Monday, March 7, 2011

on life support

It's championship week in NCAA college basketball, which means two things: 1) the year is going by way too fast; 2) I should be coming down with a case of March Madness over my excitement for the start of the NCAA tournament. The first seems to be an undeniable truth on an annual basis nowadays, but the second, sadly, seems like the furthest possible thing from the truth right now.

I find myself almost completely uninterested in college basketball (meaning D-I men's college basketball). I used to enjoy college basketball more than the NBA, but the lack of complete talent* in the collegiate ranks is killing the game.

*There are many physically gifted players in the collegiate ranks, and many players high levels of skill, but there are few, if any, players that combine both.

Too many of the college athletes who one day might become good college basketball players jump to the NBA before realizing any of their potential. And NBA teams are far too eager to draft on physical potential instead of actual basketball talent and production. The result... college basketball is suffering from a lack of skilled players and poor quality of basketball. It's not fun to watch, and I worry that the upcoming NCAA tournament is going to be utterly underwhelming.

College basketball isn't dead yet, but unless the NCAA and NBA can work together to do something to allow college basketball players to develop in college, it's going to need life support to get back on track.

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