BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 4, 1999

Dave Gavitt

Tom McElroy

DAVE GAVITT: Well, it seems like the 20 years went by awfully fast. That's the first thing that comes to mind. I think what comes to mind is how fortunate, you know, we were at the outset that so many things fell into place. I think we worked hard and tried to put together a solid foundation and a good plan to be a successful conference, but I think we also were very fortunate that a lot of things happened. One that was extremely important, I think, in the first part, not only did we have good players, but we had four coaches in particular who stayed at their school for a long time in Louie and John and Rolley and Jimmy. And that kind of consistency was, I think, very significant in the early going, and by the time -- you know, there started to be some changes in that. Obviously, Jim is the only one still in the saddle here today. Others that come along, you know, P.J. and Jim Calhoun and others can carry it forth. But I think that having those four guys stay in place was very significant, and I think the Carrier Dome was very significant in the early years. It was a very unusual facility. And Syracuse was good, and so no matter who we played in the Carrier Dome, it was -- it was kind of different, particularly for TV. And at the time we were trying to overcome some pretty bad facilities, if you recall, at B.C. and the old storage facility at Villanova. So just to think, here we are, we're trying to get more games on television with ESPN, and they do a game from Rupp, Tennessee, Kentucky and followed with a game from the Villanova Fieldhouse. I think the Carrier Dome kind of sent a message. I think it was significant. And I think moving the tournament to New York was really key in those early years. We felt when we started that we really wanted to play in New York. With all due respect to the Meadowlands and Nassau, we bid it at the time, but this was our choice, our presence, and it worked that way. And we were able to come and get the tournament here a lot earlier in the 80s than I thought. I thought we would have to play five, six, seven years to be able to establish ourselves -- and it turned out we came and it was successful right away and then we got lucky again. Within two years, we had the great '85 season with two teams being 1, 2, all year. So I think those things caused it to happen more quickly than perhaps any other league. We were very fortunate in those things, I think, as I think back.

DAVE GAVITT: Not everyone wanted to come here. But I have the great liberty that poor Mike doesn't have. That was kind of an autocracy in those days. I kind of put it together so it wasn't always run quite like a democracy. Although, we voted. I think that we had enough people convinced that this was the place to come. But there were those that wanted to rotate it and wanted to have it come to their cities and -- but we just felt that this was the place. And there was some feeling that, well, St. John's for Seton Hall might have an advantage. But the fact is they didn't play all their home games here and the way all the teams were distributed, the way people move teams around, this is a pretty neutral atmosphere. If you're good, your fans are going to show up, and Connecticut has had some home-court advantages in here when they have been so dominant. Syracuse has sometimes. I've been here when 'Nova looks like they own the house. Obviously, when St. John's is as good as they are -- although it will be offset by,.

DAVE GAVITT: Well, my feeling is New York is New York, with all due respect to Boston, Philadelphia, Hartford, Providence, Syracuse, they are all major markets, but that's not where the media capital is. It's here. And also, this here, when you talk about the number of people that live in New York, you're talking about huge numbers of alumni. Years ago we did a study, but huge numbers of alumni from all schools that interface -- come here and work here or have businesses that come through here. So I personally would think that this is the place to stay. I think that, unfortunately, this is heresy for me to stay here, but Michael and I have talked about this and Tommy and I have talked about this, but I think the tournament is going to be great. I really think it's going to be terrific. And next -- tonight and the next two days are going to be really great. But I'm not so sure that in fairness going forward. You don't have to just look at bringing the teams to New York. I think it's really tough on the fan base, you know, to go Wednesday through Sunday. In particular, for those fans that want to then follow their teams on to the NCAA the following weekend. So I think that's something that ought to be looked at. And I know that that's tough because people say, Well, all the kids want to come to New York and play. But I'm not so sure that those B.C. kids were all that thrilled to play here yesterday. When they are having that kind of year, you just want it to end. Again, I think that's something that maybe they will look at down the road.

DAVE GAVITT: Yeah, I mean it just works, you know. And I think what it does, too, is it adds -- everyone in the country, particularly after you grow like the Big East has beyond ten, you're constantly looking for things to give your regular season more visibility. Having that as a goal, it would certainly make the regular season even more significant in terms of the standings. But I think that's something -- that's just my own viewpoint.

DAVE GAVITT: I think the early exodus of players in the NBA has certainly not helped college basketball in general. And the Big East being an integral part of that, clearly, you can go back and build a scenario that if the Ray Allens of the world stay in school for all four years, it's going to be quite something by the time they are seniors. But I think that's a short-run thing. I think that in the long run, unless something is done to solve that problem, the early entry is going to hurt the professional league a lot more than it's going to hurt college basketball. If you look at the professional league with 29 teams and you see some of the players' really limited abilities and also advanced years, who are hanging on and finding places on rosters and they are doing so for a number of reasons: One, the money has gotten too big. They will stretch that as far as they can. But secondly, for all of these early-entry guys, a lot of them aren't ready and they get into a professional situation where they are expected to be professionals, take care of their money, take care of their body, and it's their job now in an entertainment world, not a sporting world, and there are no academic counselors or other people working with them on a daily basis as they have worked with these kids in college. So I think that for every kid that makes it there, like Kobe Bryant, there's -- at least two out of the three that go early and don't ever reach their potential. So now what the Pros have is a bunch of guys that don't reach their potential, hanging around for six or seven years on rosters. Whereas, if they stayed in school and were nurtured and taught and developed and matured, the final product that goes to the Pro league is a product that's going to be a lot more successful. But I think in the long run, early-entry is going to hurt the professional level more than college level.

DAVE GAVITT: I had the privilege of being on the tournament committee when we put all that in place. We went to 46. We seeded the whole field for the first time. For the first time, pure seeding changed regions, started playing in domes, and it's a formula that's worked, obviously. So it's exciting from the standpoint, you know, that you're involved in decisions that are important to coaches and kids, and you try to do the very best you can to make good decisions and wise decisions and -- but its a little gut-wrenching at times, too. Particularly, when it gets down to the last three or four teams. And that's really what it gets down to every year. There's going to be three spots left and five or six teams up on the board. And let's face it, they have all got a lot of chinks in their armor at that point. You're looking at teams with double-digit losses. So I think what you do then -- what I used to do is really look to who has earned it the most. Who has really had the good wins, who has played the toughest schedule, who is playing the best right now. I think being a basketball coach, I also had the advantage of seeing teams play. And occasionally even now, you'll see a team where they will be a little bit surprised -- a team will get taken, and if you were really watching the game, you would have known that team had packed it in about a month ago. And that happened in the Big East the year Pitt -- it was like, "Oh, my God". But no, it's -- there's a little gut-wrenching to it. And I think Mike's a terrific member of that committee, though. Mike did not coach the game, but I've got to tell you Mike thinks like a coach. He knows the game. Takes it seriously. Took a train with Tommy a couple weeks ago to Philadelphia to see Penn. I think it's great he's on that committee, and we need more guys like him on there.

DAVE GAVITT: I think the most important thing you have to do if you're going to have a true national championship, this is what turned the tournament around in the early 80s, when we expanded and doing some of these things. You need to have -- every team has a legitimate chance to win the title, and before the lid was lifted on multi-teams from conferences. The NCAA never really took it off to the extent it could, because there were always teams and great players that weren't in the tournament because they weren't first or second in their league. And number two, I think you have to set up the tournament in a fair and objective way as best you can; so that everyone's path to the final is equally difficult. You've got to win six games to get there. I'm not sure that anyone has ever won six more difficult games than Arizona did, for example, a couple years ago. It just worked out that the way it happened, they played two teams in the first two rounds that nobody wants to see on their dance card, Charleston and South Alabama. They were holding the ball and then they play Kansas and then they had Providence who has just beaten Duke, and they are hot and now they going up to two No. 1 seeds in Carolina and Kentucky. Is it doesn't always happen that way because upsets happen. But I think the tournament is really aided when everyone's path is equally as difficult. But the problem with home court, I think they have solved the problem with home court in terms of not allowing you to play where you play -- UConn couldn't play in the Hartford Civic Center. But area -- that's a tough one. You know, I know what the ticket policies are and I know that last year in the Carolinas, the Carolina people are going to figure a way to get their hands on the tickets, probably. But if it were here in Boston, maybe the UConn people would figure out a way. I think as long as there is a balance, it's not like being on a real truly foreign court where it's 8,000 fans and you've got 20 sitting behind your bench. I think the big arena, as long as it's not totally a home-court atmosphere, it's fair enough neutral court type thing you should just follow the principles they have set and go play.

DAVE GAVITT: You know, I don't envy Mike and Tom and the people, their jobs of administrating the league with 13. Because I think that any time you go beyond ten in any situation, you've made it very difficult for yourself. In many ways you cease to become a conference and you become more like an association, and that's hard. But I think, you know, they have made decisions over the years to do what they have had to do. The fact of the matter is, there are teams in this league that have major college football commitments, and you can't ignore those, I think the membership in the non-football schools have been very sensitive over the period of time to their needs. 13 is a very awkward number. Whether 14 is better or 16 is better, I don't know. They have got a lot of this under consideration right now, but I do think that probably my gut would be that what it is now isn't what it should be. I mean, it's just very hard; so that I think to do nothing should not be an objective. I think if they are looking at tooling with it in whatever way, I would think that staying where it is -- should be the last option. As far as Notre Dame being in the league, I think Notre Dame is a terrific addition to the Big East. It's a national school. It's one of the few national schools there are. They bring a huge alumni base. Obviously, they have not been able to compete as successfully as they would have liked to have. They have improved their situation. Notre Dame basketball is in better shape now than it was before they came into the Big East. I know the football schools aren't real happy Notre Dame won't play football with them. I'm not sure they will have a gun put to their head on that either. Their historical tradition is independence in football and other people play in the Big East that don't play football in the Big East. I think Notre Dame in the long run will be a -- has been a good addition and will continue to be.

DAVE GAVITT: I think what's amazed me more than anything else is when we started the conference one of the goals, we thought we could accomplish is to stop the drain of eastern players going elsewhere, going to the ACC or going to Notre Dame or going to Michigan or a Big-10 school, and that was really our goal. And I think we pretty successfully did that pretty quickly. But what I never foresaw happening and it's the power of television, I'm sure, is that our schools would all of the sudden start attracting kids from the west coast and from New Orleans. I mean, the idea of a kid from the west coast going to Syracuse or a kid from Louisiana going to UConn or South Carolina, I don't think any of us ever foresaw that our schools would truly become national in their recruiting scope. That was a big surprise. That was probably the biggest single surprise to me, but I think that was a product of television exposure and success, because let's face it, television is great, if you're good. If you're good it's a visual medium, and it gives you great exposure, but if you're bad, it exposes you. It's two-edged sword. So that was the biggest surprise to me.

DAVE GAVITT: Well, I think the game is overall -- I think the game is in decent shape but I think that the college game needs some tinkering. And I think one of the things that's hurt it a little bit is the roughness of post play. People are reluctant to consider the FIBA-trapezoidal lane. In my opinion they are being provincial when their thinking is that way when they don't want to consider and this is an American game and we haven't invent that lane. But the fact of the matter is you eliminate the wrestling matches by using that lane. There's no sense wrestling for position down here because -- Shaquille O'Neal even the pros ought to be using that, too. Why would I be wrestling Tommy for position when I don't have any moves in there? What it causes you to do is eliminate all that tugging and pulling inside that leads to a lot of problems and forces you to get the game back to what it should be: A game of motion and flash post. I think it also will help open the floor up a little bit in a three-point shooting situation. A combination of those two would be helpful. I think the other thing that needs to happen is that to continue -- I think as there's been more parity, more and more teams that can play, more and more teams get conservative. You see it at tournament time. The way Seton Hall played UConn today. They had a terrific game plan and they executed it well. You can do that as long as you take care of the basketball, don't turn it over. Like the old Super Bowls were always 7-6. Tournament time, things tighten up a little bit, and I think with parity things have tightened up a little bit. Coaches -- how many guys really want to push the ball up the floor and fast break. They want control of it, fewer positions because they want to coach the hell out of their defense, and I think that maybe reducing the clock from 35 to 30, widen the lane, push the 3-point back just a little bit to correspond and then just continue to emphasize the elimination of hand guarding. That just is going to help offense. You know, the more you allow me to ride Tommy and put my hands both on or off the ball, I'm going to be aided defensively. So I think there are some little tinkerings that would really help the game tremendously.

DAVE GAVITT: I'd be shocked, to be honest with you if one of those schools, particularly Syracuse made that decision. Not that the Big-10 isn't a terrific league, it is. It's a great league, always has been for a number of years. It's got great universities, huge facilities, dominates entire states in the Mid-West and it's very well run league and a terrific league. But let's face it, Syracuse University is an eastern school I think their alumni base is in the east. Their tradition is in the east and it's hell of a long way from Syracuse to Iowa City, I can tell you that, when you start to have to send your wrestling team out there or something. To me it's just like I applaud Georgetown University when they hired Craig Esherick as the coach when John retired or whatever it was he said he did. Because if they had gone outside instead of somebody else on their staff, they really ran the risk of 25 years of history and tradition of all those players divorcing themselves from the program as well. So I think that in Syracuse's case, I don't think it would make any sense whatsoever to divorce themselves from tradition and now when they are pretty good in the Big East and also from the long-time tradition of their fan base and student base and their sphere of influence, which is eastern. And we all know how big their alumni are in the media and also in the New York area. So it wouldn't make much sense to me.

TOM McELROY: In the summer, the membership decided they were very, very low-keyed in observance of our 20th year. At Cape Cod in July, they committed to bringing back the founding fathers, as we like to call them, and fortunately six of them are still with us. Jake is still active with Syracuse. We lost Bill, but Marie will be here with 7 of her children and countless grandchildren. So tomorrow night on the floor of the garden we are very moved. It's really like a family-type reunion that's going to go on here. We're going to honor these six great men and Marie will sit in for Bill and she'll do that very well. We've got some surprises for them, not that it takes a 20th year to get Dave here, but in the course of the next couple of games you you'll see a few surprises.