Tournament hurts Big Ten, Foster says

If coach Jim Foster had his way, the Ohio State women's basketball team wouldn't have beaten Wisconsin last night in a Big Ten tournament semifinal. There wouldn't even be a tournament.

OK, I know what you're probably thinking: Foster said that because the Buckeyes had everything to lose and nothing to gain by being here and, to a large extent, that's right.

They have won the league's regular-season title six years in a row and are the defending tournament champions. They have been to the final four of the past five years and won two of them. Fair or not, their season will be defined by their NCAA Tournament performance, not by what happens here.

Foster acknowledges that, but it's not why he would like to see the conference tournament go away. He doesn't think it promotes women's basketball the way it should. He doesn't think it is particularly good for the Big Ten.

"It would make a lot more sense to me in terms of trying to grow our game if it flowed right to the end, the last weekend," he said. "There would be more opportunities to schedule ... and build home crowds; our two biggest crowds were our last two home games. And it's far better for the players' academic quality of life."

This is where the listener acknowledges that Foster has some good points but looks at him with sympathetic eyes. For some reason, he doesn't realize this tournament will probably be with us forever, that the Big Ten is now as much a TV network as a conference, and this event provides four days of programming. Hey, priorities are priorities.

But then Foster boldly goes where where no women's basketball coach has gone before - football - and his point begins to crystallize.

"The Big Ten obviously saw there was a problem that there was so much time off from their last meaningful game until the bowl game, that they backed the season up a week and now in all probability they are looking at a conference championship game," Foster said. "So obviously it became more important that we be more competitive, so in football we make changes.

"Well, in basketball, how about we flow into that last weekend, you finish Sunday, you find out where you go (in the NCAA Tournament) Monday, and you're playing again next week?

"As it is now, we're off this week with no understanding of who we're going to play and where we're going to be, and we're two full weeks before we play another game. So any continuity and flow and good teamwork that had evolved during the course of the season may or may not be there the next time you run out on the floor."

The comparison is interesting because it seems to fit. The Big Ten hasn't been as competitive in the NCAA Tournament as it would like, much as Big Ten football was (until this season) in its bowl games.

It doubtless doesn't explain everything and could be seen as Foster making excuses for the Buckeyes not doing better in the tournament - in the past seven seasons, they have been to the Sweet 16 twice and lost in the first or second round five times - but he still has a point.

If postseason success is what everyone is focused on and this event has a negative impact on that, why have it?

"I think oftentimes we're doing it because others do it, or the men do it," Foster said. "If the men do it, then we should do it."

This is the point where the listener looks at Foster and wonders whether he has noticed what he has just stepped in. He smiles.

"I really don't care," he said. "I'm on the back side, so I'm gonna say what I think, because I don't think enough people sit down and really explore our sport from the point of what's actually best for our sport. Maybe it's time to ask some good, hard questions."

Maybe.

But would the decision-makers be willing to accept the answers?

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com