Here's One Way to Get the Huskies into March Madness
Final Four?
How about a Final 357?
Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and the rest of the ACC basketball coaches this week floated the idea of an all-inclusive NCAA tournament, which was met from immediate resistance from the game's governing body.
For pandemic reasons, the Blue Devils coach and his peers are not keen on scheduling non-conference games in the months ahead.
Instead, they suggested that by letting every one of the Division 1 teams across the country have at least one postseason game it might be the fairest way for everyone to continue and crown a national champion.
In a statement released by the coach, Krzyzewski said, "There is no better way [to celebrate the game] than involving every team in the most prestigious basketball tournament on the planet."
This would all be very good news for the University of Washington, which has had great difficulty advancing to the NCAA tournament over the past decade -- appearing in March Madness just once over the past nine years.
The Huskies' lone berth came in 2018 with coach Mike Hopkins' second UW basketball team, which went 27-9 and was built around NBA-bound Jaylen Nowell and Matisse Thybulle.
Krzyzewski cited health concerns for his players during the ongoing pandemic and his desire to unify college basketball, which went without the NCAA tournament last spring for the first time since it was established in 1939.
"This is not a regular season," Krzyzewski told ESPN. "It's clearly an irregular season that will require something different."
Presumably, teams would host single games at home sites in an all-inclusive tournament, before playing down to a 64-team format at sites. Or, depending on the virus next spring, play all games singularly rather than in mass gatherings of players.
Next week, the NCAA Division 1 council is expected to announce a decision on college basketball start dates.
However, the college organization, while acknowledging that there are multiple ways to hold a postseason, has maintained all along it wants to have its usual tournament format again or even fewer entries, butnot all teams.
The NCAA has suggested if some teams are unable to continue because of a positive COVID-19 test it would consider having replacement teams.
The cost of expanding the tournament five times is likely the biggest obstacle to the ACC proposal.
ESPN has suggested that the all-in proposal could come down to a power struggle, pitting Krzyzewski, college basketball's most powerful coach, against Dave Gavitt, the NCAA's most influential basketball leader.
Ask Hopkins and the UW players which option they would prefer, especially with a team rebuild in place, and an all-in NCAA tournament would probably pass unanimously with them.
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