Wisconsin Badgers guard John Blackwell has wild idea to improve NCAA Tournament

Bigger isn't always better, but University of Wisconsin junior John Blackwell is a proponent of more high-level competition, especially when it comes to the NCAA Tournament.

While Blackwell, senior Nick Boyd, and sophomore Austin Rapp said they are perfectly fine keeping the NCAA Tournament at its current 68-team capacity, Blackwell said that changing the final four rounds of the tournament from single elimination to a series would be the only radical change.

"The thing I would look at is the series, especially going into like the Sweet 16, three-game series, something like that," Blackwell said during Wednesday's media session, as fifth-seeded Wisconsin (24-10) prepares for its NCAA Tournament opener against 12th-seeded High Point (30-3), getting agreements from Boyd and Rapp. "Honestly, I love the way it's structured now. I don't think any changes should be made ... Make it more competitive. Get a better scout on a team."

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Wisconsin would likely be for it. Dating back to 2008, the Badgers have lost five of their last seven regional semifinals, a one-possession game in the national semifinals, and a national final when they were one-point favorites. UW hasn't made the Sweet 16 since 2017.

Whether to keep the field at its current 68-team format or expand the tournament has been a hot debate in a season where 14- and 15-loss power conference teams were still alive on the bubble leading into Sunday’s bracket announcements.

NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters in February that there are "some very good reasons to expand the tournament," but didn't elaborate on why he felt it was necessary.

Head coach Greg Gard is a proponent of expanding the field, saying that Wisconsin student-athletes receive invaluable opportunities and experiences from the tournament, but couldn't center on a specific number of teams.

"I also know we're in a business where making money and the bottom line is important, right?" Gard said. "The balance of those two things is something I would like to see vetted. I don't know, is it the 78, is it the 94? The numbers, you can mix them any way you want. I'm not a believer that it's going to dilute things, as I've seen some arguments."

He hadn't heard Blackwell's argument, however, which Gard seemed to appreciate, seeing as he's been a part of really good teams that had their seasons end due to a bad stretch of basketball.

"Major League Baseball plays a series," Gard said. "The NBA plays a series. The NFL doesn't, but they've expanded their Playoffs. That's the other thing going back to expansion, every other sport has expanded. Major League Baseball added the Wild Card. NFL has added more. The NBA has expanded some of the Playoff components.

"The theory behind the series in terms of if you have one bad game, one bad 10 minutes, because the parity is pretty equal when you look across this field, or any field per se. So there's only really good teams left.

"The series part of it, John has obviously put some thought to that. That might have some merit."