Why wait for Omaha World-Herald columnist Tom Shatel to write about the mock NCAA Tournament bracket produced earlier this week by U.S. Basketball Writers Association members when you can already read what other participating scribes wrote? (Shatel's story will appear in Sunday's editions of the newspaper):
Andy Katz, ESPN.com - We were the first guinea pigs: 20 sportswriters tossed into a meeting room in the NCAA headquarters Wednesday, going through a simulated NCAA Tournament mock bracket. We had the same computer system, access to all of the NCAA's information on each team, and the same kinds of chicken, pasta and ice cream the 10-member selection committee will digest over four days at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis next month. Continue reading...
Mike DeCourcy, The Sporting News - There are no televisions in the room. This is the first big surprise that strikes me upon arriving in Indianapolis to help 19 other members of the media select and seed the teams that will be part of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. There are games being played that will affect the outcome of our deliberations, but we will be watching only during breaks. There is no time for Lost and only a little for Duke vs. North Carolina. There is so much work to be done. Continue reading...
Dana Pennett O'Neil, Philadelphia Daily News - After 11 hours and 45 minutes, a bouncing baby basketball bracket was born early Thursday morning. My two real kids took a combined seven hours to come into this world. Continue reading...
Pat Forde, ESPN.com - If this had been real, CBS would have drowned in dead air. Jim Nantz and Billy Packer would have been locked in a marathon verbal tap dance while a producer frantically begged them to stretch it out, do magic tricks, show pictures of their kids - anything. Eventually, they would have skipped the whole thing, killed off March Madness and gone straight to "60 Minutes." Continue reading...
Rick Bozich, Louisville Courier-Journal - At 12:07 yesterday morning, when you were still debating if the University of Kentucky men's basketball team could hang another 95 points on Florida tomorrow or if the University of Louisville could hang 95 points on anybody, this is what I was doing: Finishing my 11th hour sitting inside a first-floor conference room at NCAA headquarters in downtown Indianapolis, surrounded by enough computers to fly a 747 and enough statistics to choke an accountant. I was debating the fairness of shipping UK to the San Jose Regional of the 2007 NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed. Continue reading...
Tony Barnhart, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - To sit on the NCAA tournament selection committee is to have your integrity and intelligence questioned at the highest possible decibel level. When the 65-team tournament field is announced here on March 11, you can bet Billy Packer, Dick Vitale and every talking head who can make it to an office water cooler Monday will wonder what in the heck those 10 folks had been thinking and doing for the past four days. Continue reading...
Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch - There are 20 dazed, grumbling and exhausted sportswriters in this boardroom at NCAA headquarters. On the tables are hulled peanut shells, empty coffee cups, piles of computer printouts, opened loose-leaf binders, newspapers, soda cans and a vat of melted ice cream. There are dozens of blinking computer screens and dozens of glazed, unblinking bloodshot eyes. Continue reading...
Mark Blaudschun, The Boston Globe - Selection Sunday. For hundreds of players and coaches, and millions of college basketball fans, it is one of the most magical, and sometimes controversial, days on the athletic calendar. It is the day -- March 11 this year -- when the 65 teams in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament are announced. But what about selecting the field, a process that has often been cloaked in terms such as Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), "quality losses," and, of course, "on the bubble"? Continue reading...
Marlen Garcia, USA Today - Intent on setting the record straight for its selection process for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the NCAA invited 20 members of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association to select, seed and bracket a 65-team mock field Wednesday, following the principles used by its 10-member selection committee. Continue reading...
Vahe Gregorian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch - In an enterprise to de-mystify and dispel what it considers myths or conspiracy theories about the making of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the NCAA on Wednesday shepherded 20 members of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association through a mock selection, seeding and bracketing exercise. Continue reading...
4 comments:
Does the World Herald understand that it prints a newspaper? Why can't we read about this a day or two later like everybody else?
And the fishwrap folks wonder why their subscription numbers keep going down and down and down.
Having Tom Shatel run a BASKETBALL simulation on a national scale is like having Rosie O'Donnell speak to an anorexia conference.
At what point do you think the other members got tired of answering questions about if the Huskers are "back" or if Dana Altman is the greatest coach in the country? I'm guessing about 30 seconds.
Actually, AJ, it lasted a full minute. Then we started talking about the UNO Red Army.
It's not unusual for a newspaper to hold this story a few days. There was no "scoop.'' Papers in Denver, Kansas City and the LA Times all held it. It's just a matter of preference. We needed a Sunday centerpiece. Voila.
Sean, thanks for the web site. It's the second thing I read every day.
I really enjoyed Shatel's article on Sunday and thought it went into much more detail than the others. ESPN of course had to come out before everybody else but the storie's seemed rushed.
Also, I'm glad to find out after all these years that the RPI doesn't mean squat. That's what I've been trying to tell Creighton fans for years, it's as worthless as the BCS. Thankfully the basketball championship is decided on the court and not by computers.
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