Since Plato first started working on his drop step, there’s been a gap between the ideal and the actual -- and it’s a given that the actual never lives up to the ideal. But the actual should still strive for the ideal, and though no one will ever put on the perfect tournament, if there were such a thing, what would it be like? It would start with location, both general and specific. The ideal tournament would be in a city that’s relatively cheap to get to, and has plenty of medium-priced hotels. The games themselves would be in just a few venues, all within ten minutes of each other. Boo Williams’ new facility in Virginia, for example, solves the second problem, but not the first. Getting to Hampton from the West Coast, say, is neither easy nor cheap, but once there, having eight courts on one site kept travel time to a minimum. (Sure, a 16-court gym would make it even better, but that goes beyond ideal into fantasy …)
Of course the brackets need to
be accurate.
It’s also a positive if there are plenty of food options nearby, as nutrition is important not only to players, but coaches, parents and officials. Having two games hours apart out in the middle of nowhere in an unfamiliar area, with strip malls far away, leads to either not enough food, or too much junk.
Now that we’ve taken care of sleeping and eating (two of my favorite activities, by the way), let’s consider the actual tournament itself. In an ideal world, the schedule is posted a week in advance, so teams can plan not only their itineraries but also maybe even do some preparation for their opponents. The sooner a coach knows that the DFW Elite is the first-round opponent, the sooner she can get out the broom in practice so someone can mimic the out-of-this-world shotblocking skills of Brittany Griner.
In addition, the last day’s games should end as early as possible so that teams can save a night’s hotel expenses. Sure, it’s a hassle, and a bit of a gamble, taking a late flight, but that’s still better than adding even more to that already pushing-the-limit credit card bill.
Naturally, teams should get the most for their money, and in a three-day tournament, should be guaranteed at least five games -- one on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. There should be no three-game days, and if a team plays late Friday night, it shouldn’t draw the 8 a.m. game on Saturday.
The brackets should also be staggered so that coaches, if they are so motivated, could actually get a look at who they’ll play in the next game so they can prepare their teams. (It’s an important, though often ignored, skill for players to learn how to take a scouting report and translate it onto the court. College teams have in-depth reports on opponents, and the ability to transform the abstract knowledge that Odyssey Sims of DFW always goes left and would rather drive than shoot the jumper into the physical ability to force Sims to change her game is not to be underestimated.) The staggered brackets also allow college coaches to see as many players as possible in the elite division, and after all, the presence of college coaches is crucial to the whole process.
And speaking of that, there is absolutely no reason that the packets for the coaches should cost $200 -- or $750. That is simply robbery, as the actual cost of assembling the information, making copies and putting together the binders is far, far less. (I keep waiting for one coach to just go down to Kinko’s, copy the whole thing, and pass it out to her colleagues.) Setting the price of a packet that high also discourages coaches from smaller schools with limited budgets from coming to these events, and in truth, most players need to be seen more by the coaches from the smaller schools than by Pat Summitt.
Of course, the officiating should be as good as possible. Tournament organizers should not lowball the refs, and should pay slightly above the going rate in order to attract the best available. The elite bracket should be staffed with three officials, as that’s what the colleges do, but there’s more to running the game than just officials. Scorekeepers and clock operators should be well-paid too, as hassles over the number of fouls, or number of points, can spoil an otherwise good game.
And all of those game administrators should get plenty of breaks. Expecting someone to run a clock with total concentration for 10 straight hours is simply unreasonable – and expecting refs to do four straight games guarantees fatigue, laziness, bad calls and frustration all around.
And one last thing: Make sure someone cleans the bathrooms every four hours. It’s tough enough to travel 1,000 miles to a tournament, pay a bunch of money, and hang out in a gym all day without turning the necessity to answer nature’s call into a test of courage.
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Clay Kallam is a columnist and contributor to HoopGurlz.com. He is the founder of Full Court Press, an online magazine devoted to women"s basketball and the author of “Girls Basketball: Building a Winning Program" (Wish Publishing, 2002). Kallam has written about the women"s game for several national publications and is a voter for the McDonald"s All-American team, the Parade All-American team, the All-WNBA team and the Wooden Award, and formerly wrote for the Contra Costa Times newspaper chain. Clay can be contacted via our Contact [1] form (click "Ask Clay Kallam").
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