ATLANTA – Dr. Myles Brand, president of the NCAA, held his annual pre-Final Four press conference and addressed two issues that have made news of late. After Syracuse was left out of the NCAA Tournament, suggestions that the tournament field be expanded gained momentum. Brand shot that down.
“In my view, and I’m not shy about saying this, the last thing we want to do is significantly increase the size of the tournament to 96 or 128 teams,” said Brand. “I think that would take a very good tournament and weaken it in the eyes of the public and the selectivity involved in it. I would be against that kind of watering down of the tournament.
One issue that remains unresolved is the blatant use (abuse?) of text messaging in the recruiting process. Coaches are limited in the number of phone calls they can place to a recruit but there are no limits on text messaging.
“By the time the NCAA gets clear about text messaging it won’t even be used any more,” admitted Brand.
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Florida’s Lee Humphrey needs three 3-pointers in tomorrow’s semifinal against UCLA to tie former Duke star Bobby Hurley‘s NCAA tournament record of 42 3s. In the Gators’ win over Oregon, Humphrey knocked down seven 3s, including one that snapped a strand of the net, forcing a nine-minute delay to make repairs.
‘I was like, ‘He’s hot,’ ” said freshman forward Mareesse Speights, who had a good view from Florida’s bench. “The rim was hot; that’s why it popped. He was burnt.”
Humphrey’s second 3-pointer of the game nudged him ahead of Brett Nelson for tops on the Gators’ career list. Humphrey has 280 3-pointers; Nelson had 274.