Paring Down Basketball Tournaments to Six Teams Each Steams Many Coaches

Most of them mock the decision, sarcastically calling it the “Irvine Rule.” Some Big West Conference coaches use even more colorful and expletive-laced phrases to describe the format change of the conference’s postseason basketball tournament.

Conference administrators this season significantly scaled down the men’s tournament, which is March 8-10 at Nevada. Only the top six teams of the 10-team conference will qualify for the tournament, whose champion earns the Big West’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

The women’s tournament, scheduled for March 7-9 at Nevada, also has been reduced to six teams. The tournaments, in their 21st seasons, were open to every team the last two seasons.

Coaches, expectedly, were outraged when the Big West Council approved the revision last June. Four fewer slots mean fewer chances for teams to continue their seasons and, possibly, coaches said, for them to remain employed.

“Coaches, in general, are very disappointed,” said UC Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm, the dean of Big West men’s coaches.

Many coaches at least privately direct some of the blame at UC Irvine. Here’s why: The Anteaters’ run to the 1993-94 tournament title game.

Irvine entered the tournament seeded 10th after finishing the regular season at 7-19, 4-14 in the Big West. Last-place Irvine had two fewer conference victories than Cal State Fullerton, which finished ninth.

However, Irvine upset seventh-seeded Santa Barbara in the first round, second-seeded Utah State in the second round and sixth-seeded Pacific in the semifinals. Big West officials found their shirt collars tightening with each Irvine victory, considering the team with the worst conference record might be the representative to the NCAA tournament.

New Mexico State ended the officials’ concern by holding off Irvine, 70-64, in the championship game. But the psychological damage was done, coaches believe.

Though coaches want the tournament open to all conference teams, at least one coach, of course, doesn’t buy the finger-pointing. And he’s not happy about it.

“[Reducing the field] is not right, and I’ve said it over and over again,” Irvine Coach Rod Baker said. “Everyone wants to blame it on us, but we weren’t the problem.

“I mean, let’s be honest about it. This is not only about NCAA slots, it’s about money. If it was only about [NCAA slots], then you don’t even have a [conference] tournament to risk upsets.”

Baker is correct, Rob Halvaks said. Halvaks, Big West associate commissioner and director of the tournaments, said financial concerns are mainly responsible for the change.

The desire to increase revenue is the reason why the tournament field was increased from eight teams to 10 for the 1993-94 season, said Halvaks, who was the associate executive director of the Orange County Sports Assn. and has held many positions in the Irvine athletic department.

“Quite frankly, the expenses and revenue produced by the bottom teams weren’t what we hoped for,” Halvaks said. “The revenue just didn’t support the decision.”

Coaches aren’t oblivious to the obvious. Still, they believe the tournament should have been left alone. Moreover, the situation will be tougher next season, when expansion will increase the Big West’s membership to 12 teams.

“I think we understand the economics of it,” Pimm said. “They’re all looking at the bottom line.

“The athletic directors need to control costs as much as possible right now. But in the end, those decisions effect coaches.”

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To the wire: So, who will win this thing? Who will finish in one of those coveted top six spots?

Almost any team can win the regular-season title, have a top-six finish or stumble out of tournament contention, Pimm said.

“Everybody plays everybody tough,” Pimm said. “A few calls here, an injury or a bad performance could be the difference.

“There usually isn’t a big spread to the scores. Anybody can beat anybody. It’s kind of crazy, isn’t it?”

Well, that’s one way to put it.

Long Beach State and Irvine were tied atop the conference at 7-3 beginning the week. Santa Barbara is 7-4, and Nevada and Utah State are 6-4.

“If all 10 [teams] go, it would give everyone something to play for at the end of the [regular] season,” Pimm said. “This could really hurt attendance for a lot of teams.”

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Name game: Marty Blake, the NBA’s director of scouting, recently reinforced the perception that West Coast basketball gets no respect beyond the boundaries of the Pacific 10 Conference.

“Nobody can name the teams in the Big West,” Blake said. “I was talking to [Fresno State Coach Jerry] Tarkanian the other day and I said, ‘Who knows any of those teams on the West Coast, anyway? Name the teams in the Big West.’

“He said, ‘I’m not in the Big West.’

“So I said, ‘What are you in?’

“He said, ‘The WAC.’

“So I said, ‘Name the teams in the WAC.’ And he couldn’t do that.”

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Foul call: One of the arguments years ago against adding a third basketball referee was that it would mean more personal foul calls. But consider this: The three-man team of Norm Boruki, Jim Farmer and Don McAllister whistled 16 fouls Saturday in the first half of UC Santa Barbara’s 85-72 victory over Cal State Fullerton.

When Farmer pulled up lame at halftime, Boruki and McAllister went it alone in the second half and called 23 fouls.

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Big West Notes

Two New Mexico State students who demanded a public apology from Long Beach State Coach Seth Greenberg, alleging he slandered them and violated their civil rights by having security officers remove them from a game between the schools Jan. 22, accepted his letter of apology Monday.

In a written response to a reporter’s question, Paul Bardacke, the attorney for Charles Sallee and Craig Sullivan, stated his clients are satisfied with the letter faxed to his office Friday and will not pursue further action against Greenberg or Long Beach.

The students were removed from New Mexico State’s Pan American Center during the final moments of the Aggies’ 76-63 conference victory after Greenberg pointed toward a group of students he alleges yelled racial slurs at his African American players. Sullivan and Sallee, the son of New Mexico State professor and athletic council member Alvin Sallee, denied making or hearing any racial remarks. Sullivan said he heckled Greenberg only about his balding head.

Before the game, the 49ers found an anti-Semitic message scrawled on a grease board in the visitors’ locker room. Greenberg is Jewish.

* Staff writer Paul McLeod contributed to this story.