After seeing the NCAA Tournament get canceled in 2020, college basketball coaches do not want it to get canceled in 2021. Which is why some, including Mike Krzyzewski, support expanding the NCAA Tournament to include all eligible Division I programs.
“Coach K spearheaded the movement to have an all-inclusive NCAA Tournament with 346 [teams] – that’s how many that are eligible this year out of 357 – all getting into the tournament," Stadium basketball analyst Jeff Goodman said on Reiter Than You. “I tweeted [that] out [Wednesday] and wrote something and all mayhem [broke] loose.”
Krzyzewski has been outspoken in his support of a 2021 NCAA Tournament. In fact, he doesn’t think college basketball can afford to cancel its biggest event two years in a row.
Still, Goodman questions Krzyzewski’s motivations in calling for an inclusive tournament.
“Listen, I get it in a sense that it’s a different year. We don’t know how many games everybody is going to end up playing in the regular season, so allow everybody in,” Goodman said. “I still want to know what Coach K’s ulterior motive was with this. I just don’t believe that he wants that kid from Bethune-Cookman to make the NCAA Tournament so bad that he’s going to make it inclusive. I don’t know. Call me skeptical, but I think there is an ulterior motive there for the guy that, according to my sources, wants to start the season in January with only conference games.”