They force you to set your icy treat aside for a few minutes and postpone the euphoric taste that ice cream often brings.,”Brain freezes are the worst. First of all, they hurt. Sometimes really bad. But they also keep you from enjoying whatever flavored goodness you were slurping off a cone or out of a cup.
They force you to set your icy treat aside for a few minutes and postpone the euphoric taste that ice cream often brings.
Sadly, it is looking like paying attention to the college basketball postseason come springtime is going to bring about a brain freeze of cosmic proportions.
The Gazelle Group announced Wednesday it will put on the College Basketball Invitational this March as an alternative to the NCAA tournament and the National Invitation Tournament. This 16-team event will compete with the NIT for the squads that are not selected to the 65-team NCAA field.
Initial responses to this news probably sound similar to the one given whenever someone asks if you want ice cream. Well, of course I want some ice cream. Lactose intolerant people aside, who doesn't?
But just as your eyes often are bigger than your stomach, college basketball fans' appetites for postseason play might not measure up to the plate of events being offered.
Clearly, the NCAA tournament is where all college basketball teams desire to end up at the conclusion of their season. They call it the "Big Dance" for a reason. Its winner is considered the national champion because of the event's legitimacy.
Long considered the NCAA tournament's ugly step-sibling, the NIT picks up the scraps from the pile of teams left out of the Field of 65. The NIT's title match is played at Madison Square Garden, but its winner is by no means considered the best of the best. How could it be? It knocked off other also-rans en route to its crown.
And this is why I have a problem with creating yet another tournament. Yeah, I suppose giving as many teams the chance to participate in postseason play is not a terrible idea.
With these three events, though, the total will come to 113 Division I teams playing postseason basketball. That's a lot of teams. The sense of accomplishment will have to diminish knowing your team had to be little more than conscious to earn an invite.
Heck, the folks who will run the CBI told the Associated Press they even will consider granting berths to sub-.500 teams. Rewarding mediocrity has never been more of a joke.
I understand that the NIT slimmed down its number of participating teams from 40 to 32 last season, and I understand that there are always teams left out of the NCAA tournament and the NIT that feel they got hosed.
At some point, though, the law of diminishing returns must set in. How much excitement can a college basketball fan consume? For that matter, how much excitement will second-tier teams in a tournament competing for second place create?
The Gazelle Group runs two preseason tournaments—the College Hoop Classic that benefits Coaches vs. Cancer and the CBE Classic—and according to Marquette head coach Tom Crean, it puts on an excellent show.
Last year, the Golden Eagles took part in the CBE Classic, and Crean always took time out of his postgame press conferences to point out what a spectacular job the Gazelle Group does with its events.
Crean may be right on in his praise, but the good people at the Gazelle Group would do well to stick to early-season events, where neither the stakes nor the standards of play are nearly as high as they are in March.
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