COVID Concerns: Should Conference Basketball Tournaments be Cancelled?

[FishDuck Article]

The hot topic around College Basketball these days is whether it is safe, or smart, to have conference tournaments this season due to COVID-19. As we inch closer to the end of the regular season, we are seeing more people, and more coaches, speak out about how playing in a conference tournament is a bad idea. The question is simple: ...

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[BigDucksFan]

Lets face it, the NCAA Tournament (March Madness) is where the money is. That is where you want to be your best and to be your best you have to have all your players available. If you want to do well on the National scene of March Madness you better protect your players. 

If you have a concern about making the NCAA Tournament then you probably will not do well at the Conference Tournament anyway. So why go there ??

[Charles Fischer]

First...to everyone; this article is about COVID, yes.  But we can avoid talking politics if we want to, and we have to with the rules.  The topic is about the conference tournaments and whether we have them due to COVID, and I thought Coach Nordy did a super job of bringing up that concern while stepping aside from the quicksand that is COVID discussions.

I am an old fuddy-duddy, as I have never liked the conference tournaments because it cheapens the championship of the regular season.  A conference representative should be based on the grind of all the tough conference games, and not a hot couple of days at the end of the season. 

The reality is that conferences use it as a way to get another team into the tournament and the West Coast Conference is a prime example.  Let's say Gonzaga rests their starters and St. Mary's pulls off the conference tournament upset.  Normally the NCAA would only grant the winner, usually Gonzaga, the slot to the NCAA tournament, but now they have to allow St. Mary's as well.  To me, it is a well-worn scam that the ACC began many years ago.

So yes....cancel the Pac-12 Tournaments.  They are bogus to begin with and no need to jeopardize the teams with exposure to COVID in the process.

[30Duck]

2 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

To me, it is a well-worn scam that the ACC began many years ago.

So yes....cancel the Pac-12 Tournaments.  They are bogus to begin with

Could not agree more. The fact that the winner of a rushed up tournament is recognized as the conference champion, while a team that goes through the season successfully is an At large in the National tournament, is screwed up at best. The conference tournaments are bogus from the start when they recognize the best teams in the seeding. 

[Jon Sousa]

9 hours ago, BigDucksFan said:

If you have a concern about making the NCAA Tournament then you probably will not do well at the Conference Tournament anyway. So why go there ??

Because sometimes, you have a lousy regular season trying to get everyone to play together and truly "buy in". But you have one of the best finishing coaches in the NCAA, who, if given enough time with his team, will eventually pull them all together to make a deep run. SO, even though you are a very low seed in the PAC 12 tournament you GO because it is your ONLY CHANCE at getting an invitation to the Dance. 

You go, you win it, and then you go to the tournament in spite their disrespecting you with a 12th seed (which, by the way, means they thought that 47 teams in the tournament were better than you). At the tournament, you make a deep run into the Sweet 16 where you are finally ousted by the team that eventually won the NCAA National Championship.

That's why you go to the PAC 12 tournament.

[Jon Sousa]

COVID Concerns: Should Conference Basketball Tournaments be Cancelled?

The fact that we are even having this conversation is proof that a "normal spring practice" in Football is an impossibility. 

This, of course, is very upsetting, because we all just want it to be OVER.

A year later COVID Concerns is still a hot topic.  The Good News: We do have vaccinations available that are being rolled out as fast as possible. According to the Oregon Health Authority, my wife and I should be able to get the first immunization shot by the middle of March, the second one by the middle of April. That means we will have a 95% chance of not having to worry about this personally by the beginning of summer. 

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL SUMMER!!!         Of course I can. It's just what people say.

Squarely on topic: The Ducks should go if they need the PAC 12 tournament to get into the dance.

 

[30Duck]

39 minutes ago, Jon Sousa said:

SO, even though you are a very low seed in the PAC 12 tournament you GO because it is your ONLY CHANCE at getting an invitation to the Dance. 

This is why I don't like the Conference Tournaments. It has worked out for Oregon, and I didn't boycott their appearance in the NCAA's. But, naming the winner of the conference tournament the conference champion instead of the team that went through the schedule and ended up with the best record, in my opinion, is wrong.

A "Conference Champion" could have a 4-14 record, but get hot at the right time and win the tournament. The team that finished the season with the best record will still get in, as will the other teams that had worthy seasons, the conference tournament is just a chance for a team to snag a lucky ticket. 

[Jon Sousa]

1 hour ago, 30Duck said:

This is why I don't like the Conference Tournaments. It has worked out for Oregon, and I didn't boycott their appearance in the NCAA's. But, naming the winner of the conference tournament the conference champion instead of the team that went through the schedule and ended up with the best record, in my opinion, is wrong.

A "Conference Champion" could have a 4-14 record, but get hot at the right time and win the tournament. The team that finished the season with the best record will still get in, as will the other teams that had worthy seasons, the conference tournament is just a chance for a team to snag a lucky ticket. 

So, instead of cancelling the conference tournament, how about we get on a soapbox and advocating for calling teams the Tournament Champions and the Conference Champions??

On the other hand, if every conference has a tournament and each tournament's champion is automatically in the National Tournament, then, the fact of the matter is that the start of the conference tournaments is really the start of the National Tournament, and EVERYONE IS IN.

Say what? Every single team in the country is in the National Tournament. What is wrong with that idea?  Once the teams are honed to 64, it is single elimination after that. #1 seeds don't get a second chance if they fall to a #16 seed just because they are obviously the better team.

The National Tournament starts with some single elimination rounds -- they are called the conference tournaments. Then, an all wise committee (*cough* *hack*) decides to invite several more teams that were initially eliminated but worthy to join the party so the tournament can continue with an even 64 teams (just so they can have more games and make more money). (Okay, so there are a couple more play in games). 

With the previous losers added to the mix, the National Tournament continues in single elimination fashion until a National Champion is crowned. 

If this is the way it works, nobody, but NOBODY can complain that they were left out. It is all decided on the court. Can we say that about NCAA football?

[Charles Fischer]

4 minutes ago, Jon Sousa said:

advocating for calling teams the Tournament Champions and the Conference Champions??

I'll go along with that, as it is pretty simple.  So why haven't they done that?  (I believe it is to keep the scam going)

Jon--it is about time we disagreed on something, and this is why I want to see other opinions.  (I am not in favor of a national tournament as you describe as it would diminish the regular season that much further, IMHO.)

[Jon Sousa]

21 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

Jon--it is about time we disagreed on something, and this is why I want to see other opinions.  (I am not in favor of a national tournament as you describe as it would diminish the regular season that much further, IMHO.)

But isn't that the way it IS???

We still may agree on everything you know about just because I wasn't stating my opinion. Starting with "On the other hand..." I was just describing the way things actually seem to work in the current situation and gave some assumed rational for it. 

So, if I guessed right and this is pretty much how things work, I guess the regular season has already been diminished that much further and maybe that is what all the ruffled Duck feathers is about.

It is my opinion, however, that the current situation is ideal for the likes of Dana Altman who seems to take a long time to get the team to be a team, but once they are...... LOOK OUT!!!!  His teams seem to always start out slow but pick up momentum as the season wears on. Two years ago, that saved us. Bill Walton was vocally advocating for the Ducks to be included, but they were on the outside looking in before they one the PAC Tournament.

[30Duck]

37 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

would diminish the regular season that much further,

I already here too much of that now. I still advocate for getting rid of the conference tournaments altogether. But, if they must continue, then let it be a perk to the team that wins, but I don't think it should that team should be a Champion. 

 If it's a team that won the regular season, it could help in seeding. If it's a team that gets hot at the end, it could help to stick out for an at large pick. 

[Duckdude]

I love the conference championship tournament.  Why?  More basketball!  That being said, I have no problem with cancelling it for a bigger cause: saving lives, and stopping/slowing the spread of this horrible pandemic.