New Minimum Travel Rule has Many Coaches Angry

By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]

The NCAA Regionals, which are the first two rounds of the NCAA
tournament, used to be a mere formality for the perennial dominant
UCLA men’s tennis team.

Every year around this time, teams with less talent and even
less hope would come into the Los Angeles Tennis Center, looking
for the upset that was, in the end, hopeless.

In fact, dating back to 1950, the Bruins have never lost in
regionals, and they don’t expect to this year.

A dark cloud, however, is hanging over the heads of the Bruins.
There is a chance that when the brackets are announced today, UCLA
might not even play host to a regional tournament.

Every year prior to this, the top 16 teams were rewarded with
the right to host a regional tournament, assuming every region
hosted one.

But this year, under a new NCAA mandate regarding the Sept. 11
attacks, seedings may no longer determine who gets to host
regionals. Geographic location will be the primary factor because
the NCAA doesn’t want teams travelling more than 400 miles to
play.

That means the NCAA will pick locations convenient for everyone
and not necessarily reward top-ranked teams.

And it has UCLA head coach Billy Martin worried his No. 2 Bruins
won’t get a chance to host.

“All they are doing is taking 64 teams and pin-pointing
them on a map,” Martin said. “They don’t care
where you are ranked or what kind of facility you have.”

This has him and many other coaches seething because playing
host to a regional tournament used to be a reward to top teams.

“I don’t know of one coach who isn’t against
this,” Martin said. “Under the old system, you were
ranked for being higher, and that helped keep the integrity of the
tournament.”

The brackets will be noticeably different from last year. In
2001, UCLA had to beat South Florida to advance past the second
round.

This year, playing South Florida isn’t a possibility. The
Bruins likely will be matched up against somewhat tougher teams
such as San Diego State and Arizona State.

The Bruins could even have to travel to those schools in order
to play, which would put UCLA at a disadvantage.

Some players are mad at the prospect of travelling, but others,
such as sophomore Marcin Matkowski, would rather play a familiar
team.

“I feel more comfortable if I’ve played them
already,” Matkowski said. “I have the confidence to
know I can beat them.”

This rule is more of a nuisance than anything else for the
Bruins. They are still almost assured of advancing past the second
round because it would be very unlikely that they would play one of
the top 25 teams in the nation in regionals.

However, the burden of having to travel for regionals and then
travelling again the following weekend to go to the NCAA
Championships could contribute to fatigue.

“Staying home always used to be a reward that we’ve
earned,” Martin said. “But maybe not this
year.”