By JIMMIE TRAMEL Sports Writer on May 24, 2012, at 12:11 PM Updated on 5/24 at 12:11 PM
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I traded texts with Oral Roberts University basketball coach Scott Sutton this morning and can report this: He used the word “great” in regard to a change in the Southland Conference tournament format.
Here’s a simplified version of the bracket change: Win two games, and you’re in the NCAA Tournament.
The top two seeds in Southland will get a bye directly into the semifinals, eliminating the possibility that one of the league’s best teams will have its NCAA Tournament dreams immediately shattered by a low-seeded party crasher.
One reason Sutton likes the change is it because it rewards teams for having a good regular season. The regular season should mean something. Coaches like Bob Knight have said regular season body of work should outweigh a conference tournament when the selection committee determines which teams to invite to the NCAA Tournament.
ORU had a great regular season one year ago, but the Golden Eagles did not reach the NCAA Tournament because they had no margin for error and committed an error.
“We got beat by a good team, Western Illinois,” Sutton said at an ORU coaches luncheon this week. “Believe me, they were a hard team to play. They were very well-coached. We didn’t play very well. That’s the bad thing about playing in one-bid leagues. All it takes is one bad performance, one bad night, and your dreams are crashed.”
Because of the Southland Conference’s revised tournament bracket, the Golden Eagles -- if they take care of business during the regular season -- will have one less opportunity to have one bad night.
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