Latest tourney pushes March even further into madness

As March approaches, there's a new way for college basketball teams to reach the postseason: By playing badly.

Badly enough, anyway, to fall as low as No. 129 in the computer rankings.

Now that 129 Division I men's teams are eligible for tournament play, March Madness has entered a new stage of lunacy.

The cutoff for teams going into the postseason has expanded, thanks to the introduction this year of a 16-team tournament created by CollegeInsider.com, a basketball Web site.

The newcomer will be competing against the College Basketball Invitational, a 16-team tournament created last year and which included Old Dominion and Virginia.

This is how 2009's postseason party scene shakes out:

The NCAA tournament accepts 65 teams, while another 32 take part in the NIT. When that is done, 32 more teams are plucked from the bin of mediocrity to fill the CBI and CollegeInsider.com tournament slots.

Which means that Saint Louis, No. 129 in the RPI, has something to play for this week.

Ridiculous, right? It can't be a good thing when teams of dubious ability are encouraged to continue to play bad basketball deep into March. That's what the Oklahoma City Thunder is for.

While the skeptic might wryly observe that nothing succeeds like excess, he'd have to acknowledge that the CBI and CollegeInsider clambake have nothing to do with success. They are the college hoops equivalent of handing out participation trophies.

You can go to CollegeInsider.com to read glowing recommendations for the event, though tournament specifics are vague.

To no one's surprise, coaches believe that more postseason play is good.

"There is certainly not enough of it in college basketball," reads a quote from Notre Dame's Mike Brey.

And George Mason's Jim Larranaga says, "There is no greater reward than participating in postseason."

Apparently, any tournament will do; any bracket, no matter how weak, can be used to support a wobbly season.

What you have are college coaches who are jealous of Division I-A football, where out of 119 teams, 68 - almost 60 percent - played in bowls last season.

If the same percentages applied to big-time college basketball, 196 teams would go dancing in March. Anybody up for that?

The phrase "more is less" leaps to mind. More teams of lesser quality; that's what the expansion of basketball's postseason promises.

Speaking of overkill, what's the deal with this weekend's BracketBusters promotion?

Of the 51 games being played, all but two Saturday, are any worth the trouble? Perhaps a few, though you have to wonder about George Mason flying to Nebraska to play Creighton and VCU prospecting in Nevada.

Meanwhile, William and Mary is home against Manhattan. Now there's a game with clear national implications.

The original concept of BracketBusters, as hyped by ESPN, was to provide non-conference match-ups late in the season for mid-majors needing another victory to beef up their at-large NCAA hopes. And also to bring TV exposure to obscure venues.

As usual, though, things have gotten out of hand. The original concept, if it made sense to begin with, has been lost amid a glut of meaningless games.

This year, a shortage of exceptional mid-majors is only expected to help mediocre teams from big conferences secure those coveted at-large berths.

As for the alleged exposure, how does Old Dominion's profile get juiced with a game against Liberty, a Virginia school from a lesser conference, At least ODU gets to stay home, but if the Monarchs actually wanted this non-conference game, they could have scheduled Liberty for December.

In any case, come March, things get sorted out and tournament bids go to the best teams.

And now, alas, more of the bad teams, too.

Such are the times.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com