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College basketball

NCAA's pod system may work this time

Florida coach Billy Donovan understands and appreciates the reasoning behind the NCAA Tournament's "pod" system.

The selection committee last season began to group teams into pods of four -- seeds 1, 16, 8, 9; 4, 13, 5, 12; 2, 15, 7, 10; and 3, 14, 6, 11 -- and placed each pod at an opening-weekend venue to reduce travel for as many teams as possible and to increase ticket sales.

"When you start playing games at noon on a Thursday in a major city, crowds are not very good," Donovan said.

The fans in Chicago last season for UF's tournament opener against Creighton were predominantly for the 12th-seeded Bluejays. Omaha, Neb. is a lot closer to Chicago than Gainesville, after all.

While Donovan said the crowd was not a factor in his team's loss, the Gators figure to see a preponderance of orange and blue this year. The fourth-ranked Gators appear to be assured a spot in the pod that will come to the St. Pete Times Forum for games March 21 and 23.

Selection committee chairman Jim Livengood stressed that his group will try to reward the top teams with shorter trips. The Gators are a potential No. 1 seed and should be no worse than a No. 3 or No. 4 regardless of how they finish the season. "One of the things about being a higher seed is they've earned or deserved that because of the way they've played," Livengood said.

"Obviously, being in the state of Florida and playing two hours from campus in Tampa would be great," Donovan said.

Even if that plays out, Donovan is not sold on the pod system, which had its share of flaws -- or at least eyebrow-raising pairings -- last season.

No. 11 Southern Illinois played No. 6 Texas Tech in Chicago. . The Salukis won. No. 3 Mississippi State was sent to Dallas, and in the second round met Texas. The Longhorns won. Ohio State and Illinois were No. 4 seeds; the committee sent Ohio State, the Big Ten tournament champion, to Albuquerque, N.M., where it lost in the second round. Illinois stayed home, won twice in Chicago, and advanced to the regional semifinal. No. 3 Pittsburgh played in Pittsburgh and also reached the regional semifinals.

"We'll take a close look at those things," Livengood said, "and try to stay away from doing those kind of things that really have some controversy built into it."

WISE MOVE: When former Daytona Beach Mainland star Tony Bobbitt told his Cincinnati coaches he was quitting on Feb. 3, they were meeting "trying to figure out how to get Tony more minutes," coach Bob Huggins said.

Bobbitt, who twice was headed to Florida State but ended up in junior college when he could not qualify academically, was frustrated over playing time and his inconsistent play. But three days later, he asked to return.

"Like a lot of people, I think Tony got some bad advice from some people who really don't care about Tony," Huggins said. "Tony's been really good. He's tried to learn what we're trying to do here, particularly of late. ... Heck. I told him after his first day back, if he had practiced every day the way he practiced the first day he came back, he would have been playing (more)."

Case in point: Bobbitt scored 25 in last week's win against Louisville, which bolstered the Bearcats' NCAA credentials.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN: Miami is 1-4 in overtime games this season. Had the Hurricanes won all of them (Florida Atlantic, Florida, UConn and Villanova), they would be sitting at 14-10 and likely would be in the running for an NCAA Tournament berth. As it is, the Hurricanes seem unlikely to reach the .500 mark, which would likely end their postseason streak (NCAA or NIT) at six straight.

AWARD WINNER: Kansas coach Roy Williams will receive the John Wooden Legends of Coaching award in Los Angeles in April. Hmmm. Williams already has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the UCLA job when, not if, embattled Bruins coach Steve Lavin is fired.

HE SAID IT: "That has to do with the perception of the Pac-10 ... that it was down. I thought that was a bad perception. I don't think it was down. It was just young. And now it has grown up and matured like a lot of other conferences." -- Oregon coach Ernie Kent on projections that the conference will have only one high seed in the NCAA Tournament.

-- Brian Landman covers men's college basketball. He can be reached at (813) 226-3347 or by e-mail at landman@sptimes.com

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