Thursday, March 19, 2009

Just posted, my latest Broo View Podcast. This episode features an interview with Jerry Jones, not the Cowboys owner, the author and publisher of the NFL Draft Guide, "The Drugstore List". The topic: possible Bengals strategies in the upcoming draft.

16 NCAA Tournament games in the books. So a few observations. The only upset was Western Kentucky over Illinois. Butler put a scare in LSU and American simply ran out of gas or it would've sent Villanova packing. Other than that, only Memphis really had to sweat.

I hate 1 vs 16 games. Just hate them. They're always routs and neither team, nor the tournament really gets any thing out of them. I have a solution. What if the NCAA took the last 4 teams booted from the field of 64 and on the Tuesday before the Tournament begins, have the #16 seeds play the final four teams that were left out of the tourney? Two things would happen, I believe. One: a #16 seed might actually win a game in the tourney. Two: if one of the last four win these play-in games, it would make for a more compelling opening round game.

For example, Notre Dame didn't make the field. But, if the Irish were one of the last four 'out', they would get to play Morehead State with the winner going onto face a #1 seed in the first round of the Tournament. Would you rather see Morehead vs Louisville in the opening round? Or Louisville vs Notre Dame?

Here's another thought: give the automatic conference bid to the regular season champ. Use the conference tournament games to let the rest of those conferences build their tournament resume. Chance are, in the bigger conferences, the same teams would qualify. But in one or two bid conferences, the chances of the best teams getting left out of the NCAA Tournament are greater than, say, the ACC or Big East.

Sports Rock this Sunday night on WLWT in Cincinnati will feature an in studio interview with UC's versatile Connor Barwin, who ran a 4.47 40 yard dash in the pro workout day Thursday. Barwin, in some mock drafts, is a low first, high second round pick.