Michael Tranghese chuckled at the suggestion.
“Never,” Tranghese said, “has CBS made a request for a game.”
Tranghese, the Big East commissioner and chairman of the Division I men’s basketball committee, sought to debunk the popular myth that CBS demands certain matchups in exchange for the $6 billion it is spending for NCAA men’s basketball tournament rights.
“You hear that all the time: `TV wanted this matchup,'” said Tranghese, a five-year committee veteran who has also chaired the television subcommittee. “I can assure you that that is not the case. People don’t want to believe that.”
The perception persists that committee members go out of their way to put together games with, for lack of a better term, oomph. But Tranghese said the seeding process is so burdened by rules–conference rivals can’t meet until a regional final, for example–that the panel can’t concentrate on specific matchups.
“Once we select teams and then we seed them, the bracketing process for the most part is dictated by rules,” Tranghese said this week from the Big East headquarters in Providence, R.I.
It is only after the brackets are filled, Tranghese said, that the panelists take a step back from the board and see what they have wrought.
“You say, `God, look at this game,'” Tranghese said. “But at no time has anyone ever said, `If we seed these teams here, we’ll have this game.’
“If it ever came up, the committee member who expressed that would immediately be silenced. Our job is not to make matchups. Our job is to seed teams correctly and put them in brackets.”
Still, more than chance seems to be at work sometimes. Consider the 1997 tournament, when Dean Smith broke the all-time victory mark.
The committee gave North Carolina the top seed in the East Regional and placed the Tar Heels in nearby Winston-Salem. Then it seeded Indiana eighth, thereby setting up a second-round showdown between Smith and Bob Knight, who might one day own the record himself.
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Talk about a ratings bonanza. But the game never came off; the Hoosiers were embarrassed by ninth-seeded Colorado 80-62 in the opening round and his Deanship had to set the record against a football power.
Amateur bracketologists can cite other examples. This is the time of year when a fervent imagination, coupled with all those empty brackets, can produce some amazing possibilities.
Here are a few matchups we’d like to see next month:
Boston College-Ohio State. Buckeyes coach Jim O’Brien left Boston College, his alma mater, after a dispute with the admissions office over recruits.
Notre Dame-North Carolina. A showdown between Tar Heels coach Matt Doherty and the players he ditched last summer, when he took the UNC job. This one might not be pure fancy. If the Fighting Irish win the Big East tourney, they’re likely to be seeded in the East Regional. Ditto North Carolina if it wins the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Arizona-Fresno State. When Jerry Tarkanian was at UNLV, he dubbed Wildcats coach Lute Olson “Midnight Lute” after Olson beat him to a local recruit. Tark has moved on to Fresno State, but old grudges die hard out West.
Arizona-St. Joe’s. Should the Wildcats survive a Shark attack, how about if they face St. Joe’s in the East Regional at Philadelphia. Why Philly? Once upon a time Olson backed out of a game at St. Joe’s because snow was predicted and Olson didn’t want to fly his team into a storm. The Wildcats stayed in Tucson. Who could blame them? But the folks at St. Joe’s haven’t forgotten.
UCLA-Georgia. Steve Lavin was Jim Harrick’s loyal aide on the UCLA bench–until Harrick got caught cheating on his expenses. In the time it takes to say “reimbursement,” Harrick was out and Lavin was in, and it’s fair to say they’re not close.
Memphis-Connecticut. Memphis coach John Calipari and Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun dislike each other so intensely that they refused to play when Calipari coached at Massachusetts. The NCAA can make them play now. Of course, if neither qualifies for the NCAA tourney, which is quite likely, then maybe the NIT folks should try to put this matchup together. If Cal and Cal can’t agree on a site, make them meet somewhere in the middle–Scranton, say.
Tennessee-Kansas. This would settle, once and for all, the question of whether the mentor (Jayhawks coach Roy Williams) or the student (Volunteers coach Jerry Green) is the bigger underachiever in NCAA play.
Seed report: Thought you had the No. 1 seeds figured out? Last week’s results made you think again.
Bing! No. 2 North Carolina lost to No. 9 Virginia 86-66.
Bang! No. 3 Illinois lost to Ohio State 63-61.
Zoom! No. 6 Iowa State lost to Texas 94-78.
“As we sit here with a week to go in the regular season, I don’t think anybody can sit here and say these are the No. 1 seeds,” Tranghese said. “Even if you do, you can’t say with any certainty who deserves to be the No. 1 overall seed.
“There’s still two weeks to be played. Hopefully, the outcome of those games will help to unearth it.
The Butler did it (again): The Butler Bulldogs (20-7, 11-3 Midwestern Collegiate) haven’t missed a beat under Thad Matta, who was promoted when his boss, Barry Collier, left for Nebraska at the end of last season. Their weekend road sweep of Loyola and Illinois-Chicago clinched a third MCC title in five years.
“For the most part, the transition has been relatively smooth,” said Matta, a 1990 Butler alumnus. “The biggest difference between an assistant coach and a head coach is the difference between making suggestions and decisions. I’ve found that I don’t sleep as well as I did as an assistant.”
Butler’s last three losses have come by a combined seven points. With a road win Jan. 30 over then-No. 16 Wisconsin, the Bulldogs have established themselves as a strong Cinderella candidate, provided they win the MCC tourney in Dayton, Ohio. The Bulldogs nearly gave the country a “Hoosiers” moment when they took Florida, an eventual national finalist, into overtime before losing in the first round last March.
The baseline: The America East Conference tweaked its regular-season schedule to accommodate Towson freshman guard Tamir Goodman, who won’t play between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday in accordance with Sabbath observance. But the conference gave Towson no such break in the upcoming America East tournament in Newark, Del.; the Tigers open Friday night, so they will have to play without Goodman, once dubbed “the Jewish Jordan” by Sports Illustrated. Should the Tigers advance to the second round, they would tip off at 6 p.m. Saturday. According to The Weather Channel, sundown in Newark that evening will be at 5:58 p.m.
Goodman averages six points and four assists in 26 minutes a game.
The nation’s longest major-college win streak belongs to Hofstra, which has won its last 15 games heading into the America East tourney this week. Funny thing about the America East tourney: Its top three seeds–Hofstra, Delaware and Drexel–are all bolting to join the Colonial Athletic Association. … Tulane hits the road to play St. Louis and Houston this week, and the trip comes at precisely the right moment for Green Wave coach Shawn Finney. Why? It’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans. “It’ll be good for us to get out of town this week,” Finney said.
Conference USA began scheduling Tulane on the road for Mardi Gras after visiting teams complained that they couldn’t find hotel accommodations in New Orleans. … Mardi Gras might seem quiet compared with the racket at Conference USA headquarters these days. The conference offices are at 35 E. Wacker Drive, right in the middle of the nightmarish Wacker Drive construction project. “It’s another challenge in the life of college athletics,” Conference USA spokesman Brian Teter said.