Final Four College Hoops Mailbag: Bazley's Decision, Open Coaching Jobs, Quarters vs Halves
We’re staying with tradition here, but granted a few days late. I wanted to do a mailbag after every round, especially with how crazy this tournament has been. The plan was to just do a recap of the previous round and answer any questions for those who may have missed a game or two. With the Final Four this weekend, I opened it up to general questions. Let’s get right into it.
I’m probably in the minority here, but I think it would be more bad. Listen, it’s a great story and Loyola is a good team, but Michigan is a top-15 team in the country. With how fluky the NCAA Tournament can be, I’d rather have two top-15 teams in the country in the title game. It just feels more right. If Loyola was playing Florida State, I’d say the opposite. I’m one though that wants upsets the first round and then give me chalk once the tournament moves on.
Good for him. We were always waiting for someone to do something like this In terms of how it will affect college basketball? It depends on how this goes. We’ve seen guys go overseas and it work out yet that’s not a popular option. I would guess until the G-League makes some changes in terms of salary, affiliation with NBA teams, etc, it will end up being the same.
Enter? They are already there. Screaming about how many titles people have won isn’t exactly fair with how the NCAA Tournament is set up. The NCAA Tournament is a good way to determine a champion, terrible way to determine who the best team is. These guys have coaches two of the best programs in America. They are currently two of the five best coaches in America. I don’t care if they have one title, they are great college coaches. I mean, shit, Bill Self is a Hall of Famer already and I’d bet Wright gets there.
To me there are two names for each job.
URI – David Cox or John Becker. Cox is known for being a strong recruiter, already within the program and knows the players. Becker on the other hand is one of the best mid major and just coaches in the country. He’s familiar with the area and actually does a good job recruiting to Vermont.
Xavier – Travis Steele or Pat Kelsey. Steele is in the same position as Cox. He’s been at Xavier for nearly a decade and Xavier is known for hiring within. Former players have come out and said they want to see Steele get the job. Other names that you could see pop up here if it’s not one of these two for whatever reason: Ashley Howard and Eric Musselman.
If you’ve read my work or follow me on Twitter, you know I’m in on quarters. Why halves? It’s the only version of the sport that plays halves and it makes no sense. You go to quarters, fouls reset and there’s more flow to the game. You also can possibly (I say this with huge hesitation) lose a TV timeout, which is better for anyone that’s not advertising.