LAS VEGAS — You’re probably fixated on this weekend’s Final Four in San Antonio. And that’s understandable.
But Florida, Auburn, Duke and Houston aren’t the only teams still playing basketball. Twenty other teams continue their seasons this week, including the 16 that have gathered at the MGM Grand Garden for something called the College Basketball Crown.
It’s a made-for-TV event that consists of teams that failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament and opted out of participating in the NIT, which plays its Final Four this week in Indianapolis. Fox Sports is behind this venture and it attracted a lot of schools you’re familiar with.
Georgetown and George Washington are playing here. So are DePaul and Cincinnati. Former Pac-12 programs USC, Colorado, Utah, Washington State, Oregon State and Arizona State are in the field. Boise State is back in Vegas after falling in the Mountain West Tournament title game at the Thomas & Mack Center earlier this month.
The crowds figure to be sparse. After all, the wallet can take only so much. People are getting their credit card bills from travel to their team’s conference tournaments earlier this month. But hey, it’s Vegas. Fans will still show up, resort fees and long lines for rideshares at Harry Reid International Airport be damned. They had 2,119 for the first session Monday.
So why do this?
From a team perspective, the Crown does several things, depending on your situation. If you’re Utah and you just hired a new coach in Alex Jensen, it allows you valuable practice time together and perhaps a chance for guys who would be headed into the transfer portal a reason to maybe stay put. Jensen’s not coaching the team this week but I’m guessing he’s been in the gym observing the players who are playing here.
If you’re USC’s Eric Musselman, it’s a chance to resurrect what has been a disappointing season. Go win the Crown and turn around what has been a tough 16-17 season and a rocky first year in the Big Ten (7-13). The Trojans open tournament play Tuesday night against Tulane.
Then there’s Villanova.
Will recently-hired Kevin Willard coach the Wildcats? Will he sit in the stands and watch? He’s coming off a run to the NCAA Sweet 16 with Maryland before leaving over the weekend that has left the Terrapins’ fan base angry and jilted. It will be curious to see how that plays out this week as ‘Nova faces Colorado Tuesday in the first game of the evening doubleheader session.
And who will these guys be coaching? Of the 16 schools competing, only Cincinnati and Nebraska have yet to lose a player to the transfer portal. At the other end of the spectrum, UCF has already lost eight players. How are the Knights going to even field a roster?
Such are the times we’re living in. There’s more than 1,100 players in the portal and it grows daily as players seek greener (nee dollars) pastures and more playing time.
“As a player, you look to take advantage of any opportunities you can,” said Butler sophomore guard Finley Bizjack, who does not have an NIL deal. “The college basketball landscape has changed. It’s not what it used to be. So I can see tournaments like this being around. As a player, you want to get paid.
“But at the center of it all, we’re here because we love basketball. We love the game. We want to be here.”
It’s probably why the Bulldogs were able to erase an 11-point second-half deficit and beat Utah 86-84 to advance to Wednesday’s second round against Boise State. It means another couple of days for Thad Matta to coach this group and he’s fine with that.
“We’ve tried to make it fun for them these last couple of weeks,” said Matta, who has been coaching since 1990 and took Ohio State to the Final Four twice. “It such a unique opportunity for the players. Give Fox credit for having the vision to put this on.”
And having the money. There are dollars up for grabs this week, which was a strong incentive for these teams to participate. The team that wins it all come Sunday at T-Mobile Arena picks up $300,000 to put in its NIL collective while the runner-up gets $100,000. The teams that make it to the semifinals get $50,000 apiece.
That may not sound like a lot, especially when you compare it to the next college hoops event that will be in Vegas — the Players Era tourney in November where each participating team gets $1 million, but $300,000 can create some goodwill among your players and perhaps entice a couple of them to stay when they may have planned on heading into the portal.
“We haven’t let that creep in to who we are,” said Boise State’s Leon Rice, whose team advanced by manhandling George Washington 89-59 after what it perceived was a snub to the NCAAs by the selection committee. “That’s the pot of gold at the end.
“We play for the love of the game and for each other. They don’t want it to end. There’s very few teams still playing at this time of the year so to be part of this is very special for us.”
Honestly, everything is out of whack in college athletics these days. Every time I see that commercial with LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne doing cartwheels on the beach for a sportswear company, I shake my head in amazement. If it weren’t for NIL, I probably never would have heard of her, though I possibly might have given she’s the girlfriend of Pittsburgh Pirates star pitcher Paul Skenes.
But the point is athletes in all sports are looking to cash in. And that’s why we’re seeing a financial arms race in college athletics. NIL collectives are seeking the type of benefactors that St. John’s has with billionaire Mike Repole. He’s a one-man ATM for Rick Pitino. The $300K the winner of the Crown event gets would be the equivalent of one mid-priced yearling for Repole’s stable of championship thoroughbreds.
But not every school has a Mike Repole. So events like the Crown tournament help. Does it level the playing field? No, not quite. But the positives outweigh the negatives and it’s a nice supplement to the Final Four. And if a school can pick up a few bucks, be on national TV a few times and leave Vegas a winner, something few people get to say they did, then so much the better.
