Worst tournament field ever?

I guess it's no big secret that this is probably the case, but still a good read by Michael Wilbon:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=wilbon/110315

The problem? I don't know what can really be done about it. I think that college basketball's best days are probably behind it.

 

A lot of the reason there are so many teams with so many losses is that schools and coaches are finally realizing the selection committee means business when it says it's going to evaluate your opponents. Used to be 23-7, 24-6 was automatic entry no matter what. Now you're better off scheduling five or six high-caliber non-conference opponents, particularly giving yourself road games, even if it means you're going to lose three or four of them. In effect, a good loss beats a bad win.

 

Funny how different football and basketball are, isn't it?

 

You can't quantify this question. W-L record isn't enough to do it.

You also have to take into account the talent level of the teams in this field vs. every other tournament field before it and I'm not sure how you'd do that.

Even then it's still a stupid and shortsighted question. More of the "it has to be the best or worst because it's happening NOW!" mentality.

 

Probably need to break down conference w-l vs. non-conference w-l before you make that comparison. Like football you don't get to pick your conference opponents each year but you can cream puff the hell out of your non-con schedule.

 

The worst tournaments ever are the ones where there are barely any upsets and 3-4 No. 1 seeds make the Final Four. This field suggests there should be a ton of upsets.

 

The NBA flight question also doesn't do a whole lot for me because it has been going on for too many years to be cited as a factor now. If Wilbon and Bilas think it's a big deal that Derrick Rose and Kevin Love aren't in this year's tournament, did they also think the '97 and '98 tournaments sucked without Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury?

 

Nah. Those years make for horrible Elite Eights and onward.

 

The BCS conference at-large entries are, as a group, slightly weaker than usual. That's about all I can see to justify Wilbon's position. The four number one seeds are all damn fine teams, and Kansas and Ohio State could compete with any of the past champs of the last 5-10 years. It's not like those Florida back-to-back teams were the 1976 Indiana or 1991-2 Duke teams.

 

You also have to think BYU's loss of their starting center, St. Johns loss of a starter and Purdue's loss of Robbie Hummel contributed to this.

 

Can't really count Hummel. He's been out all year.

 

The 2006 Final Four called.