We were watching the West Coast Conference tournament last night, and the Emmitt Smith of college basketball was calling the action.  That’s right, Stephen Bardo was on color commentary for the night.

He said something during the pre-game for St. Mary’s-San Diego that made us really happy to have a DVR.  We hit the rewind, listened to it again just to make sure we understood him correctly.  And yes, we did hear him correctly.  And this is what he said…

“You’re talking about a team in St. Mary’s, that has been ranked in the top 25, may have the toughest path to a tournament championship than anyone in the country having to play San Diego on their home court.”

Toughest path to a tournament championship than anyone in the country?  (As a side note, we are aware that stupid St. Mary’s lost and took some of the air out of this post, but we think it’s an idiotic statement nonetheless).

The arena in San Diego - named the Jenny Craig Pavilion - was barely half full, and many in attendance were fans of other teams or just your average spectator (worse, your average southern California level of enthusiasm spectator).  It’s not like they were playing Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.  They were playing San Diego, at San Diego, at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.  And we can think of about 500 other things we would rather do if we were in San Diego than watch that team play.

For comparison’s sake, let’s take a look at some of the team’s who, according to Bardo, have easier routes to a tournament championship than playing at RPI no. 97 San Diego…

–For Arizona State to win the Pac-10 tournament, it would have to beat USC, then UCLA, then either Stanford or Washington State.  Oh, and play 4 games in 4 days.
–For Villanova to win the Big East tournament, the Wildcats would have to beat Syracuse, then Georgetown, the possibly UConn and possibly Louisville or Notre Dame.  Oh, and play 4 games in 4 days.
–For Maryland to win the ACC tournament, the Terps would have to beat Boston College, then Clemson, then likely Duke and UNC.  Oh, and play 4 games in 4 days.

Hell, even Drake had to beat Indiana State (RPI 123), Creighton (RPI 49), and Illinois State (RPI 35) to win the Missouri Valley title.

But you know, we think Bardo is probably right.  If you give most teams out there a choice between playing 4 games in 4 days against top-30 RPI teams or playing at Sand Diego, we’re sure they would all choose the former.  And just think of how much easier it would be to beat Tennessee on a neutral court in Atlanta than to win against San Diego in front 2,500 spectators.

Can we get Jimmy Dykes back for the west coast games?  We don’t mind the guy in the booth being a homer for the conference.  But come on Bardo - there are limits.  Maybe start taking about 2-3 seconds once a thought forms in your head, decide if it makes you sound like an idiot, then determine whether you actually want to say it aloud.