calumnus said:
Civil Bear said:
dimitrig said:
Leaving aside the question if funding, does joining the ACC for basketball hurt our program or help it?
On the one hand, we are a team that couldn't win any games in the relatively weak Pac-12. We would be facing a lot stiffer competition in the ACC.
On the other hand, the ACC gets more invitations.
Does it help recruiting to have games against Duke and North Carolina every year? I have to imagine when they come to Berkeley it will sell out Haas. Won't it?
I have to think this is a great opportunity for Cal but there is some danger that even with Madsen we will embarrass ourselves against the powerhouses in the ACC. I mean, the Pac-12 had a couple good teams but in the ACC there are a lot more and there are travel considerations to boot.
What do people think? To be the best you have to play the best, right? Is it too much too soon for Cal? Will it help recruiting?
I think most Cal fans are not cowards. The only issue for me would be the travel impacts to student athletes.
Agreed, the ACC is the premier college basketball conference. If we can pull it off, UCLA and Arizona will be jealous. Easy to recruit the best players in California.
With 18 teams, play everyone once, Stanford twice ? That would mean maybe 8 games on the East Coast? Maybe fewer. 4 weekends. It might be two 10 day trips, with the team staying and studying at UCDC? Or one three week trip?
Definitely we should look at a Friday Night/Saturday Night and Saturday afternoon/Sunday afternoon schedule to reduce the impact on academics (and maximize TV availability).
The biggest issue I see is, under current NCAA rules, if basketball goes, I think a bunch of other sports need to go too?
It's a nice dream, but college teams do not play back to back games on consecutive days anymore, unless it is in a pre-league season tournament or in their conference tournament, and there is a reason for that. The modern players playing the modern game are pushed to the limit athletically, to perform at their highest level - coaches push them, and the players push themselves harder than ever in my years of watching this game. Even with the day or days off between games, they still get injured at a high rate, and I would guess fatigue could have contributed to those injuries. I can remember Cuonzo drawing a little criticism when he would play a game in Utah on Thursday, and then fly players back to Berkeley for class or study, and then fly them back to Colorado for a game on Sunday.
I looked at last season's ACC schedules. Duke did not play any league games on back to back nights. They only time they played back to back games was in the ACC Tournament, three games in three nights. Virginia was the same, none during the ACC season, but 3 games back to back in the ACC Tourney. North Carolina played back to back games, two games in two nights, in a preseason tournament, and two games in two nights in the ACC Tournament.
High school teams are often asked to play back to back games in preseason tournament, but they usually are not traveling long distances. Of course the NBA has a grueling schedule. The Warriors played
back to back games 14 times out of 82 games last season. And we all know even the best NBA teams can lay an egg, and the excuse is often fatigue.
College basketball is different. This is not the 1960s, when most all Cal conference games were on back to back nights. Travel was by train or bus, and it was tough to play Friday night in Seattle, and then make it to to Pullman by bus for the WSU game the next night, often driving through a winter storm. I'd like to say the players today are spoiled or coddled, but the way the game is played now, I think the days off for rest and recuperating from injuries almost demands at least one day or more off between games, to try and lessen the chance for injuries, not to mention the fact that it gives the team more time to prepare for the 2nd game, and hopefully play their best. The NCAA tournament doesn't schedule back to back games anymore, like they did in the 1960s, because they recognize they are putting on a show to sell tickets, and the games will be better played when the teams are fairly well rested.
Finally, aren't we the beggars in this situation? I didn't see many top conferences trying to woo Cal to come and join them. If a conference as great as the ACC is willing to have us join, I think we should be very proud of that, that the Cal brand means something even after all the losing the last few years.
SFCityBear
