The college basketball world is busy looking for solutions after teams like West Virginia and Indiana were left out of the Big Dance in favor of North Carolina ... and Dan Dakich gave TMZ Sports his fix for the selection process -- let Las Vegas decide!!
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00:00Dan, let's start, first of all, with the teams that didn't make it.
00:08I'm going to start there, obviously, because I know a lot of people have looked at Indiana
00:12and said, hey, Indiana deserved to be in.
00:15West Virginia deserved to be in over, say, a team like the University of North Carolina.
00:20Dan, talk to me about these teams who feel like they've been snubbed, first things first.
00:24Well, Indiana didn't deserve to be in over West Virginia.
00:27In fact, I argued Indiana hadn't done enough.
00:29They had two nice wins all year, but that was one more than North Carolina had.
00:34You know, this is shady, and I hate to put it this way.
00:38North Carolina, a lot of people know the athletic director of North Carolina, is the head of
00:43the NCAA committee that selects the teams.
00:47Now, he has to stay out of the room when Carolina's being discussed, but that doesn't mean he's
00:52not having drinks talking about Carolina or at dinner.
00:56He also gets a big time bonus.
00:58Some say it's 67,000.
01:00Some say it's 104,000.
01:01If Carolina makes the tournament, man, a little bit shady, West Virginia has a real complaint.
01:07They went and won a bunch of games against good teams, home and away, and even a bigger
01:11complaint because the head of the committee, Bubba Cunningham said, well, you know, their
01:16best player got hurt.
01:17Yeah, he did get hurt.
01:18He got hurt December 8th, which is a lifetime ago.
01:21It didn't even play in a conference game.
01:23It didn't hold water.
01:25I have always thought that there have been nefarious things because it's adults.
01:29There's money involved.
01:30Anytime you get adults with money, there's the opportunity for stupidity, corruption.
01:35But I got to tell you, I have never thought more than this year that North Carolina getting
01:41in the tournament is egregious.
01:43There's something going on here.
01:44It's shady.
01:45It's garbage.
01:46It's nonsense.
01:47Cause they had one quality win the entire year.
01:50One quad, one win one all year.
01:54And they had the tournament over teams that had five and six.
01:56So it's no good.
01:57Dan, is there a, is there something that you say, Hey, that's a change we should make where
02:02we could maybe fix this and make this a little bit better?
02:05See, what's the answer?
02:07The answer is let Vegas do it.
02:09Give all your parameters, give it to the fellas out in the desert, the ladies, the gentlemen
02:13out in the desert.
02:14They don't screw these things up, brother.
02:17And they are, they are without any type of bias.
02:21Let Vegas do this.
02:23I've said this for years.
02:25These guys, these commissioners, these athletic directors are in the committee room.
02:29They've worked their whole lives.
02:30I don't care about that.
02:31They're athletic directors.
02:33Athletic director at North Carolina has got to worry about football, basketball, women's
02:36basketball.
02:37So all these things, give it to Vegas, let Vegas do it, whatever that means and take
02:42the bias out of it.
02:44And you solve all these problems.
02:47I love it.
02:48Dan.
02:49Now we talked to her.
02:50We mentioned Indiana, Mike Woodson, obviously out.
02:53They need a head coach.
02:54Ben McCollum from Drake is somebody who has had a lot, you know, his name thrown out there,
02:58not just in Indiana, some other openings as well.
03:00I believe you had a conversation with him, Dan, on your show.
03:05Do you like McCollum?
03:06Do you want to go somewhere else for a head coach in Indiana?
03:08What's the answer there?
03:09Well, I've always said, hire Steve Alford, former IU grade.
03:13He's a legend.
03:14He's won 500 games or more as a college basketball coach.
03:17If you're not going to do that, I got to tell you, man, my conversation today with Coach
03:22McCollum, I text the athletic director at Indiana.
03:24I said, if you're not going to hire Alford, give this guy everything he wants.
03:28Wow.
03:29Give him anything.
03:30I don't care.
03:31Whatever he wants.
03:32Give it to him.
03:33He's really an impressive guy.
03:34Wow.
03:35Hasn't lost.
03:36He's like 219 and 16 in his last six plus years as a college coach and talking to him.
03:41He's a real one.
03:42He's not a salesman.
03:43He's not a BS guy.
03:44He's a real basketball coach with a real passion and honest to God.
03:49That's all.
03:50And he seems like a normal guy.
03:52I mean, look at that.
03:53Ego maniacs in Indiana.
03:54The last guy, Woodson, comes out and says, if you want it, Mike Woodson, you got to go
03:57to Mike Woodson.
03:58Mike Woodson, don't come here.
03:59Some stupid stuff.
04:00It gives me a headache.
04:01So honest to God, just hire a really good dude.
04:06That's kind of a humble servant, which he is and wins a lot of basketball games.
04:09I'm down with that.
04:10I'm down with McCollum, particularly after talking to him today on my show.