Any downside to a Bedlam All-College?
I wrote for today’s paper about a Bedlam All-College (http://www.newsok.com/berry-tramel-all-college-needs-bedlam/article/3395657?custom_click=lead_story_title) — Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma in late December at the Ford Center.
I’ve brought it up in the past but got nowhere with the coaches. Kelvin Sampson and Eddie Sutton weren’t interested.
Sutton would always talk about 1986, when he had a great Kentucky team that played LSU twice in the regular season and again in the SEC Tournament, winning all three times. But then they played in an NCAA regional final, and LSU won to go to the Final Four. Why that had to nix a third Bedlam regular-season matchup, I don’t know.
I think Sampson just didn’t want to deal with the prospect of losing Bedlam and then hearing about it for a month, until the first conference OU-OSU game. That’s negative thinking. Why not dwell on the positive? Win in December and ride a month of glory? And win or lose, it’s not like we still wouldn’t have football to take our minds off the basketball result.
I trotted out the theory to OSU coach Ford that the losing coach might be in for a long month and he dismissed it quickly. “I don’t care about that.”
That’s an encouraging attitude.
I wanted to ask OU coach Jeff Capel his thoughts on the idea, but he deferred to athletic director Joe Castiglione, which is disappointing. I wasn’t presenting a contract ready to be signed. I was trying to get the flow of ideas going.
Capel’s perspective would be interesting, because of his North Carolina roots. Grew up on Tobacco Road, played at Duke, his brother played at UNC.
“Would Carolina play Duke in Charlotte just for the heck of it?” Ford asked. “I don’t know.”
I don’t know, either, I assume not, but I know this. They used to play in Greensboro just for the heck of it.
A Bedlam in December would be unparalleled in contemporary college basketball but would hark back to the Big Four Tournament, which was played from 1971-81 in Greensboro, N.C., and included Duke, Carolina, Wake Forest and North Carolina State. Which means those in-state, arch-rivals could easily end up playing four times, counting the ACC Tournament. The Atlantic Coast Conference staged a post-season tournament long before other leagues joined in.
And basketball in North Carolina thrived in the 1970s.
Playing meaningful games never is a bad thing. Playing games people want to see always is a good thing.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Berry,
Great idea. For these two universities to climb that final rung of the ladder, both universities must come to realize there must be something which puts them apart of even the other great programs. Playing a great pre-season to bring early press coverage is one of those things which must be accomplished. It appears not a whole lot of great teams are standing in line to come to Norman or Stillwater, much less on the road or at a neutral site. The immediate answer each can control is to play a potential 4th time in OKC or even Tulsa. Keep bringing up the subject.