Nothing Neutral About It

PHILADELPHIA -- The chances are good that if Villanova and UCLA had played at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday afternoon the Wildcats would have won the game. They were quicker, tougher, smarter, deeper -- better in every phase of basketball. UCLA Coach Ben Howland called three timeouts in the first 12 minutes to no avail. The margin got as high as 86-61 before Jay Wright began to get deep into his bench en route to an 89-69 whipping.

Having said that, how different would the game have been if it had been played on a true neutral court, rather than in front of a roaring pro-Villanova crowd at Wachovia Center? "It's definitely an advantage," Wright said. "I would much rather play UCLA here than out there where they play the Wooden Classic [in Anaheim, Calif.]. We were very happy to spend the weekend right here in Philly."

No doubt they were. That leads to the larger point: The NCAA tournament committee needs to lose the pod system that it created after Maryland, Georgetown, George Mason and Hampton all got shipped to Boise, Idaho, for the first rounds of the 2001 tournament. That was a mistake, but the solution shouldn't turn what should be a neutral-court tournament into an event in which a handful of teams get to play on what are essentially home courts while others don't.

"I don't think it's broken," George Mason Athletic Director Tom O'Connor, a member of the committee for five years, said Saturday afternoon after the Villanova beat-down of UCLA. "Are there inconsistencies? I guess so. But if you look at it from a competitive standpoint and a financial standpoint, I think it works."

That's certainly the politically correct position to take. But the notion that it makes a difference financially by limiting the distances schools have to travel is flawed at best. There will always be some cross-country travel, mostly because there are so many more teams in the East than the West. Utah and Arizona played in Miami on Friday. UCLA, Brigham Young and Texas A&M all came to Philadelphia. Purdue, Northern Iowa and Mississippi State were in Portland, Ore. Marquette, Missouri and Cornell (Cornell!) were in Boise. That's only half the bracket.

The other issue is competition. The committee makes the case that it wants to "protect" the top four seeds in each region, reward them for earning those high seeds with their play in the regular season. That would be defensible if all 16 teams were treated the same or if, at the very least, like seeds were treated alike.

But they're not.

Villanova, a No. 3 seed, played less than 14 miles from its campus in a building it played in as the home team three times during the regular season. Syracuse, also a No. 3 seed, played in Miami -- in a building that is 1,417 miles from the Carrier Dome. Missouri, another No. 3 seed, got to go to Boise. Oklahoma, a No. 2, got sent to Kansas City -- not that long a trip but a place surrounded by Kansas fans not exactly enamored of the Sooners. Gonzaga, a No. 4 seed, made a relatively short trip to Portland as did Washington, another No. 4. Xavier was also a No. 4 seed. It had to go almost cross-country to Boise.

Why in the world couldn't the Musketeers have been sent to Dayton instead of eighth-seeded Ohio State?

Former Georgetown coach John Thompson, who did just fine taking Georgetown teams out west as a No. 1 seed years ago, waved off all the talk about fairness to the participating schools.

"Look up in the stands," he said. "You see any empty seats? That's what this is all about."

To some degree, he's right. Even with Villanova and U-Conn. here, there were empty seats Thursday. But it really comes down to this: Once again the committee goes out of its way to take care of the big guys, often at the expense of the little one (the Xavier-Ohio State example being especially interesting given their seeds and the leagues they play in).