Live From The Nosebleeds

If you want unadulterated analysis of basketball, whether it's the NBA, college basketball, or some pick-up game I saw yesterday, take a gander at my blog.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I am not sexist...

I have a daughter whom I love more than anything else on this planet. I've introduced her to basketball, and as far as I can tell she likes it (or at least likes the cool cheers her daddy does during Terp games). At some point I will encourage her to try athletics, and if she so chooses it'd be cool to see her play basketball. I would go see every game, be that crazy dad in the stands, and while I may end up inevitably embarrassing her at some point, I would definitely support her.

Which makes it even harder to write the next sentence.

The women's college basketball tournament is a joke, and I feel horrible for the Duke Blue Devils.


(Pardon me as I try to dodge all these eggs being tossed at me.)






The game itself is okay. Although women don't (neccesarily) play above the rim, there's more fundamentally sound play. You see far less bad shots and better overall teamwork on the women's level, which I think may be a product of players staying all four years with few exceptions. Unlike the NBA, the WNBA doesn't offer enough incentives for players to bolt. Good or bad, they don't try to.

So no, this isn't slamming women's basketball. It's slamming the way the tournament field is staged. 16 "pre-determined" sites is one thing, better than the way it used to be I guess. Back in 1994 when the field expanded to 64 teams, the higher seeds hosted first round games. Now that was just plain awful. If I had started doing brackets back then for women's basketball I literally would have no upsets predicted. And, I'd probably win.

So yeah, as much as giving home court advantage in the tourney is bad, having a one seed play on a NINTH seeds' home court---not 20 minutes away, not 45 minutes away, on their HOME COURT--- is atrocious. You bust your hump all season long to get that one seed, only to find out that you have to play your first two rounds in an inferior opponents' gym. Oh yeah, and factor in that Michigan State absolutely hates your guts because you stole their coach, and it almost cancels out the fact that you are indeed the better team.

All because it was pre-determined.

"Oh yeah, let's have regionals in College Park and Connecticut."

While it is true that sometimes teams benefit from playing close to home in the men's game (Villanova, North Carolina), keep in mind that they're playing CLOSE to home. Sure, it helps. But if Carolina is playing LSU at a weighted neutral site, chances are there will be plenty of non-Carolina fans hoping for Tar Heel blood. At the Breslin Center? I didn't see the game, but I'm willing to bet that 90% of the people who showed up didn't want Duke to win.

Just adopt the men's system. Maybe it's flawed, too... but at this point it's better than the women's.

Thankfully nobody reads this blog...

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