College Basketball: Rambling Thoughts

I have spent the last four days absorbing as much college basketball as possible. Just a few random thoughts on the tourney so far:

Rick Barnes is still a really poor in-game coach.

Evidence: Late in their second-round game, Texas trailed Duke 69-72. With 11 seconds left to play, the Longhorns fouled Duke's Elliot Williams, a 46% free-throw shooter. He missed the first - meaning that one more miss would give Texas an opportunity to tie.

Texas had two timeouts left. Rick Barnes could have easily subbed-in his best rebounding squad to ensure that Texas would collect a missed free-throw. As soon as the ball was in Longhorn possession, Barnes could call timeout and litter his lineup with three-point bombers.

Williams did his part - Barnes did not.

Williams bricked the second free-throw off the back of the rim, but to my dismay, Barnes had inexplicably left Dexter Pittman - the 6-10, 300lb center - on the bench. Needless to say, Duke came down with the offensive-rebound, made a couple of free-throws and ended the game.

Genius. Absolutely genius.

(Sidebar: Rick Barnes is looking more and more like Burns from the Simpsons. It's getting a little creepy!)










Over-Officiating

Over the weekend, I watched a really good Pittsburgh-Oklahoma State matchup. The downside? Both teams were in the bonus at the 10-minute mark of the first half. This situation continued a trend that has been apparent to me throughout the tournament.

Duke-Texas: Dexter Pittman was in foul trouble throughout the game. He had averaged 29 minutes/game over the last four - but foul trouble limited him to 22 against the Blue Devils. Texas lost by five.

Arizona State-Syracuse: The Sun Devils' big man, Jeff Pendergraph, fouled out with 10-minutes remaining. Pendergraph logged 24 minutes during the game - 9 minutes below his season average. ASU lost by 11 points.

Villanova-UCLA: both teams were in the bonus with 10 minutes left in the first half.

Maybe I am just trying to justify why my bracket has failed so miserably - but I don't want to watch every team's backups for 20 minutes/game. I want to see the best against the best. I am with Dick Vitale - the college game needs to join the NBA and allow six fouls per contest. It's just too difficult for big men in the college game to avoid getting in foul trouble. Fans want to see the big guys on the floor - not cheerleading from the bench.

Solid Goldy Gold

Jim Nance is a solid announcer. He does a good job on everything that he covers. He makes it interesting, entertaining...he is well-researched, he isn't cheesy. He is just solid.

Is It March Yet?

During the college football season, what conversation dominated the sports world? Was it whether the SEC was stronger than the Big 12? Did most people spend the majority of their time dissecting just how bad the Big 10 had become? Was water-cooler talk relegated to Tim Tebow-related topics?

Nope. The entire season revolved around one item: the BCS.

Everyone discussed it - and isn't that just what the NCAA wanted? They wanted college football to be a topic of conversation. They wanted people calling into talk-shows demanding a playoff. They want people to get up on Monday morning and check the BCS standing to determine who "deserves" to play in the BCS Championship this week.

And it works. The BCS creates conversation. Personally, I would love to see a college-football playoff system. Just the thought of it creates a Pavlov's-dog-like reaction. I get excited.

Having said that, if I wanted to argue against a college-football playoff, I could do so rather easily. It would be a very short and concise four-word argument: regular-season college-basketball.

Seriously - there is no stronger argument for the BCS system than presenting regular-season college-basketball. It's simply unwatchable. BCS-supporters believe that a football playoff system would render the regular-season somewhat meaningless...ala college basketball.

To provide proof, here are 10 things that I would do in my house before watching a regular-season NCAA basketball game:

1. sleep
2. organize my garage
3. watch an "Housewives of Orange County" marathon
4. shop online with my wife
5. read (...a book...with actual chapters - not Sports Illustrated)
6. time how long it takes for water to boil (I swear - it takes longer if you watch it)
7. turn my house alarm on...and then slowly creep around the furniture towards the kitchen to see how far I can get before being spotted by the motion-detector (I have made it to the dining-table twice - but I will have to improve my barrel roll in order to advance any farther)
8. watch any Jeneane Garofalo movie
9 .clean (anything)
10. watch hockey

In other words, watching regular-season college-basketball sucks. I wish it didn't - but it really does. There is simply no reason to watch any college basketball before the NCAA Tournament. None.

Some of my buddies have tried to provide me with a rational explanation behind watching some bball before the Big Dance:

"Blair, man, you HAVE to watch some basketball before the tournament or your bracket will suck."

Easy response: my bracket will suck anyway.
Painful response: do you know who is going to win your office pool this year? That's right, it's Megan - the receptionist. You know, the one that thought we were filling out a survey on which school mascots were the prettiest. Yep, she is going to win. And she has never watched a college basketball game in her life. Ever.

So - no, you do not need to watch regular-season basketball to build a winning bracket.

"But what about seeing the unique college environments like seeing Duke fans jumping up and down from start to finish? Doesn't that get you excited?"

Response: No, but it does remind that attending Duke must really suck. Seriously - the football program goes 4-8...and that's considered a "good" year! Duke students camp out before regular-season basketball games for a team that hasn't won anything in eight years. It's actually quite depressing.

Side note: (Tournament upset pick - Duke loses in the second round. I know, the tournament seeding isn't done yet, but it doesn't matter. Give me the field vs. Duke in the second round...it's gonna happen)

Look - the NCAA Tournament is one of my favorite events of year. I love watching the little, unknown school go all Josh Howard on us (ie...going from relatively unknown - to convincing everyone that he is "for real" - only to remember why he was relatively unknown to begin with). March is an amazing time. But November, December, January and February are not.

Now if I haven't gotten you pumped to see the Saturday matchup between DePaul and Pittsburgh or Memphis at Utah, I don't know what else to say. If you need me, I'll be in the other room - mastering my barrel roll.