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I hate to do it... I honestly can not believe what I am about to write... But Here goes...
I was going to write a blog last week describing my love for the first day of the NCAA tournament... I was going to write how other then opening day at Yankee Stadium and Super Bowl Sunday the first day of the tournament is my favorite day on the sports calendar... I was going to write all of that but then I sat down to watch a few games this weekend and here is what I decided to write....
We have all been dancing for a weekend now... We have seen 13 seeds beat 4 seeds.... Pittsburgh almost lose to East Tennessee State( Yes I just looked it up because I could not remember the name of the team that was nearly famous)and like 10,000 promos for survivor and to be perfectly honest... I am bored...
I apologize for what I am about to say ...but I have found I can not hold my tongue any longer ... I have watched NBA basketball for a long time .. I have seen the outstanding talent level shine through on a Tuesday in Golden State... Now I have watched College Basketball for 4 days straight...And... I have decided that the College game is boring... If not for the brackets and the gambling ( Yes, I occasionally enjoy a good wager) I think the NCAA tournament would be awful... I have found the games to be a snooze fest.
First of all , the 35 second shot clock is just too long.( I promise I went to the bathroom during the Pittsburgh game and when I came back there was literally not one shot taken... Maybe I should see a doctor or maybe the NCAA should change the rules) The teams just dribble and pass and dribble and pass and then ultimately one of two things happen... Either they settle for a three pointer .. ( which by the way easy to fix... All they need to do is move the line back two feet and this is no longer an issue) OR someone drives into the middle and gets a foul call.. The refs call so many fouls they are making the World Baseball Classic look interesting...Every play is the same..I honestly don't feel like you can get a good gauge of the talent during a standard college game... I mean every year there is a guy who is dominant in college who the scouts ( Not Mel Kiper Junior who may be the weirdest dude on earth... Does anyone ever wonder what Mel Kiper Jr does the other 11 months of the year..I do.. You don't hear from the guy from May till March and then in April he is on TV more often then Barack Obama ) say will never make it in the laegue... I mean the best, most recognizable face in college, ( No not Dick Vitale . BTW I hate him) Tyler Hansborough is clearly and without question gonna be a bust in the NBA .... The game is not the same... Too slow .. Too many whistles ..and too many threes..
OK Maybe the College game is boring but the tournament is certainly not boring..Right?? Well .. Not really.. I have always had one major complaint against the NFL.. You know how when you are watching an NFL Game and a team hits a field goal with thirty seconds to go in the quarter and then it happens ..Commercial ( Bud Light) ..Come back from commercial Kick off ...Commercial (Geico) Were back.. One Play.. The quarter ends ...Commercial (Kill me) .. We have all been there during a long Sunday afternoon...Well the NCAA Tournament has taken it a step further.... To me the most exciting thing about the tournament is that they have the ability to perform magic..You are watching State vs Tech and State leads by 22 ..Magic.. They take you away from a boring game and boom.. there is another game....We can see 5 games at once...Unheard of ...BUT CBS has taken its greatest weapon and proceeded to stab it right in our backs.. The issue is that they usually take you to the second game right before the half...So we see the end of the first half....We have a commercial ( Survivor..Seriously ,Does anyone watch that show anymore) Back to the Studio and Greg Gumbel and then to another commercial ( The Amazing Race.. Has anyone ever watched this ..Sorry Marc) By the time they take you to the second game you have lost interest... Its a problem..
I cant explain why... I just like this commercial ... Maybe because I saw it like twenty times in one half of today's game
Here is what the major NCAA fan will tell me in rebuttal .. The game has passion..You wont see players in the NBA playing so hard and with so much energy ... BS... I am sorry I think that the reason that College Sports has the reputation of being so hardcore is because of the fans...The fact is the College game has the enthusiasim because its played on College Campuses ..If an NBA game was played in front of 20,000 Drunk College kids it would be just as wild... As far as the players go.. I don't even understand the argument..I don't feel any connection to any of the college players... Not one... They are around one maybe two years and then they are gone... There are no enduring rivalries..No Bird versus Magic ..No Kobe vs Lebron.. No great teammates ..Malone and Stockton..Jordan and Pippen , Kobe and Shaq (sort of) It does not exist ..What does exist is Duke and UNC..Dont get me wrong I love Duke UNC.. (Me and my bro have always said that we will be Cameron Crazies at least once in our life ) But don't let them fool you..Just because the Duke UNC rivalry is great doesn't mean that you care about Cal vs UCLA ( Maybe if you live in LA but not here ..not in NY) The point is that the college game has no recognizable faces because the players don't stay around.. The schools and coaches have the attention not the game or players ... To be honest if they were playing Ping Pong at Cameron VS UNC people would talk about the rivalry, not the game..
For all you know these players could be Tyler Hansborough and JJ Redick...
Don't get me wrong I will watch the Final Four but even the four best teams can not match the quality of the average NBA Game...If you like basketball why wouldn't you watch the best Basketball you could?? I am just saying
We are all followers
you're right on the commercial issue, it gets very annoying.
ReplyDeletebut i love the tourney.
the thing with college basketball is that, you're right, the talent is less than the nba but the games are so much more fun to watch. there are big swings in the score. someone gets hot and nails three threes in a row. the fact that there arent any recognizable faces doesnt really matter if all youre watching for is for an interesting game. the nba has created a celebrity player culture, but that's only one (important, or more likely, unimportant) aspect of a basketball game. an exciting, close game is another. and if you're vested in the games already with a bracket pool, every game has implications.
the collge game isnt about forging lasting connections to the players, its all about the game itself. not playing the game on the highest talent level out there (thats the nba), but playing exciting games that matter. i'll take a 75-74 back and forth sweet sixteen college game over any random "high quality" nba game that has the home team leading by 8-10 the whole game.
you know the drill stan, keep the posts coming.
Lol. Great post Stan. You should just know that I couldn't get that fish song out of my head for over a day and it's baaaack. Lol. It's like one of those addictive songs that i love to hate. ahhhhh. Pleasurable Pain... Make it stop, Stan, make it stop!
ReplyDeleteBut what shouldn't stop are your posts...keep em coming (No, not you commercial maker person for cbs ncaa basketball. YOU have got to stop).
The BigShow has landed, a remarkably written blog with great content. Yes, I am a pro sports lover over College, (going to Brooklyn College probably helped that) and the games are just not as enjoyable. The timeouts alone can make you want to turn away; and yes, I have not watched one game until this past Thursday; and the same is done every year for many people. Without the office pools, there would be a gross decline in the ratings. Dead on BigShow!
ReplyDeleteI urge all to watch The Amazing Race, it's a great show. BigShow is wrong about this (sorry). It won the emmy many times. You can watch it on CBS.com. Happy Viewing!
Vin i think big show knew you watch it and was getting back at you for the harsh words last blog, however, I tried watching the UNamazing race it is horrid i agree with Big Show not to watch it
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog!!!! Could not agree more. Is this how its always been. Has the tourney been better in the past? All I know is I've tuned in to a couple of games and they have been downright un-watchable. There is a foul called every 2.8 seconds and when that foul is called they invariably go to commerical! Its brutal. Plus they suck. The offense are terrible and predictable. 90% of possessions end in a three point shot after expending 32 seconds of the shot clock. The defenses are even non-existent! I even disagree with the fact that there is more passion. That is atrite claim that is without merit as far as I'm concerned. With the exception of T-Mac's lazy eye (See previous blog) most N.B.A. players seem to show alot of positive emotion during the course of a game. After watching some of this year's tourney, it is clear that the college game needs work and that the N.B.A game reigns supreme!
ReplyDeleteAmen, Mitch, Amen.
ReplyDeleteAnyone watch the games on the 26th the first 2 were preety good and the primetime matchups were duds Big Show RIGHT ON Kudos for the article well in advance
ReplyDelete