College basketball coaches react to NCAA Tournament expansion, focus on how field should be picked

When the news broke this week that the NCAA Tournament is closing in on expanding from 68 teams to 76, most coaches were like fans.“My knee-jerk reaction is you shouldn’t do it,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “I just think we have something that’s pretty special.”Not every coach is against expansion. Some follow the NCAA’s company line that college basketball has the smallest percentage of its teams playing in its postseason tournament of any Division I sport, so increasing the percentage of participation made sense. But the strongest opinions from coaches are not about the actual change; it’s the methodology for how the NCAA got to this place and how it selects the field.Advertisement