European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 16, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday March 16, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 25commentarytuff every team in Mcaa tourney 0u know its Mcaa tournament time when crying starts. _ i no Beach state wears a Long face Over missing Fourney while us Santa Barbara goes. Paui is Blue Over missing the tourney while re Dame goes. Maryland new Mexico and Southern Illinois Are ining about missing the 64-team Field the problem is this picking 64 teams from the vision i basketball Maze of 292 leads to arbitrary action. Why Virginia Over Louisiana tech Why has state Over Memphis state the selection Smittee had to have a Coin to flip Between the Derline teams. Low to Stop the Flap easy. Open the Mcaa tour Hent to every team in division i. Kill 292 teams come on Down. Northwestern northeastern Southern you re Ink Loyola Mary mount Loyola 111., Loyola md., no your Ball. Jinny Navy air Force Here a your ticket. Uit the selection committee guessing. Quit Han piping teams that done to Wear a a Indiana and Iclal across their jerseys. Lust open the tourney to All 292. An open door Anat works for High schools in a Bunch of states a luding Pennsylvania Ohio and Illinois. It will re for College basketball. Here show. Place the 72 worst teams in the first round. The 36 surviving teams from the first round 1220 teams that had first round byes. I. Those 256 teams play a second round paring m to 128. The 128 play a third round cutting Down to the frent 64. Voila. An open tournament and All it needs is one Ore week of games than today a  Fox arguments lets hear and answer them. This is ultimate socialism. True this is pandering to the life is unfair crowd. But it beats returning to the harsh win your conference or you done to Advance Rule. If that were in effect Robert Morris would still be in but Purdue . This makes a mockery of the regular season. And Why is Georgetown playing St. Leos that a exactly the kind of december joke this open tournament would eliminate. Georgetown would no longer feel a need to fatten its record on Skinny patsies. Instead teams would want to tone up crunch time Muscles. Thus Georgetown would Welcome a Christmas trip to Arizona. This spoils the conference tournaments. Lets talk about today a Mcaa selection committee spoiling those conference tournaments. Here the big West final was on an radio sunday and already in the first half we hear that Nevada Las vegas is seeded first in the West regional. So much for big West tourney suspense. An open Mcaa tourney would place More focus on the conference titles. The big news sunday should be been who won All those leagues like Georgia tech taking the Atlantic coast conference. The Way it is now the news of who filled the 64 slots bumped the conference champions to the classifieds. This kills the nit. No it does no to. The National invitation tournament takes the leftovers anyway. In the open format the Mcaa tourney would shrink to 64 teams after three rounds when the nit would pick its teams. This stretches the season too Long. One week longer. Big Deal. Even Wimbledon forever stodgy says that within two years it will push its tournament Back a week. Tennis players sought an extra week Between the French open and Wimbledon to adjust from playing on Clay to grass. If the All England club can Bend the Mcaa can. This gives Crummy teams an unfair shot at the title. Not really. Columbia Gonzaga and their ilk will rarely reach the final 64. Done to worry. Some year the Mcaa tournament will get it right. For 1990, what team will get it right my Prisca son prediction was Indiana. About the time the hoosiers were 16-7, a couple of colleagues rubbed that pick in. Said Indiana  even make the tournament. A. The hoosiers made it. They were planning to play California thursday night in the East regional. Do i still predict Indiana to win it All gotta stay with a preseason pick even if the hoosiers limped in at 18-10. And even if they could be out As you read this since the Cal game was to be played Friday morning european time. Not that in a rooting for Indiana. My favourites in the East Are Connecticut and Cal because of their Albert Schweitzer connection. John Gwynn map of the . Team that won the Schweitzer tournament at Mannheim in 1987, is sizzling off the Bench for Conn. Ryan Drew Gwynn a backcourt mate in �?T87, plays for Cal. That takes care of the East. My other regional choices go like this Southeast Missouri. Reason its my school. Midwest Oklahoma. Reason did you see the sooner Hammer Mizzau West Michigan. Reason the wolverines can handle univ which is the Only threat in this regional. That a another reason to bulge the tournament to 292. Picking a final four out of 64 is too easy. The stars and str pos orld league is Orlando Llano Fla. Apr Orlando was id thursday As the first official fran Ifor the world league of american tall which is being financed by the and will begin play next Spring in 12 i american and european cities. York is expected to be another of a . Cities with franchises also bed in Montreal Mexico City bar a Milan London and Frankfurt. Gue president Tex Schramm said apes to have the other the . Fran-1 identified in the next month to six i with ownership set by june 1. A a Lando which does not yet have a will play at the 70,000-seat Cit jowl which Schramm and Orlando a Bill Frederick said they believed a uld come close to filling. Baseball gears umpires clinic a the Tele-5 German can league will hold its umpires i Oon saturday in Frankfurt at no 489 on Edwards Cavern. F clinic is open to anyone interested i Keg As an Umpire in the a a league of the various youth leagues this the information Call Jim Morfop a Hanau will hold a  invitational March 31 to i up pc the i of hegerhorst gym. Team l ii e the first 10 teams to up ill land in the double elimination a for entry is March 28. A i 5080 in 31 322 8960 or a Italy a Christian Ghedina is the hottest in thursday s downhill. Austria a Helmut Hoe Flehner clinched the season downhill title. Ghedina breezes to downhill win Are Sweden apr Christian Ghedina of Italy won a world cup downhill thursday and austrian Helmut Hoe Flehner clinched the season title in that discipline by placing third. Ghedina clocked 1 minute 16.41 seconds Down the Olympia track that was shortened because of Strong winds. It was Ghedina a second downhill Victory. He won the first one in february in his Hometown Cortina do am Pezzo. Ghedina 20, has one second and one third in this seasons world cup season. Franz Heinzer of Switzerland took second in 1 16.68. Hoe Flehner clocked 1 16.89 which gave him an unbeatable 146 Points atop the standings. The 30-year-old austrian also won the downhill championship in 1985 and was runner up last season. Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland was eighth in 1 17.29. Thursdays downhill the first for the men in 39 Days was a makeup for a race cancelled feb. 11 at lax Switzerland. The final downhill will be saturday. Finishing fourth behind Hoe Flehner was another austrian Peter Wimsberg or in 1 16.98, followed by atle skaardal of Norway and Felix Belczyk of Canada