The best tournament I have ever seen.

From reading Seth Davis' book last summer, NBC did televise one ISU game nationally late in the season (IIRC, at Wichita State, with Bird going for 49). HBO also televised a couple of games (I'd love to know how much hoops HBO televised in its early years - my father got it around '80, by which time hoops were gone), including the New Mexico State game which was their closest call in the regular season - won on the road in OT with Bird and two other starters fouled out).

 

So you'd rather not watch the best teams - and talent - play the game at the highest level and on the biggest stage?

That doesn't even make sense.

 

Yep, the Illinois-North Carolina final was played at a very high level as well. And those games, as much as the upsets in the early rounds, are what make the tournament so much fun.

The problem is the best players are almost always freshmen and sophomores and they are almost always headed to the NBA early and that means we don't get a chance to see how good, for instance, this Kentucky team could be with some experience.

I mean, could you imagine this Kentucky team in two years if all these guys stayed?

Then, someone upsetting them would indeed be a huge upset with historical implications.

 

Could you imagine how good some of the other teams would be this year? OSU, Texas, UNC, etc.

 

Exactly - that was my point about Northern Iowa-Kansas.

Yes, it was a big upset but in the history of the tournament, it isn't really because while Kansas was the favorite, this was not an all-time team or even close.

 

Oh I know, my God, think about the team Memphis would have for that matter.

 

Not NBA talent. I equate NBA talent to lazy defense, everyone standing around for 15 seconds followed by a three pointer or a dunk, where the defender had to get out of the way or get called for a foul.

I prefer the college game. So it doesn't matter if you have a game full of star power. You could have 10 John Wall's on the court and it wouldn't matter to me. I don't care if Kentucky wins the title I don't care where Wall and Cousins get drafted. I don't care about NCAA basketball star power. I enjoy watching basketball like I saw from NIU on Saturday.

 

Your first sentence is all I needed to read to know where this is going. My God, could you have stuffed any more tired and lazy cliches in there about what constitutes NBA talent?

If you hate the NBA - where the best basketball players in the world compete at the highest level - well than that explains a lot.

And if you think the NBA is about "lazy defense" you obviously haven't watched it in the last 20 years.

The game played at its highest level by the best athletes is a beautiful thing to watch.

 

So is legitimate defense, team play and frequent use of the intelligent/extra pass.

And, yeah, we are discussing a measure of mutual exclusivity, here.

 

This whole NBA-NCAA thing is almost like the culture wars that develop when Brazil plays Germany in soccer. The NBA, with all of that athleticism, is by and large a one-on-one league. They only want guys who can create their own shots because the defenders are too quick getting off screens. A college coach with a four-year program relies on screens, backdoor cuts etc. that NBA players have long since abandoned. Nobody's arguing athleticism, but I and a lot of others simply do not prefer the clear-out/isolation game. (Also, add in the obscene officiating in the NBA and it gets even tougher to watch.)

Basketball is a game where the whole can still be more than the sum of its parts. The five UNI starters who beat Kansas couldn't even make their roster. That's what is great about the tournament.

 

So last year's North Carolina team - one loaded with talent -- didn't play like a team? Didn't make the extra pass? Didn't shoot the ball well? And didn't play any legitimate defense?

Again, the worst cliche about basketball is that you have to have five white kids who shoot well and play hard in order to have a team that "plays the right way".

There are a lot of supremely talented teams and players who DO play the right way, too, and that includes Calipari's teams, who always defend extremely well and who do a great job of sharing the basketball.

The difference is -- when all else fails they have the ABILITY to go one-on-one and win.

If the system fails Northern Iowa, they are fucked.

 

Any sport is a game where the whole can still be more than the sum of its parts - that is why they play the games.

But the staple of almost every NBA offense is the pick-and-roll, which is about as fundamental of a play as there is in ANY sport.