More NCAA Conference Tournament Doubleheaders, Please

While enough can't be said of Georgia's impressive and improbable doubleheader sweep of Kentucky and Mississippi State yesterday, the circumstances which forced them to play two games in one day were unfortunate. And now they're at a clear disadvantage against Arkansas in the SEC championship, which just began a few minutes ago. They're tired, they're undermatched, but they're suddenly a great story, and maybe conferences looking to boost interest in their tournaments can learn from this.

As they stand now, the conference tournaments are like the squishy, indeterminate cheese-like substance ensconced in the pretzel shell of the NCAA tournament. (I'm eating Combos, if you haven't noticed.) There's either a delicious hook (like Georgia or Clemson) or the pretzel has practically any "cheese" in the middle, represented in this food metaphor by the Big XII title game. Does it really matter if Kansas beats Texas? Or if Texas beats Kansas? They're both in the top ten, and they're not rivals, so it's not at all that captivating. But if Kansas and Texas played each other right after playing games mere hours earlier in the day? Suddenly it's intriguing.

Like I mentioned yesterday, curlers can play multiple 10-end games in the same day, and baseball players play doubleheaders all the time. Obviously a basketball game is a little more taxing on the body than baseball and curling, but it might not hurt to create some more "madness" in these conference tournaments. Because it's almost 4 p.m. on Sunday, and while there's still conference championships to be doled out, I'm completely checked out on that front and ready for the NCAA tournament.

I'm also completely out of Combos, and this raises further dilemmas.