2015 NCAA Tournament thread

Yeah, it's pretty rich that Geno is ripping the men's game when his team is one of two or three worth watching (if you're really bored) on the women's side. I've tried to watch a few women's tourney games, and even went to my alma mater's game last week. Sloppy, ugly stuff for the most part.

 

While I agree that there's plenty wrong with today's version of men's college basketball, that silly rant just made me roll my eyes, considering so many of his criticisms apply FAR more so to his version of the game. Seriously, he's bashing the men's game because there's "only like 10 teams" that people wanna watch, yet that number has almost never ever been more than 2 teams in the women's game. Sorry, but I'll give more credence to critics from the women's game when they start playing with a normal sized ball again.

The only thing the women's game does better than the mens is keeping their best players for 4 years, which translates to more teams that play with cohesion and on court chemistry. All the one and dones and short timers has absolutely damaged men's college basketball. But there's really nothing much it can do about it, it ain't the fault of men's college hoops that there's big money pro demand for their players that doesn't exist in women's basketball.

And I'm also weary of people thinking this can be fixed with gimmicky rule changes. Shortening the shot clock another 5 seconds will not improve the quality of play, it will simply increase the number of bad shots teams are forced to fork up each game.

 

I don't know why the NCAA couldn't do it like they do in baseball. Teams can draft players out of high school, but if they don't sign, they're in college for three years.

 

Obviously because the NCAA does not have the power to mandate draft eligibility terms. Did you seriously not know that?

 

You cannot force people to watch something they don't want to watch and fans vote on men's vs. women's with their ticket buying and TV ratings. I know many women sports fans who wouldn't watch women's hoops if their lives depended on it. Gene and Christine Brennan can posture all they want. It aint changing in our lifetime

 

They can agree to allow drafted players to go to college if the players choose not to join their professional team. They already do so for baseball and hockey.

Simply put, allow basketball players one chance, either out of high school or after their first year or two in college to go for the draft. If they're undrafted or go in the second round, and don't want to go pro, they can come back to college, but have to stay for X amount of years. Or if they go in the second round, they can stay in school for another year, but the NBA team retains his rights.

For NFL players, do the same thing, and if the kid goes back to school, the NFL can allow its teams another pick in the round the next season, since those picks are more valuable than the second round of the NBA.

 

Okay, not the NCAA - the NBA.

 

The NCAA should allow players to come back to college up to the point they appear in a regular-season pro game.

The only objections I've ever heard to such an arrangement have been, 1, it would cause college coaches huge confusion if players were allowed to leave and then come back, and 2, it would be disastrous for pro franchises to use draft picks on players and then see them go back to college.

The answers to both those objections are pretty simple: 1, I can guarantee you the vast majority of college coaches would be very happy to welcome marginal pro-quality players back; and 2, who cares?

 

Before New Year's Day, Geno's team won games by 102-43, 85-24, 96-45 and 89-38. Yeah, that's just the thing that'll keep me in my seat for all of 90 seconds after the opening tip.

 

The worst thing is ESPN now interviews coaches with 10 minutes left in the game.

UConn led Dayton by 10 or 12 with 10 to play, they come back from commercial and (insert sideline reporter) is interviewing Geno. I don't get it. What possibly is he going to say with a shit-eating grin on his face? Why do we need to know what a coach is thinking with 10 minutes to play in a regional final? Why can't ESPN just wait the 20-25 minutes till the game is over to interview him for the bazillionth time.

It was quite funny because Dayton rallied to 7 right after that inane interview. But UConn went on a massive run to win. It was never in doubt, even at 7 points with 8 to play.

Point being, refuckinglax, ESPN, with these in-game interviews. It's insulting.

 

Of course there's a lot of hyperbole in Geno's rant but he does make some good points. Nothing worse in college basketball than some defender flopping at minimal contact or a help defender not defending at all but moving over to take a charge when the guy is already in the air. I know they supposedly changed the rule on that but they still call it the old-fashioned way. And a 30-second shot clock wouldn't be the end of the world. The women handle it fine.

I hate charging calls. Of course I also hate it when the ref bails out some guy on an out-of-control drive to the basket, too. Other rule changes:

Should also be an automatic 5-second runoff if you foul someone before the clock even starts on an in-bounds play in the final minute.

Reduce the timeouts to 3, with the caveat that you have to take 1 in the first half. The final minute now takes an eternity.

Why do you get a fresh 10 if you call timeout in the backcourt? Ten seconds to get it past midcourt, in every instance.

The best friggin game of the entire tournament was BYU-Mississippi State in the play-in round. Those guys came to play that night.