Tough choices ahead

INDIANAPOLIS – Some coaches may spend this weekend lobbying publicly for a spot in this year’s NCAA tournament.

They’d be better off focusing on winning games.

On Wednesday, selection committee chairman Tom O’Connor reiterated one of the panel’s founding principles: Results count more than words when choosing the 65-team field.

“It really doesn’t bother us or have any effect,” O’Connor said in a conference call. “A loss is a loss and a win is a win.”

It sounds simple, but, of course, it never is.

Committee members will spend the next four days locked down inside an Indianapolis hotel debating the merits of good wins, bad losses, records over the past 12 games, mathematical ratings, even such mundane topics as injuries, suspensions and scheduling to pick the 34 at-large teams.

If members wonder how one team stacks up against another, they can always opt for detailed computer analyses from NCAA officials. The campaigning, they say, will be ignored.

By Sunday evening, O’Connor will reveal the brackets that define March’s biggest sporting event. Regardless of the outcome, the committee will likely draw criticism from coast to coast.

With so much at stake this week, the hardline efforts have already begun.

Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said he has spoken with committee members two or three times to make the case that his conference deserves at least five at-large bids. He claims nine teams should be considered for the tourney. The Big East set the conference record when eight teams made the 2006 field.

“The challenge for the committee, as I’ve said all along, is to select the best 34 teams to compete for the national championship,” O’Connor said. “We’re clearly in the stretch run right now and yet many variables are left in terms of conference tournaments.”