Sure, this is usually a high school sports blog, but we’re between seasons now, and while I wait for the diamonds to dry around the Merrimack Valley, all I can seem to focus on these days is the NCAA tourney.
You’ll find no more staunch backer of NCAA basketball than me.
Like many forty-somethings, I was possessed by “March Madness” when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in their final.
I wore my lungs out cheering home Villanova and Methuen High product Gary McClain in the great upset of Georgetown.
Over the years, memories of tourneys continued to pile up. Jimmy Valvano’s win at NC State, Christian Laetner, Danny Manning, The Running Rebs of Vegas, Princeton, Gonzaga. Pile ‘em up.
The NCAAs have survived the strafing of talent with the high school defections to the pros and prospered.
But something is awry. Something’s not right.
The highly-ranked villains are still in place.
The Cinderella stories. The one-and-done emotion.
The mid-majors. The tiny titan-topplers.
The problem isn’t the event. It’s the basketball.
When did the NCAAs take their queue from the pros? College basketball has become a copy-cat carbon-copy of the NBA, only with players of lesser talent.
College basketball has lost its flavor, its uniqueness.
I blame the coaches and those darn coaching trees.
Everyone is a disciple of Dean Smith, a Coach K clone, or a Rick Pitino wanna be.
Where are the signature teams?
Where’s the Princeton motion offense and those deadly backdoor cuts?
Nope. Everyone, and that means everyone, runs a high-screen-and-roll and little else.
Every trip, high screen. Sometimes it’s a pick and roll, others pick and pop. Bo-ring.
Play the game, coaches. Run something.
Defensively, where is the famed Georgetown fullcourt press? Or Jim Boeheim’s patented Syracuse 2-3 zone?
It’s straight man for nearly everyone. Even if the occasional zone is mixed in, there’s no dedication to it.
The college game has become homogenized and bland. And the 50 timeouts a game don’t add much to the drama, either.
Those in charge deserve their share of the blame, too. The men in stripes are horrendously inconsistent.
Block/charge is most often a 50-50 call. So why are 90 percent of the calls charges?
Also, who allowed the rampant traveling to become a part of the college game.
Allan Iversen took the already Jordan-stretched pro rules and made a mockery of them with his giant jump-stop, plus two more strides, that everyone uses now.
Now in college, taking steps is part of everyone’s arsensal.
Blow the whistle and clean things up. Call the walks.
More than that, too often officials decide the outcome.
Don’t believe it? Ask the Georgia fans after their club shot five free throws and Xavier shot 33 in the Musketeers’ 73-61 win.
Luckily for Western Kentucky, it survived shooting only 19 free throws to Drake’s 38 Friday. And San Diego upset UConn, despite going to the line seven times compared to the Huskies’ 20. Surely, droning Jim Calhoun was still unhappy with the edge.
It’s not enough to turn this hoop fiend away. I love the tournament. I love the game. Something’s missing, and it’s just not the same.
That said, I’ll stick with my boys, Pitino and Louisville and John Calipari at Memphis as my teams to beat. They coach a little harder, ask more of their players, change defenses and always keep it exciting.
I’ll take either over Roy Williams any day.
Anybody have any final 4 picks out there?
