Destin: After NCAA snub, SEC takes steps to bolster men's basketball
DESTIN, Fla. – Troubled by the SEC’s sagging fortunes in men’s basketball - a downward trend encapsulated by the league getting just three total bids to the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday - conference commissioner Greg Sankey swiftly hired former Big East commissioner and veteran tournament selection committee member Mike Tranghese as a ‘special advisor.’
Tranghese met the SEC coaches for the first time as a group Tuesday at the league’s spring meetings and, according to Gamecocks coach Frank Martin, made quite an impression.
“I almost stood up and gave him a standing ovation at the end of the meeting,” Martin told a small group of reporters Tuesday at the Hilton Sandestin. “He brings an unbelievable basketball perspective and unbelievable credibility and insight into our conversation in that room. I’m ecstatic.
“He was very understanding of some of the issues the coaches brought up. After our first meeting with him, I’m hopeful we’ll move in a positive direction. Right now, we’re just starting. He brings a perspective into our meetings we haven’t had before. It was one of the most productive meetings we’ve had as basketball coaches in my five years here.”
Tranghese is expected to provide guidance to a league that has received just 11 bids to the NCAA Tournament in the last three years, by far the fewest of any Power 5 Conference. The SEC’s eight at-large bids are six fewer than the next lowest Power 5 Conference over the same span (14 for Pac-12).
“Mike gives us a different voice,” Martin said. “He has a different vision and different energy. He knows what we are doing is good enough. Now we have to go out there and do a better job of making people understand it. It felt good as a coach to hear that.”
How bad has it been for the SEC? The conference’s 11 total bids from 2014-16 are one less than the non-FBS conference Atlantic 10, which has no national TV contract, has produced.
In short, the SEC is struggling to attain one of the most valuable commodities for a conference when Selection Sunday comes around – respect.
“We’re unanimous from the coaches to the commissioner to the team managers on every campus that three teams in the NCAA Tournament is unacceptable,” Martin said.
Some SEC coaches, including Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, complained Tuesday the conference has eligibility rules above and beyond what other conferences require, creating an unbalanced playing field.
“The coaches talked at length with Greg (Sankey) about that,” Tranghese said. “We talked about a way to bring that (level playing field) about. But you have presidents with particular standards. The thing we talked about is advancing these SEC rules to the NCAA level and let everybody play under the same set of rules.
“(The SEC) definitely has a more difficult set of rules to adhere to than coaches in other conferences. The SEC coaches just want to be on the same playing field in recruiting.”
Sankey, though, appears unsympathetic towards people calling for the SEC to lessen its admission standards to accommodate basketball coaches.
“We never apologize for any rule that might be different in this conference,” Sankey said. “We have won national championships in every sport except for volleyball and soccer since 1998 with more restrictive rules.”
NOTES:
-- Martin on Marcus Stroman’s decision to transfer: “He was one of the three guys that remained suspended (from a March incident). You don’t like losing guys, so it’s unfortunate. He made his decision late last week that this is what he wanted to do. I asked him to sleep on it over the weekend since I was in Chicago. (Monday) he came back and said he had made up his mind and wanted to leave. Kids must do what is best for them. It’s our job to support them. (Stroman) is a fine young man. Obviously, he made a mistake, but so do I. He said he wanted to play more and change was something he needed.”
