Fix College Basketball

Seven were internationals so eight were no college. Hardly an overwhelming disparity. Plus it stands to reason that the very top prospects go pro as soon as possible, the sooner to get those millions. College is for relatively late bloomers. You wouldn't kick any of those five guys off your roster, would you?

 

What college baseball team did the internationals play for?

 

College baseball! Late bloomers! Catch it!

 

and Mr. Condescending, I know that too.

 

my gosh, women's fast-pitch softball is a close second to girls high school basketball in its unwatchability. (That a word?) 99 percent of the game seems to take place in the infield and sac bunts are endemic. It bores me to tears.

 

college baseball is awesome for like two weeks in June, as long as my alma mater is in the CWS. Otherwise, fuck it

 

I was comparing players from the US who had the option of college vs. the minors. If a guy is from the Dominican, or Japan, he will have grown up in a completely different system where US college isn't seen as an option.
Look, college baseball is not as big as college basketball and it never will be I mean, here in New England, the season's about two months long at best, and nobody goes to games because it's 34 degrees out there. But it thrives as a regional sport, same as hockey where it's cold in the winter. Both these sports prosper within their niches and send plenty of players to MLB and the NHL respectively. There's no need to criticize either.
All four of the major men's college sports function in reaction to what their respective pro big leagues allow. College baseball would be much different if MLB had a one-and-done rule for its draft. If the NFL ever started a minor/developmental league (it won't), college football would be much different.
To return to the thread's original theme, the only problem I have with college basketball is that there's so much of it on TV. Overexposure breeds ennui.

 

The need to criticize it - and I'm not even sure that's the right word - arises directly from the contention that it is a model that college basketball should consider emulating. I guess the idea is that players would stick around long enough for fans to develop a connection. And that would be wonderful for the kind of people who watch the SEC Network on a Tuesday evening in April right now. There must be hundreds of them.

 

Not kidding that I probably know a couple hundred of them. I don't get it. You've got two, maybe three MLB games on TV ... and you'd rather watch Alabama play Kentucky?

 

Dick, you've become as much as a condescending jerk as YF. It's unbecoming.

 

I wouldn't argue college baseball is some kind of ratings juggernaut sweeping the nation, but college baseball is in a better spot than it used to be while we have a thread about why college hoops aren't as good. So is it really crazy to take a look at baseball's draft rules and wonder if it would help basketball?

That said, the market is straightening itself out in basketball anyway. An Andrew Wiggins is always going to spend as little time in school as possible before going pro. But the Kris Dunn's are figuring out the benefits of staying a few years.

Right now we get to watch Harry Giles play with Grayson Allen and Josh Jackson play with Frank Mason. Most of the top teams are a nice mix of really good veterans and a few hotshot freshmen. What's not to love?

 

Best as I can tell, the basic premise of the article in the first post on this thread is that college basketball is being harmed by the economic disparity between the power conference programs and the rest. Maybe it is, but I don't see that. Haves and have-nots have always been a fixture of sports. In fact, I would argue that among major sports college basketball is the least affected by this reality.

I will say that the author's implication that these guarantee games are harmful or demoralizing or whatever to the players doesn't square with my experience. I'm friends with a handful of former D1 basketball players, and none seems to look back on the sacrificial lamb part of his career with anything other than amusement. One friend, who had a nice career at Davidson many years ago, laughs about pulling the leg hairs of UNC players when Davidson would have to go get slaughtered at Carmichael Auditorium (the sidelines were really close to the benches there). And my closest friend, the former point guard, loves to tell the story from his freshman year when his team went on the road against a No. 1-ranked power team.

His team was getting waxed, of course, but the game was getting pretty sloppy and the breakaway dunks were coming more and more frequently. This was in the day when the t-shirt shooter was a novelty, and the home team would celebrate every breakaway dunk with a salvo into the crowd. As the game got more and more out of hand, my friend (on the bench) found himself getting into the spirit of that rather than the actual game. Finally, very late there was a midcourt steal, and my friend couldn't help himself: "Here comes a t-shirt!" he happily yelled. His coach, needless to say, was none too pleased.

It's a memory that keeps on giving, though. The last couple of years, my friend's been battling a hook off the tee, so whenever he lets one fly leftward, before it even hits the ground I let loose with a "Here comes a t-shirt!" No matter how many presses are working and how hopeless our situation is, that always eases the tension.