Opinions on Conference Tournaments

[TallTitan34]

I was just wondering what the opinion is on conference tournaments.  Personally I don't like them.  The only thing they are good for are teams on the bubble or already out of the big tournament who hope to put together a Cinderalla run.  They also seem to drain teams energy.  I'm sure most people are fine with our first round exit in 2003.

What do you think?

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

Worthless, pointless, money grab.

next question?

[WashDCWarrior]

It depends how your team is doing I guess.  I could see a team like UConn, pull together a great run and win the tournement.  I think a lot of us would take a sweet 16 berth over a conference tournament championship. 

[mu_hilltopper]

Some of the power conferences (BE especially) have tourneys that have some of the best basketball played all year.  The 4 rounds of the BET certainly rival the S16/E8 games in the NCAAs, if not moreso.

If I were on the comittee, I'd weigh heavily those tourneys.  What better indicator of tourny success/worthiness than .. a very recent tourney against teams wishing to make a statement?

[spiral97]

I like the conference tourney concept for a couple of reasons..
1.) teams across the conference are playing dramatically different than they did starting the conference season out - nice to see how the teams match up after 2 months of experience, maturing, correction, improvement, etc.
2.) probably about the best preparation you'll be able get for going into the post season tourneys.
3.) more basketball crammed into the last month that'll hopefully help me get through the 7 month off-season.

[mugrad99]

In lieu of conference tourneys, have the top 32 teams set for the NCAA tourney.....then have the rest of the teams play in 32 different pods throughout the country ( roughly 8 or 9 team tourneys), and the winners of those are in the dance with the original 32 teams.  Have them set up so teams from each conference are not in the same pod.

Would never happen, but it would be kind of cool.

[Eye]

I'm sure most people are fine with our first round exit in 2003

I certainly wasn't fine with it when I was sitting about 10 rows behind the MU bench at that game.

That being said, I'd pretty much agree with what everyone else here has said. I'd happily take a Sweet 16 every year (my gauge of a successful season for any program) in lieu of a BET title.