College basketball teams and organizers ought to be alarmed.
Today, I had a television choice between Big Ten basketball and a NASCAR race at Atlanta … and I opted for the gearheads.
Which tells us something about the college hoops regular season.
And that is: It hardly matters. And if it hardly matters, why watch?
Maybe my four months in the college-hoops-black-hole that is Hong Kong, three of which overlaid the college season, have created a situation where I have momentarily lost touch/interest in college hoops.
Actually, I think it’s bigger than that. Thinking this through, I believe I’ve been losing interest in the regular season for years, and being cut off from the college game for three months in Asia just accelerated the process.
The really good teams, and we’re talking the top 30 or 40, at the least, didn’t need to win last week. Nor do they need to win next week, in the conference tournaments, to get into the NCAA Tournament.
So I need to watch any of those games … why?
The only teams that have to win some games last week or this one … have basically zero chance of winning an NCAA title. Talking about the also-rans in the major conferences and the champions of the no-hope little conferences.
College hoops also has been slowly beaten down by the departure of top talent to professional hoops. The NBA’s one-year rule helps, because it forces most guys to spend at least one year on the college scene, but the constant turnover of those one-and-done guys means the elite teams have almost no year-to-year coherence and very little chance to build themselves as marketing concepts.
(And, an aside: My choice today probably says a lot about how a college football tournament would be a bad idea, because it would instantly cheapen the regular season, which continues to be of paramount important, in football. USC lost a chance to play for the 2008 national title because it lost to Oregon State in mid-September. In hoops, that loss would be one of probably 4-5 for an elite team, and to be forgotten.)
So, yeah, my choices this morning … Purdue and Michigan State … or the NASCAR race at Atlanta.
For the first time in my life, I spurned the college hoops and went with the vroomies. Somebody ought to be worried.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Damian // Mar 9, 2009 at 3:57 PM
OK, I can understand how the HK humidity and living seafood you digested may have still blurred your senses from what is and isn’t a sport.
I’ll admit that I have also not followed much college hoops during the regular season the past 3 or 4 years. The game is clearly not as good because the stars and real talents that should in college have jumped to the NBA after their high school senior year or their freshman and sopohore years in colleges, making these college teams not as good and harder to relate to and follow as a fan who is constantly having to re-educate themselves as to who these guys are.
Also the sensationalistic sports jounalism era of this decade has placed so much talk and attention on the NCAA Tournament and has basically rendered the regular season as an afterthought due to their neglect in hyping any big regular season game the way they used to.
But when you compare it to NASCAR or any form of auto racing, it is imperative to keep this in mind:
Racing is not a sport. Never has been, never will be. The “weekend drive exhibition” has never seen anyone remotely resembling an athlete behind the wheel. Turning a wheel to the left and stepping on a gas pedal and brake doesn’t take any physical ability above and beyond what the average person possesses. I drive almost as fast as my car can go to Vegas for 3-3 1/2 hours and yet don’t consider myself auto racing. It’s just driving, and I’m not a Hick.
Anyone can be an auto racing pro, given you get the proper driving hours and experience behind the wheel and you have enough money to keep fixing your car and put new tires on. It’s like when you go to driving school. You haven’t previously driven, yet you log some driving time over a week at a driving school and, Presto!, all of the sudden you can comfortably drive 70 on the freeway with a few hours of getting used to it.
C’mon PaulO, snap out of it! I know you’re better than this.
Having said this, I wouldn’t watch Purdue-Mich. St either. Big-10 hoops sucks. If I were in your shoes, I’d just see what is on the soccer channels, and if there was nothing there, I’d turn the TV off and do something else.
2 Doug // Mar 9, 2009 at 7:51 PM
Until the tournament starts, watching college hoops is a waste of time unless your favorite school is involved. I can understand why people don’t like NASCAR, but comparing it to a solo high speed trip to Vegas is ludricrous. Some younger drivers such as Carl Edwards are athletes and the top drivers have amazing reflexes and courage bordering on craziness.
3 Albert Bui // Mar 10, 2009 at 9:06 AM
College Hoops will never be the same… until the elite players choose/are forced to play more than one year.
4 George Alfano // Mar 10, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Paul, my son, it is time for an intervention.
Obviously, demons have taken over your body, mind, and soul. We need to drive the demons of high-speed left-hand turns from your person, and restore the basketball season. For one may not fully enjoy the fruits of the NCAA tournament unless one plants the seeds during the regular season.
By the name of the powers from NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, I command that these NASCAR demons be driven from your soul and into one of the many crashes that will slow up the race.
Brother Damian, help me in this healing process.
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