Some Pac-10 coaches support postseason tourney
proponents say the television
exposure would be good
publicity for the conference
beading into the NCAAs
By Jason Sykes
The Washington Daily
SEATTLE — Women’s basketball coach
Harold Rhodes isn’t bitter as he talks about
what could have been, just wistful.
His Cougars’ season is officially over now,
having come to a close half an hour earlier
when the final buzzer sounded in Washing
ton’s 81-63 victory. In reality, though, Wash
ington State’s season ended weeks, even
months, ago after a five-game losing streak
left the Cougars with a 9-12 overall record, a
3-9 Pac-10 Conference mark and no hope of
receiving any postseason invitations on Se
lection Sunday.
However, the players refused to pack it in
and entered last Saturday’s season finale
having won three of five and playing tour
nament-bound UCLA to a standstill.
“Everything has come together for us in
the past two or three weeks,” Rhodes said. “I
think if we had a Pac-10 tournament we
could cause a lot of problems for some peo
ple.”
But that of course is only wishful think
ing, at least for now.
The Pac-10 is one of only two conferences
— the Ivy League is the other — that does
not use a postseason tournament to decide
which team is anointed champion and
granted the league’s automatic berth in the
NCAA Tournament.
r
Rhodes is not alone in wanting to see the
Pac-10 adopt a postseason format.
Both of the University of Washington’s
head coaches support it.
“I’ve always been a
proponent of it,” said Bob
Bender, Washington’s
men’s basketball head
coach. "I think the advan
tages outweigh the disad
vantages.”
Women’s head coach
June Daugherty agreed.
“I think if we had it,
we’d have a lot more [television] exposure at
this time of year,” Daugherty said. “So it
would be good for the Pac-10 publicity wise,
and I think it would be good to help get
teams tournament-ready going into the
NCAAs.”
Jim Muldoon, the Pac-lO’s assistant com
missioner, said seven of the 10 members en
dorsed a postseason format at last summer’s
meetings.
The problem is, eight years are required
to make the change.
“Maybe the reason why [coaches don’t
want to change] is that the [NCAA Tourna
ment] results, especially last year’s, let you
say ‘Hey, the postseason tournament does
n’t mean anything,”’ Bender said.
That’s something Lute Olson has long
maintained. The coach of the defending na
tional champion Arizona Wildcats touched
on the subject in the Pac-lO’s weekly tele
conference last week.
“I don’t think the postseason tournament
has anything to do with [NCAA success]
and never will,” Olson said. “To me it’s the
most overrated thing in all of college basket
ball.
“People talk about how if you had a post
season tournament maybe another team
could get in. [But] how many teams that are
on the bubble would be knocked off?
“It’s a media thing more than anything
else.”
Dennis LaBissoniere has heard that line
of argument before. As the Big Ten’s assis
tant communications director, he was in
volved in the conference’s decision to adopt
a postseason tournament starting this year.
He said the biggest obstacle the confer
ence ran into in making the switch was an
adamantly opposed and extremely vocal
minority.
“Some people in the conference felt that a
tournament was not a positive step for Big
Ten basketball and that it was not needed,”
he said.
LaBissoniere said the increased late-sea
son exposure tournaments bring was a key
selling point in winning the needed votes.
“I think they were persuaded that a tour
nament was a good way to focus attention
on Big Ten basketball,” LaBissoniere said.
“We noticed as other conferences were hav
ing tournaments, a lot of attention was fo
cused on them while we ran out our sched
ule and lost coverage.”
Rhodes made a similar pitch for a Pac-10
tournament.
“From a national standpoint it gives resig
nation to the conference, and 1 just think
we’re missing the boat on it,” he said.
“The selection committee is watching
1 V
ESPN and they're watching a lot of the [tour
nament) games that are going on, and every
body's talking about how this conference
deserves six teams and that conference de
serves six teams but no one’s talking about
the Pac-10.
“I think that hurts us this time of the
year.”
The 15-year Pac-10 veteran felt the Big
Ten’s switch would help his conference
make a similar transition.
“I think some people are looking to see,
‘O.K., the Big Ten tried it this year, how did
it go?”’he said. “Well, it’s going well.”
LaBissoniere agreed.
"What happened this weekend was a very
positive step toward keeping the tourna
ment,” he said, adding that the Big Ten com
missioner called the tournament an “un
qualified success.”
The Big Ten, however, never had a tour
nament before this year; the Pac-10 experi
mented with one between 1987-90.
During those years, an average of three
Pac-10 men’s teams went to the Big Dance
each year. In comparison, at least four men’s
programs have been selected every March
since 1994. Five went last season, and four
made it to the Sweet Sixteen with Olson’s
Wildcats bringing home the Pac-lO’s second
national championship in three years.
“We’ve been through the Pac-10 tourna
ment, and in my opinion, it hurt our league
considerably in terms of how the teams
went into the NCAA Tournament," Olson
said. “The coaches in our league are well
aware of how tough our conference is.”
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