ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703110033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C.
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The ACC tournament got a glimpse of the future Friday. Well, almost.
It may be awhile before ACC hoopheads see what occurred at the Greensboro Coliseum. This isn't just about eighth-seeded North Carolina State's stunning upset of top-seeded Duke.
It's about quarterfinals about to become a dinosaur. They've been good enough for 44 years. Four games in one day for all but nine of those years.
What the ACC is doing with its men's tournament starting next year is truly March madness.
For one game, it is tinkering with tradition, changing the format to remove what has become known as the dastardly ``play-in game.''
Sportswriters aren't supposed to cheer, but at the next ACC tournament, a bunch of us are going to be rooting for the No.9 seed to beat No.1 on opening night. Maybe then the coaches, who are foisting this new plan upon Tobacco Road, will want to go back to what's worked since 1954.
As was revealed earlier this season, next year's ACC tournament will begin with two Thursday night games, matching seeds 7-8 and 1-9. The Friday schedule slims to three games - 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5 and 2 against the 7-8 winner.
The idea is to reward the regular-season winner with a bye into the Saturday semifinals after Thursday success. But what if No. 9 beats No.1 - as happened in February when league-leading Wake Forest fell at home to State? If No. 8 can beat No.1 as occurred Friday, why not No.9?
Another format was considered, ACC associate commissioner Fred Barakat said. It would have been better than what was approved, because it didn't give the last-place as much chance at a reward.
In that one, the top seed wouldn't have played until the semifinals. The Thursday pairings would have been 6-9 and 7-8. The Friday games would have matched 4-5, 3 vs. 6 or 9 and 2 vs. 7 or 8.
``Then, No. 6 would have had to win four games to win the tournament,'' Barakat said. ``No.6 has won our tournament four times in history [including Virginia's lone title, in 1976].
``We didn't want to lessen the chance of that happening. And No.6 in our league is often an NCAA bubble team [as UVa is this year]. You don't want to do anything to damage that.''
With the format voted in - it was 8-1, with Duke opposing - No.7 or 8 will need four victories for a trophy. The problem is that if No.9 upsets the top seed, the league's last-place team will have an easier road to the title than teams that finished ahead of it.
Besides, why fix something that isn't broken?
``When I first got to Maryland, we played in two of those'' 8-9 games, said Terps coach Gary Williams. ``The thing I didn't like about it is there's a stigma on the players.
``For coaches, it's one thing. People say, `You're in the play-in game, so you're not doing a very good job.' I can live with that. Our players thought it was almost like being a Prop 48 student, you know, where you weren't kind of a part of the mix, and you got looked on kind of funny.''
A stigma? It's a game. One night, not a season. Just give the players a nice parting gift, as the ACC has here. Each team member in the tournament is getting a combination TV/VCR, as one of those ``awards'' worth less than $300 that's permitted by the NCAA.
This bracket decision has coaching paranoia written all over it. I'm proud to say I'm of the same ancestry as the one coach who didn't go for it, Mike Krzyzewski.
Williams' opinion is that fans will like the new format, ``because they'll only have to sit through three games'' Friday. However, with a Thursday doubleheader, fans of two teams could be headed home early, too.
Another reason the ACC is pushing the new format is that a No.7 or 8 team with an extra game - and another win or two - could be more attractive to the NIT. Of, course, it's now better to finish ninth than seventh or eighth. You need one fewer victory to win the tournament.
Bill Brill, whose words used to occupy this space and who has seen more ACC basketball than Billy Packer and Dan Bonner combined, calls the new format ``the dumbest decision in the ACC since [athletic director and football coach] Paul Dietzel convinced South Carolina to get out of the league'' in the early '70s.
Brill, never in doubt and often right, is correct this time, and not just for tradition's sake.
``If they want two games on Thursday night,'' Bonner said, ``then why don't they just add a 10th team?''
That's another whole issue, and it's not going to happen, at least not now. Neither are four quarterfinals in one day, unless something like what happened to Duke on Friday occurs to another top seed.
Let's hope it's soon.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines KEYWORDS: BASKETBALLby CNB