I just saw an article on ESPN where Mark Cuban went on a rant saying that college basketball is hurting the NBA. While I don’t agree with his sentiment and feel his take is a bit self-serving given his position as an NBA owner, I do agree that college hoops needs change. This past season, on the whole, was not very exciting. Even an exciting, suspenseful, and drama filled NCAA Tournament was not enough to rescue the regular season.
Scoring on the whole was down. Games lacked action. There were far too many controversial calls. The officiating was variable and inconsistent. Game times were up.
To illustrate how slow and painful the games have gotten, an AAC tournament game between UConn and Tulsa played in March had a final score of 47-42. UConn’s games this past season were so slow that 80 points was scored by a team in only 2 of their 35 games. This year’s ACC regular season champ, UVa had only 2 games out of 34 where a team broke 80. Contrast this with teams playing a more up tempo style like Duke and Notre Dame where 80 was broken in 19 and 20 of their games respectively. I’m not saying that points scored is the sole indicator of game quality, but it is a significant factor.
If I were able to influence the rules committee, here are the changes I would recommend they implement to improve the game.
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I’m not the biggest fan of modern day baseball. Even though I played quite a bit growing up, I lost interest in the late nineties. Free agency, labor strife and changes to the game to maximize television revenue undermined the reasons why I played and loved the game as a kid. I like baseball because of all of its history and traditions. So when I had the opportunity to see my first game at Wrigley Field on a trip to Chicago at the end of April, I jumped at the opportunity.
