Big 12 Coaches Favor Idea of Expanding NCAA Tournament

In recent weeks, the talk of the NCAA Tournament field expanding beyond 65 teams has gained momentum.

From the sounds of it, many of the Big 12 coaches would be on board if college sports' most popular tournament grew to include more teams and more games.

"I think there is reason to talk about expansion because there has never been this many as there is now and the parity has never been better or at this level as it is now," said Kansas coach Bill Self. "So you obviously have more good players playing college basketball, you have more good teams which means more good players and you have more teams total, so I think there is reason to give it consideration."

But the question that seems to loom is, will more necessarily mean better? And if indeed the NCAA is going to consider expansion to include more of the 347 Division I men's basketball teams, how much is too much and exactly what is enough?

Some proposals on the team has the tournament expanding to 68 with four play-in games, there are others that have more than 100 teams getting involved. But the most popular expanded model has 96 teams and would all but absorb the NIT.

The idea is that with many of the mid-major conferences improving, expanding would allow for more inclusion. It would also allow the major conferences to jockey for more teams getting into the field. The Big 12, for instance, this year thinks it is worthy of having as many as eight teams get into next month's Tournament by virtue of the top to bottom strength of the league and its No.1 RPI ranking. More than likely the league will get a maximum of seven entries, which might leave out a team or two with impressive resumes.

While Texas Tech coach Pat Knight admits he hasn't given much thought to expanding the NCAA Tournament, he does seem to like the idea of more opportunities for mid-majors and perhaps the bigger conferences getting in one or two more teams.

"I don't think the games would change a bit," Knight said. "They'd be just as competitive and actually give another team a chance. I think you would see more Cinderella stories. There would be a lot more upsets, I think if they expanded the field."

Fueling the speculation the Tournament may expand soon is the fact after this year, CBS will enter the option year of its 11-year, $6 billion contract to broadcast the NCAA Tournament. CBS could team up with another network to broadcast all of the games and to hold off overtures from ESPN/ABC.

Obviously, if there are more teams involved that would mean a more lucrative payday for the NCAA.

"I think television will dictate so much of it," Self said. "I think it's worth discussing but I'm not sure I've seen anyone's formula that would be the best formula. Football can't figure it out and they deal with a lot less teams. Just adding a few there is a pro and con thing. I don't know what the formula is, but I do believe it will be expanded in the next decade. Somebody will figure it out."

Another interesting question that has not been answered is the possible loss of more class time by expanding the tournament.

"How long is it going to take when you talk about a tournament?" said Missouri coach Mike Anderson. "Maybe a week or so? From that point it's a big decision but it's big business No. 1. I'm sure there is concern and that's probably one of the concerns they have in terms of expanding the tournament.

"But it's all talk and that's what it is right now. It's been talk for quite a while."

Anderson, however, hedged some when asked his position on expansion.

"I'm not in favor of kids missing a whole lot of school, but that's not a real issue when you look at our particular situation. But of course we are not the majority," he said. "There are some schools that probably have to take a lot of time away. But I don't think it's a big deal. I don't make those decisions in terms of expanding or not expanding."

Is Middle of the Road Good Enough?

As for this year's NCAA Tournament, there seems to be a growing concern that with the Big 12 members beating up on each other, that there could be a few teams that finish 8-8 in league play.

Teams with impressive resumes like Baylor, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma are all hovering around .500 in conference play. If the second half of the season is anything like the first, there could be a few 8-8 teams making their case for NCAA Tournament inclusion after some success in the Big 12 Tournament.

"I think so," Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said when asked this week if 8-8 Big 12 teams deserved to go to the Tournament. "They've had to have done some work outside of the league a little bit. You've got to have won some games to put yourself in position to have an 8-8 record in our league.

"Teams that came into the league with a strong RPI before going 8-8, I think they should have a great shot to get in because of the strength of our league."

But a team like Baylor could fall victim to the strength of the league if it continues its up and down pattern. The No. 24 Bears improved to 5-4, 18-5 with Wednesday's narrow 55-53 win over Nebraska. It would seem Baylor has the resume to be Tournament-worthy, having won games against Xavier and on the road against Arizona State and Arkansas during the non-conference season. Then in Big 12 play, the Bears upset Texas 80-77 in overtime on the road, but then two games later fell at Texas A&M.

Baylor coach Scott Drew hopes the league's overall reputation this season would help his team or any Big 12 team that finishes .500. In addition to holding the No.1 RPI, the Big 12 has posted a 28-12 record against the other major conferences this season, which by far the best. The only other league that is over 50 percent is the ACC at 24-21.

"It just shows how talented and how tough the league is," Drew said. "You can have, based on how successful everyone has been on their own court, seven or eight teams hovering around that .500 mark and that's not because they are bad teams but because the competition is that good and home court advantage is that important."

Fixing Texas

Texas coach Rick Barnes is vowing that his Longhorns will regroup after losing back-to-back league games and five of their last seven.

Texas, which a month ago was the nation's consensus No.1 team, lost 80-68 to top-ranked Kansas at home and fell out of the top-10 to No.14 in the polls.

"We are going to fix it," said Barnes, whose team had just six assists versus 17 turnovers against the Jayhawks. "We've got a chance again to be a team. ... We can be as good as we want to be. That's not going to happen until we understand the assists-to-turnover ratio. We keep giving the ball away."

The Longhorns, who did not have another game this week, get a little bit of break Saturday when struggling Nebraska comes into the Erwin Center. But then they will hit the road for back-to-back road games against Missouri and Texas Tech.

Barnes said no when asked if he is concerned his team has lost confidence.

"I thought they showed that [Monday night]," Barnes said. "They were down and they could have quit. We could get it to eight, we had the ball. This is against the team that is No.1 in the country and we were terrible on offense for a period of time.

"Not taking anything away from them because they do some great things but we helped them. Kansas doesn't help you very much."

Challenging Swing Ahead for Jayhawks

Kansas has by far been the best team in the Big 12 this season and arguably in the nation.

But the No.1 Jayhawks will be pushed to the limit with three straight weeks of playing Saturday-Monday games. They improved to 23-1, 9-0 Big 12 after beating both Nebraska and Texas this past week in the first such Saturday-Monday turnaround.

This week, Kansas will face Iowa State at home Saturday before hitting the road to face Texas A&M in an ESPN Big Monday game. The Jayhawks will then get back-to-back home games against Colorado and Oklahoma on the final quick turnaround set the following week.

"It really is [a tough grind]," Self said. "We played at Boulder and got back at 4 a.m. So we took Thursday off and had one day of prep for Nebraska and one day of prep for Texas. That's not a perfect world for any coach but it's great exposure so you will never here us complain.

"But three in a row like that with two of them being on the road is a tough draw, but at the end of the day hopefully it will make us a little tougher and harder."

Whoop-ing Reed Arena Into Shape

Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon has been pleased with the homecourt advantage Reed Arena has become for the Aggies, who are 13-0 overall at home and 5-0 in league play.

But apparently it didn't get that way without some work at the traditional football school steep in tradition.

"We are forming a basketball crowd," Turgeon said. "We don't really know how to cheer, to be quite honest with you, at a basketball game. I guess it's called 'Yell' down here. But we are getting there. It takes time, but I'm really proud of what we've built up this season. We have three home games and I fully expect them to be close to record crowds."