sports. In truth, it’s irrelevant whether a team gets and No. 1, 2 or 3 seed.

It’s irrelevant because it doesn’t give the top seeds much more than the right to say they’re a No. 1 seed (”It’s a badge of honor,” says one college administrator). Well, combined with a buck, the top seeding won’t get you much more than a share of Citibank stock.

Generally, the selection committee tries to minimize travel for all teams, with priority given to higher-seeded teams. Yet no team is allowed to play on a “home court,” which means any arena where the team has played four times during the regular season.

Thus, should Pitt land the East’s top seed, it’ll play the opening two rounds at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, offering Panther fans a simple journey to the site. Same for Tar Heel fans should UNC be dubbed No. 1 in the South region, with its first games at Greensboro.

But, heck, Pitt and UNC should beat whomever they play in those opening rounds – teams seeded 16th and, at best, 9th – even if they had to play them in the other teams’ jock dorms.

That’s one reason the tournament is known for its stirring upsets. The lack of a home-court edge buoys teams that look overmatched and underwhelming on paper.

Thus, the madness.

Once teams reach the regionals, then any geographic edge is all but a non-factor. And in Detroit, site of the Final Four, none of the potential top teams has an edge.

In others sports “seedings” are typically earned (based on record) and meaningful because it awards a team the home court/field edge, which can be the difference-maker in a deciding game.

In the NCAA tournament, the verbal sparring over the top seeds is little more than simply maddening.

Sports Needs an Economic Attitude Adjustment

Great coach. But maybe a bit out of touch.

It’s getting ugly out there.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says he’ll slash his pay package by as much as 25 percent in order to save a few jobs. However, he can’t save them all. Anonymous team employees throughout sports are being sliced with the same sickle that has eliminated millions of jobs across America since last fall. NBA owners are divvying up $200 million in loans to cover millions in shortfalls due to diminishing ticket buyers and vanishing sponsors.

Every sport, maybe for the first time ever, is feeling the same economic pinch as the fans.

Pretty soon, NASCAR teams may consider carpooling.

And yet: Albert Haynesworth gets $100 million from Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, Manny Ramirez snub $45 million like it’s s stick insult before coming to his senses this week – and Jim Calhoun (pictured) just doesn’t get it.

Ugly.

The relationship between sports and fans has long been tenuous – not coincidentally, as salaries have risen to Wall Street CEOesque levels. That’s especially true among fans of a generation when their own paychecks carried pretty much the same digits as the men (and, yes, they were mostly men then, too) they cheered. Superstars always made superstar money, but there was a time when the working-stiff jock actually made near working-stiff wages.

So did most coaches – guys who chose the profession for the love of their sport more than the love of money.

Not anymore. Sports has created a new, young class of fast-twitch millionaires: guys who won the gene pool lottery and, in most instances, applied diligence, discipline and plain old hard work to their physical gifts and reached the highest level of their sport. And on the sidelines, pro coaches can afford to live next door to their superstars. In college, many make more than all but their elite players ever will.

I don’t begrudge any of them. I’ve always chuckled at the petty grumblings of folks who rail against them for one sin (”They’re not as good as their predecessors.”) or another (”They don’t hustle.”) when what they really mean is: They make too much damn money.

I typically chalk up their rants to ignorance and jealousy, and move on.

But now it could get uglier than a few rants. As more Americans are stripped of their livelihoods each day, sports is being given less of a pass.

Calhoun was asked at a postgame press conference to comment on his $1.6 million annual base salary at UConn, which makes him one of the highest-paid state employees at a time when Connecticut is facing a reported $944 million budget deficit that is projected to be $8 billion in two years.

His snippy response – “My advice to you is, shut up,” followed by a rift on how much money the Huskies generate for the university – has been polarizing. Governor M. Jodi Rell called it “embarrassing,” and the leaders of the state’s General Assembly want Calhoun to be reprimanded by the university. Conversely, many have defended the coach’s reaction, saying his success through the years more than justifies his compensation – even in these trying times.

Calhoun could have been more mature in his response, even if he has the data to back his argument. As it stands, he’s come off as the newest poster boy for the excesses of sports and showed how out of touch he is with Joe Taxpayer.

And it’s more than an isolated tempest. Attendance will likely be unaffected in Storrs, but loyal ticket-buyers elsewhere are deciding they can no longer afford to see their favorite team live or buy that $100 jersey; or they simply no longer have the desire to go see athletes and coaches who don’t seem to feel their pain.

As they grow weary of the kind of “not-my-economic problem” attitude displayed by Calhoun, Ramirez and others, sports may lose its status as The Great Escape. More fans may no longer see sports as a respite from the woes of their lives.

If sports can no longer serve that purpose, then what’s its purpose?

That’s a question no one wants to answer.

Reuters photograph

The ‘09 Tar Heels: Where Do They Rank?

TH is among the 'Heels best ever. His team? Not yet.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are making a mockery of the 2009 college basketball season. That’s not a knock. Far from it. More an homage to a team that has essentially made  opponents look like the Washington Generals. They’re 13-0 after beating Nevada 84-61 on New Year’s Eve. They’re averaging 95.8 points and have beaten opponents by an average of 26.8 points.

No Tar’d foe has finished closer than 15. And most appear to have been almost honored to to have had their tails whipped. “There’s no shame in losing to Carolina,” Nevada coach Mark Fox said after the game. “That is a great, great team.”

But how great? With the ACC season set to begin on Sunday and the ‘Heels having beaten 39 straight non-conference opponents, where do the 2009 Tar Heels rank among the greatest UNC teams ever?

My list:

5)  2005 (33-4, national champions) A bit of a surprise entry mainly because not a single player on this unit is likely to make any all-time Tar Heel list. Sean May, Marvin Williams and Rashad McCants, the stars of that squad, have barely earned free kicks at the pro level. So why here. Simply because this team, in Roy Williams’ second season, had something to prove and it did, winning the NCAA just a year after going 19-11 and tumbling in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Most Tar Heel teams are expected to win. This bunch was a pleasant surprise for UNC faithful.

4)  2008 (36-3, Final Four) Call this the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time Tar Heels. Maybe the best Carolina team not to win the national title, these Heels were Tyler Hansbrough’s team. Period. The junior forward emerged as not only the best player in the nation but, in some circles, also the most hated. Nonetheless, he led UNC to its second consecutive ACC title and into the Final Four where, well, they endured a night to forget. In the semis, Kansas made 12 of its first 16 shots and went on an 18-0 run before UNC seemed to understand that the game had begun. They were down 33-10 with 9:31 left and for all intents, done. Call this team Greatness Unfulfilled.

3)  1993 (34-4, national champions) Another team without legendary star power. But  Donald Williams, George Lynch and Eric Montross gave legendary coach Dean Smith his second and final national title by defeating highly ranked Cincinnati, Kansas and then the heavily hyped Michigan Fab Five in the title game. The most memorable play that night, of course, occurred when the Fabulous Chris Webber tried to call a timeout in the final seconds when he got trapped behind a Tar Heel double-team, though Michigan was out of TOs.

2) 1957 (32-0, national champions) Sure, this team, in its prime, might not have been able to defeat the teams behind it on this list.Today’s players are bigger, stronger, quicker, etc. And defenses are a lot more sophisticated. I know all that. But undefeated counts with me. National title counts with me. And this counts with me: This team defeated an opponent led by perhaps the greatest, most dominant college basketball player ever. Wilt Chamberlain, who took only 13 shots against coach Frank McGuire’s Tar Heels in the championship game and UNC won in three OTs 54-53. And how’s this for extra points? McGuire sent 5-foot-11 Tommy Kearns, his shortest player, out to jump against Chamberlain in the opening tipoff. “We’re a chilly club,” Kearns said. “We play it chilly all the time. I mean, we just keep cool.” Clearly, a team ahead of its time.

1) 1982 (32-2, national champions) Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins, orchestrated by less-heralded point guard Jimmy Black, led the greatest Tar Heel team ever. No question. If their win over Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the national title game was not the best-ever championship game, tell me what was. (Sure, Villanova’s 1985 win over the Hoyas was the biggest upset ever, but there was never a game with more talent and more drama than this one.) This team was so focused on winning the national title that Dean Smith used the date of the national championship game, 3/30, as part of the combination to the players’ lounge.

So where does that leave the 2009 ‘Heels? Not quite there. Despite their lopsided wins this team has not played consistently well. A risk-taking defense has allowed some opponents to enjoy a parade of open looks. Nevada shot 45 percent from the field, well above UNC’s season-long 40 percent lip.

What these Tar Heels are is relentless and talented, and, yes, they do have the most dominant player in the game. That combo is enough to beat almost anyone on any night. But whether they’re ultimately good enough to crack this list, we won’t find out until 4/6/09.

Mike Montgomery: Traitor!!

This is Benedict Arnold …

Imagine Mike Krzyzewsi becoming head coach at North Carolina.

Picture Pete Carroll coaching the UCLA Bruins.

Contemplate Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel in the Michigan maize and blue.

Never happen. Nope, Not at all.

Sure, they’re just coaches. And anyone should be able to take any job they want. But after coaching at Duke, USC and managing the Buckeyes, respectively, those guys would never take the same job with their former employer’s most despised rival.

They wouldn’t do if their gigs were more than mere gigs. They are the faces of their teams – their schools even. They embody their university. Call me old fashion – or a stodgy soul, as one story put it – but I still believe in loyalty. I still believe in “representing” those entities that treat you well, and where you achieve success.

That’s why Mike Montgomery should be tried for sports treason.

By now you’ve probably discerned that I’m a Stanford alum, and I’m not the only one whose first thought was, “Turncoat!” when I learned Montgomery – the Cardinal’s all-time winningest coach (18 seasons, 393 wins, four Pac-10 titles, one Final Four) – had agreed to become the head coach at Cal, our most despised rival.

Excuse me while I puke!

Okay, so Mikey needed a job. It’s been two years since he was fired by Golden State with two years remaining on a $10 million deal. So the checks stopped coming in. Not mad at him for wanting to get another gig.

Montgomery was said to be trolling at the Final Four in San Antonio when Cal got hooked.

C’mon, MIke – CAL?!! Indiana had an opening, and I’m sure there’ll be others once the annual ritual of coaching musical chairs begins on Tuesday.

CAL?!!

Stanford made you, Mike! You were just another guy from Montana when the Cardinal hired you in 1986. People said, Who??

The Cardinal gave you a change to prove just how good a coach you were. It gave you a stage and, yes, you rose to it. You gave as much as you received and when you decided to chase your own NBA dream and signed with the Warriors, we wished you well.

Now we wish you nothing but Ls. Lots of them – especially when you’re sitting at the other end of the gym from the team you once coached. Wearing a yellow tie!

You tried to joke it off at your press conference, saying, “I just wanted to feel like there weren’t going to be any explosives or snipers on the way to the Cal office.” Ha Ha.

You also said there’ll be no “welcome wagon” when you and your Bears visit Maples Pavilion next season. Actually, you just might be wrong.

Despite my obvious ire and mini-tirade, I would not be surprised if you were welcomed back. I can actually see you getting a standing O when you step from the locker-room that day. That’s the kind of people we are at Stanford, Mike.

The student section will cheer you. The alums and supporters will show their appreciation.

That’s what Stanford’s all about, Mike.

And then we’ll try to kick your team’s butt. And maybe shower you with icky yellow ties.

Congrats on the new gig, Mike. See you in the fall!

…so is this.

The NCAAs: It’s about Ball Not Branding

When will I learn? When will I learn that branding in college basketball means almost nothing? Two of my final four teams – UConn and Georgetown – are already out because I fell for the campaign. I fell for the marketing folks, particularly those in the Big East conference, who told anyone who’d listen (and many who tried to turn the other ear) that they were the best conference in the nation and that they deserved, what was it?, a gazillion invites to the NCAA Tournament.

Ha!

I thought UConn, after a first-round upset in the Big East tourney, would rebound and be rested and ready to play when it really mattered. Instead, the NO. 4-seed Huskies got neutered by 13th-seeded San Diego in the opening round. Georgetown ran into the team that just may be this year’s George Mason, 10th-seeded Davidson, led by a darling of a sophomore sharp-shooter Stephen Curry, the son of 16-year NBA veteran Dell Curry.

Then there’s Duke, which hasn’t been “Duke” since the Grant Hill-Christian Leattner days. Mike Krzyzskyski is a brilliant coach – he’s a brand: Coach K – so the prevailing view is that any team of his should at least be in the national championship conversation. Not any more. Not even close. Their second-round loss to West Virginia, a No.-7 seed,was all but a fait accompli.

How could the Dookies have been a No. 2 seed? Since 2001, they’ve been 5-7 in the NCAAs. “We don’t care that they’re Duke,” said Mountaineer forward Joe Alexander following their 73-67.

So why do we? Why do we care that they’re Duke or that UConn is UConn? Or Georgetown is Georgetown?

One reason is because throughout the regular season, we’re simply not allowed to see anything else. Unless you’re a college hoops junkie and suscribe to some service that allows you to see Butler, Davidson, San Diego, Western Kentucky and their ilk on a regular basis, how do you really know how good they are?

You can’t. No matter how much they win, they’re the proverbial tree falling in the woods to most of us. And we then diminish their victories because they come at the expense of other schools of like invisibility.

What’s the tournament committee’s excuse? They sequester themselves for hours pouring over reams of data and then come out and intelligently explain to us just why every team is seeded the way it is. Then we watch their predictions renendered as meaningful as a chicken’s predictions. Maybe they don’t see Davidson or Butler or San Diego, either.

If I were a conspiracy theorist I’d say this is just how the committee wants it. I’d say they plant the brackets with teams they know full well are capable up chopping down a big-brand school. Why would they do that? Ratings. The Madness of March is fueled by “moments,” interest beyond hard-core fans is driven by the existence of upsets and Cinderellas.

Remember how bored we all were after Thursday when the chalk essentially prevailed? A full week of that was the committee’s most fearsome nightmare. That’s what I’d say if I was a conspiracist.

But the committee’s not that smart.

As I’ve said before, it should stop fooling itself – and us. And stop pretending it can actually seed 64 teams. It should seed only the top eight in each region then draw the others at random. Oh, there’ll still be upsets. Cinderella will still get her paparazzi moments. CBS wills till get its ratimngs.

But at least we won’t all look like idiots – or like we believe the Madison Ave branding of college hoops is really true.

NCAA Selection Show: The Remake

The NCAA Selection show is boring. Oh sure there’s drama. What’s better than watching groups of young men in sweats watching television? Frankly, a lot.

The show announcing which teams qualify for the NCAA Tournament and where they play could be so much better. It should be better. In this Reality TV era, you can’t tell me someone can’t do something with a show with a such a captive audience and so much on the line – coaches’ futures and young men’s dreams.

Here’s one thought:

Let’s face it. All the action really happens behind a closed door and involves a bunch of middle-aged men in suits. First of all, give us some access to the war room. Okay, so they’ll never put cameras and mikes in there. But throughout the day, have someone come out and give us an update on what’s going on inside. Like the new coach’s sideline interview during NBA games. Just give us something.

But here’s my big move:

I think it is virtually impossible to seed 65 teams with an real degree of reality. It’s hard enough to seed 32 teams. This season, after the top, say four teams, isn’t everyone pretty much the same? Didn’t seventh-ranked Duke lose to Clemson today.And eighth-ranked Wisconson barely survived Michigan State. How do you accurately seed the rest of the field with any real certainty.

I say seed only the top eight teams in each bracket, then open the war room and seed the remaining teams with a lottery. That’s right, ping-pong balls or some such.

The machine would contain 31 balls. (The two worst teams, those in the play-in game, would be left out and the overall top seed would automatically get the winner). Each ball contains the logo of a team that qualifies for the 65-team field. That way teams still do not know if they’re in the Dance.

Standing before a big board featuring the 32 teams and their seedings in region, cheerleaders representing schools from last year’s Final Four teams (Hey, I’m trying to make TV here!) call out the names of the schools as each ball pops out of the machine and its team is placed in a regional slot.

What the worst that could happen? A No 8 seed would draw no team batter than it would have before – a No. 9 seed. And so what if a No. 1 or 2 seed draws what would have been a No. 9 under the current system. Shouldn’t they beat them handily anyway?

My show has more drama, more flash, a dash of sexiness and an element of luck.

Sounds like a hit!

The Madness II: Courts of Dreams

    The real madness began today – in New York. It continues tomorrow in Charlotte, Kansas City and other cities where the largest basketball conferences are hosting their annual tournaments. The games taking place on the Courts of Dreams are an abomination to the game.

    After weeks of regular-season contests that separated true contenders from pretenders, teams – the good, the bad and the woeful – will gather at various venues with varied agendas.

    The contenders, while certainly trying to win these tournaments, are really trying to survive the weekend and stay healthy. Everyone else is either auditioning for the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee or hoping for a miracle – a tournament title that will earn them an automatic invite to March Madness.

    My ire is aimed at the former group – mediocre, middle-of-the-pack teams whose most viable credentials are the names across the front of the uniform. In New York, two storied programs with national title hardware in their trophy cases – Villanova and Syracuse – tipped off at Madison Square Garden to open the Big East Tournament. Both teams were 9-9 in the conference and considered their match up a win-or-go-home (or rather, win-or-go-NIT) game, win and perhaps earn an NCAA nod. Villanova won in a romp, 82-63.

    Neither team, in truth, has earned a spot in the postseason tournament. With nine losses in their own conference, the Wildcats and Orange are also-rans who simply haven’t earned the right to compete for the national title. Nor have other noted programs across the nation who’ve had less-than-noteworthy seasons.

    In college football, they and others like them – i.e. Boston College, NC State and more – would have been eliminated from consideration long ago. In college football, one loss typically boots a team from the title race (the most recent season was a stone-cold aberration), certainly two losses. But in college basketball, too many teams are not judged by their quantifiable results but by such intangibles as RPI, “quality of schedule” and, well, their heritage.

       In fact, some of the big conferences possess a sense of entitlement of NCAA tournament berths based on little more, it seems, than their bigness. “We have a legitimate eight, nine teams vying for the NCAA tournament,” says Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun.

    More accurately, about half that number of Big East teams deserves invitations to The Dance. That’s also true for the ACC, Big 12, Pac 10 and other so-called “major” conferences.

    But this is the reality: The NCAA Tournament is as much about preserving the status quo as it is about crowning a national title winner. Every tournament berth equals major dollars, money that is shared with other conference schools. Thus the more teams a conference sends to the NCAAs, the more money gets distributed to its members (even those that did not qualify). It’s how the Bigs stay big.

    Competitively, I’d rather see more schools from the so-called mid-majors earn berths. They’re just as hardened by competition as schools from the bigs and because players at those schools tend to remain there for four years, their teams are often more seasoned and savvy. As we see every year at this time, talent is often humbled by teamwork and leadership.

    The NCAA needs to demonstrate its own wisdom and leadership by not allowing mediocre teams from large conferences, no matter their pedigree, to participate in its showcase event.