SAN DIEGO — During my frequent hikes into the wild, all too often I can't see the greenwood for the green. But it doesn't take 20-20 to realize we don't need more growth throwing shade on the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Bigger can be better. As with salaries. Aircraft carriers. Bike lanes.
But not the NCAA Tournament. Unless, of course, you happen to be in the participation trophy business.
Expansion. Expansion. Expansion. Don't I get enough of that from my tailor?
To borrow from an old "Popeye," my favorite: "Leave well enough alone."
Probably by summer, an NCAA committee could recommend the tournament be expanded from 68 teams to 90. As they say in the greenwood, this is extreme, unwarranted growth. Rake the forest.
The biggest problem with the tournament is not its size. Its unwarranted inclusion.
"I think it's great the way it is," says UConn coach Dan Hurley, whose Huskies defeated the Aztecs for the national title. "I think it (expansion) potentially hurts the regular season and what it means."
Thing is, in many cases, the regular season already is devalued. Among the 32 leagues are some that do not excite the selection committee. A school can go winless, win the conference tournament and automatically advance to the NCAAs — with the regular season champion going home.
Just as an example, Charleston, which finished 31-4 after losing to SDSU in the NCAA's first round, probably wouldn't have received an invitation if it didn't win the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament.
Charleston certainly belonged.
But the NCAA has been doing it bass-ackward for years. I've never been able to understand a team that was awful during its first 30 games getting a bid for winning three in its tournament.
There should be a reward for finishing first in your conference — an automatic bid, and not playing in conference tournaments, which simply are money-making vehicles (which makes it highly doubtful the NCAA brains will take my advice).
Why punish the winners?
"Many are more deserving than like a 10th-place team in a power conference that has figured out a way to game the numbers," Hurley adds.
The college football tournament wasn't big enough at four, and it's going to 12, which is the correct number — and it would be stupid to further enlarge it (although, of course, stupid in the 21st Century is the new smart).
This would be the easiest way, the fairest way. Conference tournament winners at 3-30 can bitch all they want. Play better.
"It's a privilege to play in this tournament, not a right."
I don't like how you expertly surgeoned the Aztecs, Dan Hurley, but thanks for agreeing with this column.
