Sunday, March 26, 2006

Time for a Timeout on Timeouts?

Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly, weary of the closing minutes of NCAA Men's Tournament games taking forever, proposes reducing the number of timeouts and doing away with them all together in the final two minutes.

Says he:
The 20 lumbering minutes that it takes to finish the last few minutes of most games is nothing short of excruciating, but in games where both teams have used up their timeouts the final minutes are some of the most exciting in sports.
The idea makes sense.

No it doesn't.

I myself keep going back and forth, but in any event, reader responses to Drum's proposal run the gamut, are for the most part insightful, and some are quite funny.

AND ANOTHER THOUGHT

I don't know anyone who's NCAA tournament pools haven't been blown to smithereens by all of the upsets.

I didn't bet and haven't in years because I always do poorly, but regardless of that only one of my picks at this stage of the Sweet Sixteen -- Villanova -- has survived, and they'll have their hands full this afternoon. My others were Carolina, Dook and Memphis. (Update: Villanova also is out.)

How many survivors wouldn't be alive today if Drum's proposal to do away with timeouts in the final two minutes was in effect? I have a hunch that things would be pretty much the same.

Wuddya think?

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