The Guru Report Extra: Call It Selection Sun-night; WNBA Revamps Playoff Format

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

As launched just 24 hours earlier, your Guru decided when news occurs or discussions warranted, producing an extra keeps things out of the way of the local/national collegiate roundup and gives special topics their own space.

Thus, two items here — one enhancing the news with the return of Selection Sunday from Monday nights when the NCAA Women’s Tournament bracket is rolled out on ESPN and secondly just for the record and Guru followers who don’t spend a lot of time in cyberspace the WNBA announcement earlier Thursday on having the playoffs revised to three rounds from the previous four but allowing an expansion of games in the openers.

Now, as for Selection Sunday after talking to several knowledgeable people as suspected in terms of logistics, the match was lit from the NCAA side.

Why?

Because with the expansion to 68 teams and creation of the Women’s Front Four which will see two games on Wednesday and two on Thursday, more space was needed between the time the field becomes public knowledge and the first games played.

But this year because of the approval just made while no announcement was made in the expansion release, one can expect the show to begin at 8 p.m.

First, for those who did not live the previous Selection Sundays from the outset of the NCAA until the move to Monday nights, this is how the day rolled.

The deal was to get the field out there late afternoon before the men’s field got announcement in the 6 p.m. hour.

There was a lot to enjoy in this arrangement for those in the media back when newspapers were more plentiful.

For one, the women’s bracket could get to media art departments early with a head start so Monday editions could prominently display both the women’s and men’s fields.

And for those writing local teams who made the Big Dance and the national look, there was plenty of time until deadline to get most of the nitty gritty done before the first edition.

The change to Monday night at 7 p.m. became a new problem for the production departments because the announcement was much closer to press time.

Also on Sundays very few conference tournament championships still had to be played and in many years in the course of the summer the committee could get the conference schedules and brow beat many to go back to a Saturday finish or earlier Sunday.

Not so much this year.

Seven leagues will hold their championships on what is now the new announcement date, highlighted by the Big 12, which with Baylor, Texas, and perhaps a few others could be impactful to the seeding and pairing process.

The other six are the Patriot, played on the highest surviving seed’s court, The Missouri Valley, the Northeast Conference, the ASun, the Southland, and the SWAC.

Most are ending late afternoon and the ship has sailed carrying the ability to get some reversals because of arena and TV commitments with each of those tournaments.

So while the bracket is likely to be done by 6 p.m., it is prudent to stand aside until the men’s field rollout comes and goes.

Thus, the earliest is likely to be 8 p.m.

But on the upside, there’s the chance that suddenly as was done in the growth process in the WNBA and starting to appear at the collegiate level, with ESPN being a Disney company, perhaps, as has been suggested, ABC could become the carrier.

Furthermore, more analysis can occur into the wee hours and in the case of ESPN family, which will still pay attention to the men, though it’s CBS’ baby, cross referencing to the two fields could occur.

And more attention could be given to the WNIT that always gets buried at back end when field ready except for places where teams left out of the NCAA field get selected. 

As for the newspaper art departments, it’s a cyber world now, so one does not have to wait till the next day when all it takes is a device and printer to get instant hard copy.

There will be plenty of time next year to improve things but now is now and so like it or not, you will have to settle for whatever is believed to be workable.

WNBA Playoffs Revised:  Mid-afternoon Thursday came word from the WNBA that a new playoff arrangement will occur that will do away with the two early one-and-done rounds, which was subject to criticism of unfairness to middle to lower seeds, who, quality wise, were better than set, though somebody had to be four, five, and six.

And say goodbye to the bye and double bye, the latter of which the top two seeds held, and the former, the three and four seeds possessed.

The field will still be devoid as has been with the last change of conference identity, with the selection of the best eight records combined over what will finally be the 36-game regular season schedule.

Then round one will be four best-of-three series with the winners in semifinal seed matchups coming from the previous configuration but no re-seed between rounds.

The No. 1 seed meets No. 8 and is brackets with the 4-5 matchup and whatever two win regardless of seed will play a best-of-five semifinals and that winner advances to the best-of-five championship.

On the other side, the 3-6 and 2-7 matchups play their best-of-threes and the two winners meet in the other semifinals, with the survivor advancing to the best-of-five championship.

In the opening four rounds each higher seed hosts the first two games, with the third, if necessary, going to the other team.

The semifinals and finals sites will remain as has been, the higher seed hosts the first two games, then the sites shift to the lower seed for Games 3, and if necessary, Game 4, and then, if necessary the fifth goes back to the higher seed.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, in a statement, in the release said different formats had been evaluated over the past year. 

“The new best-of-three series format will provide added opportunities to create and showcase rivalries with all playoff-eligible teams participating.”

The previous format began in 2016 and prior the playoffs were conducted with the top four in each conference and then crossing over for the finals.

The release noted now the top eight teams have a consistent start to their playoff runs.

This season in a first the championship was played between the fifth-seeded Phoenix Mercury and sixth-seeded Chicago Sky, won by Chicago in four games, including the clinching game at home in the Windy City.