Women's Basketball Final Four Might Get Minor Face Lift
7/18/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
July 18, 2001
By CHUCK SCHOFFNER
AP Sports Writer
The sprint to the women's Final Four soon might become a little less exhausting. If changes being talked about are approved, the teams that make it would even have a chance to savor the experience.
A new 11-year contract with ESPN will give the NCAA women's basketball tournament more exposure than ever, because for the first time all 63 games will be available on ESPN, ESPN2 or pay-per-view.
Just as important are the scheduling changes that could result from the contract, which begins with the 2003 tournament.
If approved by the Division I Championships/Competition Committee, the Final Four would be played on Sunday and Tuesday. A look at the current Friday-Sunday format shows why a change is needed.
All four regional championship games are played Monday night, with the West Regional final starting after midnight Eastern time. The teams usually return home immediately after those games, often arriving in the wee hours Tuesday morning.
Tuesday then becomes a wild day. Players repack for the Final Four and try to make it to a couple of classes - if they're not too exhausted. Coaches scramble to gather information on their opponent in the national semifinals and try to squeeze in a practice. The sports information office hurriedly updates the postseason media guide. The NCAA staff must do the same with its guides and information.
All that must be done on Tuesday because the teams travel to the Final Four site on Wednesday. Thursday, they have open practices and news conferences, awards ceremonies and maybe a closed practice if the coach can find a gym. Friday, the four teams play.
Whew.
"We had two practices, really, before we played," said Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw, whose team won this year's national championship in St. Louis. "I don't think that's a lot of time to get ready."
Notre Dame played its regional in Denver and flew back to South Bend immediately after the game, arriving at 4 a.m. Tuesday. Last year, Rutgers won the West Regional in Portland and spent all day Tuesday returning on a commercial flight. The next morning, they had to bus to Philadelphia for the Final Four, where the weary Scarlet Knights lost to Tennessee in the semifinals.
Duke had a ride home of less than an hour after winning the East Regional at Greensboro, N.C., in 1999, yet still felt pressed for time. The team got home Monday night and flew to San Jose for the Final Four on Wednesday morning.
"The thing I remember is I really didn't feel I had any time at all," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "Once you get to the Final Four, there's so much demanded of you, things that have nothing to do with what you want to do as a coach."
Now, look what would happen with a Sunday-Tuesday format, which could come as early as 2003.
The plan also would change the regional finals, putting two on Monday and two on Tuesday. Two of the Final Four teams then would have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at home. The two others would be home Wednesday and Thursday before leaving for the Final Four site on Friday.
"I think it's a natural," said Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, whose teams have made five Final Four trips. "They way they do it now, it's like you get there and hurry up and play. It's really unfair.
"What they're talking about is a little more realistic. The other one crams too much into too little time."
With two or three days at home between the regionals and Final Four, the players not only could recuperate but - get this - become students and go to class. They also would have a chance to enjoy what they just accomplished. Hey, we're going to the Final Four. How about that?
More time for the teams to prepare also could lead to something else: better games.
"Our schedule now is not conducive to playing the best basketball," Auriemma said. "Even though you could, the odds are somewhat against it."
A Sunday-Tuesday format would allow more time for newspaper and television features leading up to the Final Four. And a Tuesday night championship game, with the men's final out of the way, would put the women's game in a spotlight by itself. Now, stories on the women's championship game compete for space in Monday newspapers with previews of the men's title game.
"I always used to wonder what was the point of having two weeks before the Super Bowl," Auriemma said. "But you have all that time for stories to develop. They really do add a certain level of interest to the game. Hopefully, that's what this will do for our game."
Splitting the regional finals between Monday and Tuesday would remove another irritant among women's basketball followers. The proposal also would divide the eight regional semifinals between two days. Now they're all played on the same day.
The current format results in West Regional games that are played while most of the nation is asleep and end too late to make the next day's paper.
The Championships/Competition Committee is to vote on the changes in September. It should do what is right for the game and approve them.
