04/19/24
March 13, 2006
Littlepage goes overtime to defend panel's work: Maybe the committee should invite some of the media in to see exactly why they do what they do.
posted by dbt302 to basketball at 08:02 PM - 11 comments
Billy Packer is the consummate ass, but I do find myself sympathetic to his comments...how could Tennessee vault so high?
posted by pibrown2003 at 10:18 PM on March 13, 2006
Why don't you invite the media, you ask? What, and invite Michigan, Notre Dame, USC and UCLA to play Duke, North Carolina and the entire fucking Big East? I can't argue that they didn't fuck it up, just as they fucked up the ones prior and will fuck up all the ones to come, but fucked up, it is better than if the media got involved. Littlepage is right.
posted by Bud Lang at 10:45 PM on March 13, 2006
littlepage is right about what? that the media should be tossing him softball questions about the process? forget about the talking heads here or why cbs should 'work better together ' with the committee. if 'better information and accurate information [should be] out there', then littlepage should start telling everyone what that is instead of worrying about what billy packer has to say.
posted by oliver_crunk at 11:13 PM on March 13, 2006
if you add more spots to the tournament then there'll be more and more bitchin...Its the selection comittee's job to pick AND/OR arrange where 65 schools play in the NCAA tournament, and its the media's job to bitch about this stuff when it comes out... Enough already...they don't call this March Madness for nothing...
posted by chemwizBsquared at 11:30 PM on March 13, 2006
oh while I'm at it...nobody's gonna mention George Washington and their HUGE oversight...sure they lost the A-10 tourney...but so what. They were #6 in the country and went from a surefire 3 or 4 (5 at worst) to a #8 seed (with a potential date with Duke in the second round...hell, they may not even make it past the first day...they got screwed and a half).
posted by chemwizBsquared at 11:33 PM on March 13, 2006
Littlepage? That ain't all that's little. Whatta wimp. Packer and Nantz (who, like all the CBS crew, were given the brackets before the official announcements from Greg Gumbel) were spouting off on the odd seedings (George Washington loses its second game of the season in the Atlantic 10 Tournament and drops to an eighth seed?) and omission of schools like Missouri State, Creighton, and Cincinnati. What did he think was going to happen when he was interviewed live? He sounded like White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan trying to make the case for Harriet Miers! I figured that Littlepage would not be able to keep silent about his grilling on the show. I expected him to whine about the tough questions. However, I am relieved that he didn't intimate that the motivation for Packer and Nantz's combativeness had to do with race.
posted by L.N. Smithee at 03:25 AM on March 14, 2006
Its funny cause this always happens just like BCS always is fugged up. I mean come on there needs to be changes across the board in College sports. Why not start the season a week earlier and have qualifiers for teams that did not recieve an automatic bid from winning their confrence??? Same arguement for a playoff of the top 4 teams in the BCS. But things that make sense rarely ever happen in college sports, cause one hand washes the other and THIS IS BIG BUSINESS! So just by getting selected in to one of the 65 slots the college gets money. So where ever money is involved so is corruption. I dunno but Cincy and Hofsta have to be in the tourny.
posted by Robb Dubbs at 12:20 PM on March 14, 2006
"Littlepage is right about what" you ask, oliver_crunk? Right to "defend panel's work." Am I to take that shot as meaning that you are in favor of radio and TV media and in disfavor of the print media? Surely there is someone reading this stuff to you, so have them read the newspaper to you also. You might like some of those sportswrtiters.
posted by Bud Lang at 05:27 PM on March 14, 2006
I dont see what anyone is bitching about? When was the last time a team came out of nowhere and won the title. When I say nowhere I mean last 20 seeds. Those guys dont have a legit chance to win the title anyway. You guys are crying about teams that just want a chance to get blown out by someone better than them on natl tv. You cant compare this to the BCS because the problem there is that a lot of contenders arent even in the picture. In the NCAA everyone in the top25 has at least a shot to win the title. In the BCS games of the past only the top 2 get a shot, see the difference?
posted by Drallig9399 at 08:20 AM on March 15, 2006
You are assuming that because a team was left out that they would be low-seeded if they got in. Not necessarily so. Cincinnati would likely have been seeded higher than some of the automatic bid teams. It is also an accomplishment to get to the tournament. If they are going to be touting it as the best 65 teams in the country, then they need to work harder to make sure that it is so.
posted by bperk at 08:44 AM on March 15, 2006
end of day. no matter how you slice it, there are always going to be those 4 or 5 teams where a solid case could be made. although this elicited a little laugh: Littlepage, the athletic director at the University of Virginia, praised the 10-member committee for its dedication, thorough evaluations and ability to work under a challenging deadline. i mean c'mon. how hard is it fuck up picking the best of the rest and you get 30+ tries at it? is the ad @ george mason making a 'thorough evalutaion' when his team gets slammed twice in 10 days by hofstra and still putting his squad in the tourney? either open up the system for all to see or let the computer pick them. this way these knuckleheads don't get the oppurtunity to act like they're 'dedicated' to getting it right.