Conference tournaments are now a spectacle unto themselves... Fun basketball all over the country.. Gives teams hope that may have been saddled with injuries early in the season and now become healthy. Many times, regional rivalries that the intensity is incredible.... Legends get made with great experiences like Blake Hoffarber's shot against Indiana.
For those not old enough to remember, the conference tournament of yesteryear to watch was the ACC tournament... It was like a war and the country took note... In the early to mid 70's, North Carolina State, North Carolina, and Maryland were incredible teams.. ONLY ONE made the NCAA's in those days as they only took 16 teams.. Another consequence is that the NIT took the remnant teams and arguably had as talented if not MORE talented fields for their tournament than the NCAAs... The ACC looked at it as sending the best team to try to knock off John Wooden's UCLA Bruins.. Eventually, the David Thompson led North Carolina State Wolfpack did just that.
Then, the ACC made the stink about it and proposed "at-large" teams to the tournament... They felt that they had 2-3 teams every year that were in the nation's top 5 so they thought on a given day, any of those teams could beat each other in a rematch. What many don't remember is the Gus Williams/Paul Westphal teams at USC were #2 in the nation behind crosstown rival UCLA and they made the same argument at the time.. "We at USC are the #2 team in the nation yet cant make the NCAA tournament because the NCAA will only take one team per conference and it happens to be that the only team ahead of us is IN OUR CONFERENCE".. After deliberation, the NCAA finally agreed to expanding the tournament and giving at-large conference bids.
The irony was that the BIG TEN, NOT THE ACC, were the first to take advantage of the at-large bids as Indiana capped off an undefeated season by beating conference foe, Michigan, in the national championship in 1976. The ACC has NEVER had 2 teams against each other in the national championship game. First time 2 teams from the same conference played in the national championship game.... Later on in the glory years of the Big East, Villanova shot close to 80% from the field and beat Georgetown led by Patrick Ewing in 1985... Georgetown beat Villanova every time they played them during the year as a conference opponent.. I swear if they played that game 100 times that Georgetown would have won the other 99. But that one magical night, Villanova claimed that title as their own in one of the NCAA's biggest upsets ever. A few years later, Billy Tubbs' Oklahoma squad led by Waymon Tisdale beat on Kansas during the year.. Kansas coach Larry Brown had Danny Manning, who was 6-11 but could handle the ball like a guard. Oklahoma had a suffocating press but Manning would handle the ball in the national championship game and just throw over the top of the smaller Oklahoma guards to get it over half court.. A big strategic difference than the regular season games that Oklahoma won... So at-large teams in the tournament had been proven to be a great thing for college basketball
For those not old enough to remember, the conference tournament of yesteryear to watch was the ACC tournament... It was like a war and the country took note... In the early to mid 70's, North Carolina State, North Carolina, and Maryland were incredible teams.. ONLY ONE made the NCAA's in those days as they only took 16 teams.. Another consequence is that the NIT took the remnant teams and arguably had as talented if not MORE talented fields for their tournament than the NCAAs... The ACC looked at it as sending the best team to try to knock off John Wooden's UCLA Bruins.. Eventually, the David Thompson led North Carolina State Wolfpack did just that.
Then, the ACC made the stink about it and proposed "at-large" teams to the tournament... They felt that they had 2-3 teams every year that were in the nation's top 5 so they thought on a given day, any of those teams could beat each other in a rematch. What many don't remember is the Gus Williams/Paul Westphal teams at USC were #2 in the nation behind crosstown rival UCLA and they made the same argument at the time.. "We at USC are the #2 team in the nation yet cant make the NCAA tournament because the NCAA will only take one team per conference and it happens to be that the only team ahead of us is IN OUR CONFERENCE".. After deliberation, the NCAA finally agreed to expanding the tournament and giving at-large conference bids.
The irony was that the BIG TEN, NOT THE ACC, were the first to take advantage of the at-large bids as Indiana capped off an undefeated season by beating conference foe, Michigan, in the national championship in 1976. The ACC has NEVER had 2 teams against each other in the national championship game. First time 2 teams from the same conference played in the national championship game.... Later on in the glory years of the Big East, Villanova shot close to 80% from the field and beat Georgetown led by Patrick Ewing in 1985... Georgetown beat Villanova every time they played them during the year as a conference opponent.. I swear if they played that game 100 times that Georgetown would have won the other 99. But that one magical night, Villanova claimed that title as their own in one of the NCAA's biggest upsets ever. A few years later, Billy Tubbs' Oklahoma squad led by Waymon Tisdale beat on Kansas during the year.. Kansas coach Larry Brown had Danny Manning, who was 6-11 but could handle the ball like a guard. Oklahoma had a suffocating press but Manning would handle the ball in the national championship game and just throw over the top of the smaller Oklahoma guards to get it over half court.. A big strategic difference than the regular season games that Oklahoma won... So at-large teams in the tournament had been proven to be a great thing for college basketball
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