19th March 2010 by
under
College Basketball
The NCAA tournament’s first day offered up dramatic endings and plenty of upsets, something we haven’t seen a lot of in recent years. But with all of the close calls and attention grabbing heroics comes the realization that the actual basketball product stinks.

Texas Guard Damion Jones walks off after the Longhorns blow an eight-point lead in OT.
Maybe I’m overreacting a bit, but as I laid in bed watching Texas clank free throws en route to blowing an eight-point lead in OT, I couldn’t help but think about how badly some of the teams played during the day.
Then I remembered my husband and I discussing, some would call it arguing, the merits of both the NCAA Tournament versus the NBA Playoffs. It’s my contention that the NBA playoffs, as a product, trumps the NCAA tournament by a factor of 10, and the action from Thursday’s opening-round games was proof positive that I’m right.
Why the NBA Playoffs are better
I love college sports but playing bad basketball in front of half empty arenas — I’m being generous here — in off-campus megaplexes makes for some pretty boring basketball. I’ll grant the argument that the sheer number of games allows for one or two close finishes in a day, but it’s rare that the elevated level of play from the players is the reason for that excitement, usually it’s the opposite; players missing free throws or playing horrible defense that allows for a dramatic close.
Don’t get me wrong, when Wake Forest guard Ishmael Smith rose up and nailed the game-winning shot with 1.3 seconds left in the game I was excited. However, the only reason Wake was in that situation was because Texas’ free throw shooting was disgraceful.
The NBA’s best-of-seven playoff format guarantees us two things: (1) the favorite almost always wins, which in turn leads to (2) the best players in the world making plays during crunch time. The ohs and ahs emanating from the NCAA tournament are more likely to be ‘oh shit’ or ‘ah damn’ versus ‘oh my god’ or ‘ohhhhh, how’d he do that?’.
9th February 2010 by
under
College Basketball

Kansas forward Thomas Robinson and Marcus Morris with the flying chest bump. (Photo: Nick Krug/LJWorld.com)
Just a couple of weeks ago most college basketball fans, including myself, thought Kansas’ visit to Austin would decided which school would go on to win the Big 12 regular season title. Both teams had been ranked #1 at different points in the season and seemed like they were on a collision course.
That was before Texas was exposed as just another college basketball team with mediocre guard play and before Kansas established themselves as the only team capable of winning a Big 12 road game. So instead of a battle for the top spot, the Longhorns were merely trying to close the gap between the Big 1 and the other 11.
The Jayhawks improved to 23-1 (9-0) with an 80-68 victory at Texas that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. Kansas took charge midway through the first half, forcing the Longhorns into 17 turnovers versus only 6 assists. Senior point guard Sherron Collins almost out-assisted Texas by himself as he dished out 5 and scored 15 points.
Two tough road games, Texas A&M and Missouri, remain on the Jayhawks Big 12 schedule, but with every other team in the conference already earning three league losses, Kansas’ win Monday night locked up the regular season title and #1 seed in the Big 12 tourney.