By any standard Weber State has had an incredible season. The Wildcats are 24-5 overall. They went 14-0 in the Big Sky, putting together the first perfect league season in 24 years. Three players were named first team all conference and senior Jermaine Boyette was MVP.
This is nice. Right now it doesn't mean much.
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| Jermaine Boyette helped Weber St. go undefeated in Big Sky play. (AP) |
Which is the NCAA Tournament.
"We just hope to get two more wins," Cravens said.
That's the reality of basketball at this level. Weber may have had a dream season by Big Sky standards, but in all likelihood it doesn't have the credentials to get an at-large bid to the NCAAs.
It's no different for Manhattan in the Metro Atlantic, Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt or a number of other schools in smaller leagues.
But because conferences such as the Big Sky want to be a part of the excitement of championship week and have its championship game on national television, it stages a championship tournament.
The winner of the tourney, even if it is a last place team, gets the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Talk about your March Madness.
But that is how it is as most low and mid-major conference tournaments swing into action this weekend. There are no guarantees for the regular-season champs, only a gut full of worry about what might get away. You can put a banner up for a regular-season title, but the goal of every team in the nation is to play in the NCAAs.
At this point, anything less would be a disappointment.
In a world far from Ogden, Utah, Manhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez knows the feeling. His Jaspers captured the Metro Atlantic regular-season championship with a 14-4 league record (21-7 overall). For the effort it gets to travel to Trenton, N.J., and play in a tournament that is historically unkind to favorites. In the past eight years, the No. 1 seed has won the event once.
Last year Siena entered the event with a losing record, won four in a row, and wound up heading off to the NCAA Tournament.
"It's Russian Roulette," said Gonzalez. "I am just trying to make it so it's not like life or death."
The debate about whether to stage a conference tourney has been raging for years. Leagues, desperate for a showcase end-of-the-season event and a television slot during Championship Week put the tournaments on even if they aren't profitable.
Only the Ivy League still gives its automatic bid to the regular-season champ, which is 11-0 Penn; the Quakers aren't worried right now. But Cravens and Gonzalez are.
"I have never been in favor of it," said Cravens. "I've thought that from Day 1. I don't think the (TV exposure) is worth it. People say, 'Hey, we are going to be on TV.' Well, if I go down to the grocery store and say that, they'll say, 'You still have to buy your groceries.'"
Said Gonzalez, "It would be pretty unfair for me to say anything this year, because I'm biased. But while yes, it gives an opportunity to teams who had bad seasons to turn it around, it also gives an opportunity for someone who had a great year to fall."
Like many smaller leagues, both the Big Sky and MAAC have tried to reward the regular season champ. Manhattan is seeded into the semifinal and doesn't play until Sunday. Weber gets the same deal and gets to host the event at the Dee Events Center in Ogden, Utah.
That's the good news. The bad news is Weber is in the midst of a 10-day layoff between the season finale and the semifinals on March 11.
And despite the down time, Cravens and his veteran team are not celebrating a regular season title. They are preparing to close this season out the right way.
"I think what we've accomplished we won't be able to enjoy it until the season is over with," said Cravens.
It's the same with Gonzalez.
"The night we clinched the championship, they cut the nets down and hosted a little celebration in our locker room," he said. "The next day we took off so they could be regular students and feel good about what they accomplished.
"Then they came in the next day and I congratulated them again, thanked them and said let's turn the page. We have to focus on what we have to focus on."
Which is winning the championship all over again.
That's a tough deal for the champs out there. It is also a reality.
