Well, we’re on our way to the Big Ten Tournament, which raises the question, “Why?” (both laugh) You were saying you were interested in Thad Matta’s take on it.

Yeah, Jim Foster, the women’s coach, has said he doesn’t like the tournament because it devalues the regular season. Thad said he was pretty much in that boat. He really likes the grind of the Big Ten regular season and he puts a lot more stock into that than he does getting together with everybody for three days.

I find that interesting because since he’s been at Ohio State they have done pretty well in the Big Ten Tournament. So if he devalues it, it certainly doesn’t come across in the way he coaches in it. They’ve been to the finals three of the last four years. I do think once you get there and once you’re playing the game it still gets real competitive and is high-level basketball.

What’s interesting to me is he gets a heftier bonus for winning the tournament than he does for winning the regular season (championship). With the journey and the grind aspect of it, that should be much more enjoyable and give you more of a sense of accomplishment. It’s kind of like, “Yeah, that’s great. Now win the tournament,” which, I guess, makes sense in that you get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

So if you have a year where you have a borderline season but you win that thing, you’ve not only saved your season, you’ve made everybody in the administration happy and they are willing to pay 20 more grand for that.

I guess you could say, “Why do they have the tournament,” and it’s because of money. But it is interesting that his bonus is bigger for that. But I can tell you, taking the professional side out of it and just as a fan, I put way more stock in the regular season. That scene, what, a week ago Tuesday where fans are running out on the court, they’re cutting down the nets, you could see a sense of accomplishment in the players, especially this year after the 1-3 start.

That is something to celebrate.

That’s right. It was, “Wow, we did this.” I’m not saying if they win three games this week they won’t have a similar type of celebration but I really felt like those guys were extremely happy last Tuesday. That was pretty special. I, frankly, like the regular-season title more than the Big Ten Tournament title.

Having said that, I do like the Big Ten Tournament, though, and I didn’t think I would when they first went to it. There’s always interesting storylines that come out of it and there’s always that team that needs one more win. So there’s always that intrigue. Initially, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I do on balance like the Big Ten Tournament and what it presents.

How about this radical thought, especially if they have expansion (for the NCAA Tournament), which it appears they are going to do: The regular-season champ, or the 1-seed as it were, is your automatic qualifier. What do you think of that?

I would like that.

I don’t think they would ever do that because it would be like an admission of “Yeah, this is just a dog-and-pony show.”

If they expand the tournament to 96 teams … I don’t know, I’d have to look at the numbers, but couldn’t they tell the conferences that your regular-season champ automatically gets a bid. But I’m with you. That’s the thing that bothers me about conference tournaments. And it’s not even so much the major conferences because generally you have three, four, five, sometimes eight teams come out of those leagues.

It’s the little conferences like the MEAC where a team goes 15-1 in the conference in the regular season and loses in the tournament and their season is screwed. That bothers me.

That in a way, though, gives those dinky conferences a little more exposure. Like for example if Utah State doesn’t win its tournament they are going to get an at-large. So basically they wipe off a bubble team and now the country cares about it.

Right. Like if Wright State stole the Horizon League bid instead of Butler.

Have you been to every Big Ten Tournament?

Every year but (Jim) O’Brien’s last year. They lost to Indiana and were one and done.

Oh, you missed when OSU lost to the walk-ons and A.J. Moye.

(impersonating O’Brien): “I don’t care what his stats are, you still have to guard him.” (Rapp laughs) I don’t even remember who that was.

Some stiff who could have been an extra in the movie, “Hoosiers.” Well, some of these Thursdays have been pretty drab. Let’s face it. You sit there and go, “Why are we doing this again?” But the thing always perks up on Friday. And I have to say, I love that atmosphere. I love the four games in a row deal. I like seeing, basically, fans of every team on that day. Maybe that’s the only real worthwhile day, but it’s a pretty fun day.

And like I said earlier, we will always have - this year it will be Illinois and Minnesota - that team that Joe Lunardi tries to figure out if they are in or are they out. A couple years ago, a fine example is Ohio State. They didn’t win. They played Michigan State needing a win on Friday to get a 20th win and probably get themselves in the (NCAA) tournament. Even though they lost that game, that was like an NCAA Tournament game. I thought they played very well. They just didn’t win and had a couple calls go against them.

I guess as a basketball fan, that’s why I like it. As much as I like the regular season sometimes both teams are tired or don’t play with a real sense of urgency. And there are games here that are bad, too. But for the most part you get to see high-level basketball and it makes me go, “Man, I’m ready for next week.” That’s what I enjoy, when teams are playing at that level.

That leads to one of my thoughts, which is probably my biggest problem with the Big Ten Tournament in particular is that it should build to this glorious Sunday finale that makes the whole country take notice. In a way it does, but honestly it does simply because it’s a lead-in to the brackets being announced. They are the last teams to play on Sunday, and the second that game’s over it doesn’t matter and all anyone cares about are who are the 1s, who’s in, who’s out. I think it diminishes what just happened on the floor.

I don’t know what the solution is, if you do what the Big East does and bump it to Saturday night. Obviously they don’t want to lose their TV slot. I don’t know. What are your thoughts on that? I find it to be a little bit of a downer.

I agree. It’s anticlimactic, the final. You’re right, after the game who won and who lost doesn’t matter. It’s where are you going and on to the next thing. So if I were an all-powerful god, I do think the Big East does it and I would have that championship on Saturday.

It does a couple of things. Number one, your tournament champion who has played three games in three days, it’s an extra day for that team to get ready for the NCAA Tournament. And two, it lets you celebrate that championship for 24 hours.

I understand the time slot and, again, it’s the almighty dollar. I think you do a disservice to that top team in the league who performs well in that tournament championship by then immediately having that devalued.

Let’s take a couple of examples. Last year I give Purdue a lot of credit because they played through it. But let’s face it. They got screwed. They had a real nice regular season and won the Big Ten Tournament championship and then the NCAA sends them to Portland, Ore., on a Thursday.

(facetiously): What’s wrong with Portland?

Nothing. It’s just a lousy draw after playing the very last game on Sunday and having to play two time zones away. Which brings us to 2002 with Ohio State. The same thing happened. They won the Big Ten Tournament and they got sent to Utah.

Albuquerque. They made a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

That’s right. And they played at noon on Thursday.

That was ridiculous.

So I guess if I was a Big Ten official – and I know CBS’ contract has a lot to do with that – I would really look at that and get that game out of Sunday. I would find a way to get it to Saturday. The other thing about the Sunday game is that I am fully convinced that game doesn’t have anything to do with your seeding. I mean that game is meaningless.”

I agree. But I will give the league credit for one wrinkle that I really do like. I don’t know if we can use the word “permanent” yet, but they have decided to have this thing at Conseco Fieldhouse. And I say that as we’re driving to Indianapolis, which is a pretty simple drive.

The other thing is, you mentioned the Big East. One reason why their tournament has some appeal is they’ve got that classic settting, Madison Square Garden. For anyone who has never been to Conseco, it is a basketball mecca in its own right. I think they should just settle on it being here, be done with it, and build up Conseco Fieldhouse as the site for Big Ten basketball.