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Miami coach: NCAA Tournament expansion to 68 is first step

Miami men’s basketball coach hopes tournament eventually expands to 96 teams.

Mark Duncan/AP Photo Miami coach Charlie Coles gestures to his players during the MAC tournament Thursday, March 11, 2010, in Cleveland.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 8:02 AM Friday, April 23, 2010

OXFORD — Miami University basketball coach Charlie Coles said the NCAA’s decision on Thursday, April 22, to expand its tournament field by three teams won’t be much help in getting more Mid-American Conference teams into the Big Dance.

On the other hand, he said, it can’t hurt.

“I think it’s good,” Coles said of the increase from 65 to 68 teams. “It was wishful thinking when they said it was going to be 96.”

Many college experts had predicted that the NCAA would add 31 teams to the tournament field, but Coles had said that such a large-scale increase was unlikely.

“Anything that can get more teams in is important,” said Coles, who has guided the RedHawks to three NCAA Tournament berths, in 1997, ’99 and 2007. “It takes a little pressure off the (NCAA selection) committee.

“You’ve got to take baby steps,” he said. “This was a baby step.”

Coles said he would have been even happier with an expansion to 96 teams, which he said would have helped the MAC get more teams into the field.

The conference has not received an NCAA at-large bid since 1999 when the RedHawks, led by Wally Szcerbiak and Damon Frierson, advanced to the Sweet 16.

“I would have been supportive of the 96,” Coles said. “The more the merrier.

“It’s all about the college athletes, the kids,” he said, “and the more athletes that can get into the tournament and have that experience, the happier they will be.”

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