TV driven scheduling is tough on #6 seed

Basketball Insider Board
#1

The #6 seed gets the 8:30 game Thursday night. If you win that, you play next day at 8:30. No problem so far. But then the following day, because ESPN dictates that SEC semis be played in the afternoon, so that Big 12 final and ACC finals can be played in the evening and the night prime time slots, #6 seed has to play again at 2:30, after 15 hours of rest. That is tough. The guys have played that kind of schedule in AAU, but those games are much shorter.

Only way #6 seed can succeed is if #7 seed beats #2 the night before and #6 and #7 meet at 2:30, making it more or less an even playing field.

Good thing we don’t move the clocks up an hour till tomorrow morning.

I wonder how many times in the tournament history, #6 seed has beaten the #2 seed in the semis. Research anybody?

#2

Playing 4 games in 4 days is ridiculous. Why not just let the top 8 play for 3 days? A team has had all year to prove it deserves to play in the NCAA.

I didn’t realize Arkansas had won only 1 SEC tournament in 7 trips to the finals. Is that right?

#3

That is right. 5 losses to Kentucky, one each to Florida and Georgia.

#4

We would have gotten moved up another 3 hours to play the Final today had we won. It took me a long time to come down off the UF win Friday night. So, I doubt our guys got a full night’s sleep. Getting two wins in the SECT was enough. Playing four games in four days in the ACCT the previous week may have contributed to Duke’s loss to USC in the NCAAT last season, and the ACCT ends on Saturday. I’m not a big fan of the format of the conference tournaments, and the SEC schedules it especially poorly. We didn’t need to be playing today.

#5

Yes, after sleeping on it, that was my conclusion. Anyway the Tennessee game yesterday was like the Kentucky game last month. I couldn’t get mad.

#6