West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has a plan for playing the 2020 NCAA Tournament
What would you call this? Autumn Absurdity? September Silliness?
There would have to be a new nickname for the NCAA Tournament if West Virginia coach Bob Huggins’ plan is enacted.
Talking last week on the “The Cook and Joe Show” on 93.7 FM in Pittsburgh, Huggins said he wants to play the 2020 men’s basketball tournament in September. And the tourney would include players from last season, which abruptly ended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Let’s face it, there’s a great chance we’re not going to have college football,” Huggins said. “Putting that many people together is going to be rough. I wouldn’t want to have to make that decision. So why don’t we start the season off with the NCAA Tournament? They know who was in it, they know who was going to play who, they know where they were going to play. Let’s just start off the season with the NCAA Tournament.”
Huggins was asked about a potential stumbling block: players would no longer be with their teams.
He offered a simple suggestion.
“I think your underclassmen would start classes, but your seniors have already graduated,” Huggins said. “Our seniors have already graduated. It’s no big deal. Let them come back and play.”
With the NCAA having lost revenue from the tournament being canceled and potentially more if there really is no football, who would foot the bill for a fall tournament?
Huggins believes only men’s basketball will have a season, so a fall tourney could bring in the needed money during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I just think we go ahead and play the tournament,” Huggins said. “What, it’s going to take three weekends? Big deal. Really, kids aren’t going to miss class that much. You’re going to basically play on the weekends. So let’s play the tournament.
“(The NCAA) can get its money and distribute it to the schools. It solves a lot of problems.”
Huggins said the smaller conferences that would have a representative in the Big Dance could play a tournament to decide who qualifies in the fall.
As for the seniors who missed their last chance at the tourney, Huggins reiterated that they could make up their own minds about coming back to play.
“We had three seniors. I guarantee you all three of them would want to play and would fill a void that was left when they couldn’t play,” he said. “And there are going to be some guys who are going to say, I’m going to the NBA. Well, they would have made that decision anyway.
“I don’t see what that would hurt to let those guys play. Come back, have a week or week and a half, a couple of weeks or whatever, to practice, get guys in shape so we could put quality on the floor, and let’s go play.”
You can listen to more of what Huggins said here.
