Conventional wisdom says television hinders productivity, but in the realm of college basketball, television exposure can infuse life into a program. Just ask George Mason coach Jim Larranaga.
“I think one question that every coach gets asked sometime during the recruiting process is ‘How many games do you play on TV,’” Larranaga said in a phone interview. “And the Colonial Athletic Association for many years had to kind of sidetrack that question because we weren’t getting a lot of television exposure.”
For the past few years, the hot topic in NCAA Division I basketball has been “parity.” You hear analysts talking about it throughout the year — during in-season tournaments like the EA Sports Maui Invitational and especially during the NCAA tournament. Television exposure has been a key factor in the growth of parity.
James Madison coach Dean Keener said, “With the advent of ESPN and Comcast and others, a lot of teams are able to be on television. That, in turn, entices recruits and helps the mid-majors.”
Television exposure has helped mid-majors improve their NCAA tournament play despite inherent advantages that continue to exist for higher-profile programs.
Until the past few seasons, between six and eight television appearances would be considered good exposure for a CAA team. The conference just didn’t attract very much interest from TV networks. But the CAA has changed things drastically for some teams in the 2007-08 season. While JMU only makes seven television appearances in the regular season, other teams have experienced drastic improvement in exposure.
“The Colonial Athletic Association stepped up. In George Mason’s case, we’re on TV 22 times this year,” Larranaga said. “That kind of exposure makes kids more aware of your program, more aware of your success, and more aware of the success of the league in the postseason.”
The Patriots were selected for the 2006 NCAA tournament as an at-large team, meaning they didn’t win their conference tournament. Although they didn’t win the CAA tournament, they built an impressive record in non-conference games. Their only losses were to major conference opponents.
“We knew we had played a very competitive non-conference schedule and went 7-2, with our only losses being on the road in overtime at Wake Forest and a tip-in at the buzzer at Mississippi State,” Larranaga said. “That was a major selling point for us.”
Two CAA teams have made the 65-team field in each of the past two seasons. George Mason and VCU upset “major” conference opponents, with GMU beating Michigan State, North Carolina, and Connecticut on its way to the 2006 Final Four. VCU defeated Duke in the first round of the 2007 NCAAs.
The mid-majors have used chemistry developed by veteran players to their advantage in the NCAA tournament. “If you look at the mid-majors that have advanced the last couple years in the NCAA tournament, they have been junior and senior-laden,” Keener said.
“Two years ago George Mason had [Tony] Skinn, Jai Lewis and Lamar Butler that were all seniors, so there’s certainly something to that.”
Mid-majors received more exposure when ESPN introduced its “Bracketbusters” weekend in 2003. The mid-season matchups take place in February each year and give the mid-majors an opportunity to get recognition on national television.
“There are six or seven BCS-type conferences that are always going to have some built-in advantages,” Keener said. “They’ve got the money to build facilities and so forth, but even with some of those built-in advantages, the parity in college basketball just continues to get better.”
Keener knows about the recruiting advantages major schools have based on his assistant coaching experience at Georgia Tech. He coached some very successful teams in Atlanta while taking on much of the recruiting duties from 2000-2004. In 2004, the Yellow Jackets made it to the NCAA championship game.
During the 2002-03 season, Keener coached current Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh, who was chosen fourth overall in the 2003 NBA Draft. Bosh left for the NBA after one year playing with the Yellow Jackets, following a trend that has become even more prevalent in recent years.
While Keener coached at Georgia Tech, JMU assistant coach John Babul played there from 1997-2001, and saw his coaches competing for top recruits.
“When you’re at a Georgia Tech, or a Duke, or a Carolina, you understand as a coach going into it that if you recruit a Greg Oden or a Kevin Durant you’re probably only going to have him for a year,” Babul said. “You gotta use it as a positive and hopefully you can get a McDonald’s All-American every year.”
The phrase “one and done” gained new meaning in the 2005-06 season, when the NBA declared that players must wait at least a year after they graduate high school before declaring for the NBA Draft. The NBA felt for multiple reasons that college experience should be mandatory, and its new rule has led to an epidemic of one-year wonders jumping to the NBA.
“The high-majors are not going to stop recruiting the kids that are slotted for the NBA after one year,” Keener said. “You can ask all those coaches, I think they would take those guys for that one year. They’re still going to get those elite players, and that’s one area that’ll keep them on top.”
Although the major conferences will continue to garner the top recruits each year, many of those top recruits will bolt for the NBA after one season and break their college team’s sense of continuity. And while teams have succeeded in spite of this phenomenon, the mid-majors will certainly use experience to their advantage in years to come.
About Us | Supplements | Advertising | Contact Us
Website design by Erik Pitzer ('07)
