NCAA basketball coaches desire seats to offer feedback on matters

DETROIT: As Matt Painter gets ready for Purdue’s Sweet 16 matchup against Gonzaga on Friday, he is aware that the NCAA tournament may change significantly in the coming years owing to persistent debate of expansion.

While he supports keeping the 68-team field in place, he also claimed that discussions about it and other crucial matters pertaining to the sport have ignored active coaches.

Athletes, commissioners, and academics from different universities make up the current NCAA Division I Council, which will decide whether or not to expand. It excludes coaches who are currently in office.

With NIL, the transfer portal and possible expansion continuing to impact the sport, Painter said it’s a mistake to ignore the input of current head coaches.

“I’d rather see the room change,” Painter said Thursday. “I’d rather see that. If you look [at] committees — whether it’s the executive committee, the Division I Council, the Rice Commission — there are no current head coaches sitting in those rooms. It doesn’t mean we have to stir the drink or make the decision, but just listen to it from our vantage point.”

Gonzaga’s Mark Few said coaches are sometimes blindsided by the decisions and changes and then are expected to adjust to them, which isn’t fair

Few stated, “I would only suggest that they start paying attention to us coaches, particularly the ones of us who have been in the game for a long time and have tried to do it the correct way.” “Help us escape this stifling grip of bureaucracy, where nothing gets done and the changes only hit us hard. And we were all able to predict it.

This [NCAA tournament] is so amazing, so unique, and so fantastic that hopefully we can get to the point where football and basketball coaches are on the decision-making [committees] that can help guide us through this thing. We must make sure that this doesn’t stop.”

Many college basketball coaches have found it difficult to search the transfer portal, which opened last week, for new players and to get their teams ready for postseason competition.

In regards to that matter as well as other significant advancements in men’s basketball, coaches Painter, Few, and others hope their views will be heard.

“My focus is on the student-athlete and their autonomy,” stated Greg McDermott, the coach at Creighton. “Those are the decisions they deserved. Is there another time that would work for [the transfer portal window]? I hope we can. I would rather that the teams competing in the NCAA tournament be the subject of the stories from Selection Sunday through Championship Monday. not regarding who is joining and quitting this program.

“It is regrettable that such a significant portion of the daily news revolves on it, and I believe it detracts from the celebration of the teams that have achieved remarkable success and reached this milestone.”