Coaches split on NCAA competition expansion

• Myron Medcalf, ESPN

  • Staff WriterJun 29, 2023, 04:32 PM ET Close Covers college basketball
  • Signed up with ESPN.com in 2011
  • Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato

ORLANDO, Fla.– Michigan State coach Tom Izzo concerns the worth of expanding the NCAA tournament– a move that might be made in the coming months– beyond its existing 68-team field.Izzo stated growth could diminish the multibillion-dollar product that defines the sport. There have actually been conversations about a 96-team field in recent years. “I simply believe it’s going to get watered

down,”Izzo informed ESPN on Thursday at the NBPA Top 100 Camp at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando.”I stress over that a little bit. It would not trouble me if they did that, however I do worry that if it gets watered down, it’s not good. … I think 68 has been a respectable number. I believe you get enough great first-round games. That’s me.”But there was no agreement on the topic on top 100 Camp, a display for the best high school basketball players in America, including Flory Bidunga(No. 4 possibility in the 2024 class, per ESPN ), Web Cam Boozer(No. 1 in the 2025 class)and Cooper Flagg(No. 2 in 2025). Editor’s Picks 1 Associated At the Final 4 in April, new NCAA president

Charlie Baker said the committee deliberating the problem could make a recommendation on possible expansion by the end of summer or the start of fall.Kansas coach Costs Self said the time to broaden is approaching due to the fact that the transfer website is changing the depth of men’s basketball.”I believe what will determine [expansion] is the portal due to the fact that there

are going to be more good groups because I think you’ll have the ability to have less teams take dips,”he stated.” Everybody will stay at a greater level. … It might be time to really get serious about [expansion] If the website does what we believe it’s going to do, it’s going to make it so it will be time. “Miami head coach Jim Larranaga was a star at Providence in 1971 when his group lost to Villanova in a game that cost the Friars a chance to go to the NCAA competition, which included simply 25 schools then. Villanova reached the national title game, where it lost to UCLA 68-62. Larranaga, who led Miami to its very first Final Four in April, stated he still wishes he had an opportunity to play in the competition.”I’ve been saying we need to go to 96 permanently,”Larranaga said.” If the NCAA competition is the biggest goal for each college basketball group however just 18%of the kids get to experience it and each year a minimum of half the field is from the year prior to and the year before that … it just makes sense to expand it and offer more college student-athletes the experience. “Even among the coaches in assistance of growth, however, the number of groups to include is also a polarizing.Bruce Pearl, who coached at UW-Milwaukee prior to stints at Tennessee and Auburn, stated he would support only a small growth of the field.”I

believe when we went from 64 to 68 [teams], it didn’t harm anything, “Pearl said.”I would be [in favor of]

. adding a handful of teams. You can state, ‘Well, every year, there are going to be 4 or five groups that are excluded of the tournament. ‘OK? So let’s add 4. I’m not for blowing it up. I’m not for 96.”Some coaches at the camp in Orlando have firsthand experience with the challenges of a 68-team field. Although Micah Shrewsberry snapped Penn State’s

12-year NCAA competition dry spell last season after a strong surface that helped the Nittany Lions squeeze into the field, he needed to lead his team to the Big 10 competition title game to secure that 10-seed. He said expansion would ensure that the leading teams in America, particularly at the lower levels of the sport, would have a chance to compete for a nationwide title.”I do believe it’s time for us to just broaden,”stated Shrewsberry, now the head coach at Notre Dame.”You do not want to mess with it due to the fact that

the competition is so excellent. However there are good groups that are getting overlooked of it. It likewise gets more of the mid-majors into it. You wish to get all of the very best groups in it. You think of groups that have won their leagues at a lower level and just because they do not play well in those 3 days [of a conference tournament], they do not go to the NCAA competition. That group could be a team that’s in the Sweet 16. “While growth of the NCAA competition is one of the considerable problems officials within the sport are weighing right now, the future of the NCAA itself is also a factor. Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams stated it’s unclear, if expansion unfolds, who will handle that move.”It’s the only thing the NCAA owns,”he said. “And within all of the modifications, what is the NCAA going to be in charge of moving forward? Are they in charge of the transfer portal? Are they in charge of NIL? Eventually, are they going to supervise of the competition? So it’s difficult to understand what it’s going to look like in five years. Are we still going to have the NCAA competition the way we understand it?”