Write On Sports LLC - "NBA vs. NCAA: In Defense of the Senior Circuit" by Mark T.R. Donohue

NBA vs. NCAA: In Defense of the Senior Circuit

2007-03-19 11:59:22 | By: Mark T.R. Donohue

I'm really trying to get into the NCAA tournament this year. I am. I filled out a bracket. I learned the difference between a Wolfpack and a Wolf Pack. I spent long hours trying to figure out which 5 seed would lose to a 12 seed. The other day playing pickup at the playground, I tried my best to get my team into a 1-3-1 zone.

But only two days into college basketball's premiere event, I gave up and flipped back over to the NBA. While online polls continue to suggest that American viewers prefer the collegiate brand of hoops to the professional game by a margin like 60-40, all those polls illustrate is that most Americans don't know anything about basketball. The level of talent in the NCAA might be greater than it has been for several years thanks to the NBA's largesse in banning 18-year-olds, but the level of fundamentals is ghastly. With the exception of a few layup-drill blowouts like the first-round Tennessee-Long Beach State game, the majority of the action in the NCAA's so far has been like watching a JV women's junior high school game. Missed layup. Offensive rebound. Missed layup. Foul. Missed free throws. It hurts my eyes.

A first round where the top 20 seeds all advanced didn't help matters any, but the fact remains that most of the closely contested games so far have seen the better teams playing down to their competition's level rather than vice versa. I'm deeply unimpressed by the #1 seeds, particularly Florida, who of all the teams in the field ought to play like they've ever seen their teammates before, and Ohio State, who seem completely unaware that they have one of the maybe three players in the entirety of Division I who can score reliably in the post.

Some historically excellent programs have embarrassed themselves this weekend. Stanford didn't belong in the gym with Louisville. Illinois unconscionably gagged a safe lead. Georgia Tech's "everybody stand around looking confused" offense somehow managed to take UNLV, one of the most-praised teams in the field so far, down to the last few possessions. Perhaps the most poignant symbol of how far the quality of the college game has fallen was seen in Duke's not-all-that-shocking upset loss to VCU, where the Blue Devil "offense" consisted of everyone standing around, not boxing out, and watching Josh McRoberts front-rim jump hook after jump hook.

By contrast, on the eve of the NCAA's Dallas and Phoenix played one of the best basketball games I've ever seen. There was more offensive execution, defensive hustle, and dazzling athleticism displayed in one overtime of Phoenix's stunning 2OT win than I've seen in the entirety of the tourney thus far. The NBA has continued to eclipse its feeder system night after night. On Saturday night, the team with the worst record in the league, the Memphis Grizzlies, played team basketball the likes of which no team in the NCAA's could ever dream of in beating the Chicago Bulls. Later the same evening, Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets put on a clinic on how to finish around the rim (one every wannabe baller in college should have to redshirt and study for a year before making me sit through their ghastly no-hope layup attempts) to blow out the same Suns team that had executed so brilliantly on Wednesday. By Sunday morning, I was more excited to wake up and watch the resurgent Knicks and the intriguing Raptors struggle for supremacy of the worst division in the NBA than see the various NCAA title favorites sleepwalk through second-round games. Rather than watching Florida mud it up with Purdue, I was happily watching Detroit and Dallas in a real heavyweight fight that afternoon.

The problem with college basketball as it presently stands is obvious. With the best players fixated on making their careers one-and-done, coaches have to recruit and scheme as if they've only got one season to win with their present rosters. That means a lot of isolations, a lot of complete confusion in the face of the press, and a lot of play in the low post that resembles wrestling in a sensory deprivation tank. The trouble is the few teams that are well-drilled lack blue chip talent, and the many that do have geared their offense more towards making their freshman stars lottery picks than playing aesthetically pleasing (or even successful) basketball.

So what is to be done? Nothing. I doubt these mere words will be able to convince the cult of people who build their whole spring schedules around the tourney and see their March productivity levels plummet for a few particular Thursdays and Fridays every year that their silk purse is a sow's ear. I've already been enjoying one of the best NBA seasons in recent memory (I haven't even mentioned the ingenuity of Jerry Sloan's offense in Utah or the fury of Jeff Van Gundy's defense in Houston), and my appreciation of it only has increased now that I see how plainly inferior the competition is.

Of course, maybe if I had attended Kansas or UCLA instead of perennial first-round cannon fodder school (this year, not even that) Cal, I would feel differently. But I think the real basketball fans know of what I speak. The single-elimination format makes for some artificially exciting moments, for sure. And I'm certain we'll see some better games in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight as the big prize gets closer in sight. But this is all just a table-setter for the real show - the Western Conference Playoffs.