Buzz Williams interview - predicts further separation

[ElDonBDon]

I think that this separation of power conferences is strictly along football lines. The P5 is sick of the Akrons, Troys, and Bowling Greens of the football world. They are too smart to mess with the bball tourney. Note that they actually wanted to expand the field to 96 teams, not contract the number of teams.

Also, keep in mind that the first Friday of the tourney is the least productive day in the US. Why? Because everyone is watching bball. Why? Because you have even big-population schools like tOSU battling the likes other big-population schools like Florida International, mixed in with the randomness, everyone filling out a bracket, and the David-v-Goliath cinderellas and you have a recipe for success. They aren't going to mess with that, regardless of what happens on the football side of things.

[MUPanther]

The atomis five need the group of 5 for scheduling. There getting what they want.

[DudeAnon]

Still surreal that Buzz left Marquette. For my generation, Buzz Williams was Marquette.

[DeltaV]

Take it from this Marquette fan: Buzz is a very good basketball coach, and an excellent recruiter. He is, at often times, labeled as being as crazy as a fox. When it is revealed that he is "right" and/or "wins", he is labeled a "genius". When it is revealed that he is "wrong" and/or "loses", he is labeled a "wacko".

With that being said, he studies the landscape of college athletics like no other - he notoriously sent freedom of information requests to all public universities, looking at football coaches' contracts for use to write up his own Virginia Tech basketball contract, picking and choosing clauses and language he liked.

Do I think he is right about this topic? Yes and no. I think there will be a separation between schools that want to spend money on athletics and those that will not. However, no power conference or the P65 will be able to prevent any school from spending money on their athletic program. March Madness is built on underdogs and cinderella stories. By essentially removing those schools and that topic from the tournament would be a disaster for the networks and college basketball teams.

For the record, the Big East will be a part of that group that "breaks away". Val and the schools have been on record as saying that they will be part of the group that gives full cost of attendance.

This.

If it happens, it will be market driven, not decreed by the P5. They'll do what they'll do. If others can keep up with that, then onward those others go as well. Can you imagine being anywhere else other than the Big East if you're favorite school otherwise isn't a P5 member? Even then, not all P5 members are created equally.

In the long run, thank God we're tied to Fox, because that indirectly ties us to the B1G and Pac 1x. We'll navigate all this well either way.

BTW, I watched Nova dismantle LaSalle last night. I don't believe I've ever noticed a game in Gola before. What an embarrassment of an arena. I would think that LaSalle would be a prime example of a program at risk.

I was in Gola for that game...even sitting in the very top row, I think that was the closest I've been to the court for a Nova game since I was in the student section.

[Burrito]

Buzz should have spent more time this week scouting Radford.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/radford-ra ... ncaab.html