Sports Catch 22: NCAA B-Ball Then and Now
Is college basketball better today then it was yesterday? The short answer is that there really is no short answer. However, I would be inclined to argue that as times change so has the validity of this argument. College hoops certainly has evolved in the brief period that I have methodically following it and one can only imagine the insight that many of you “more established fans” can provide. Personally, I think that in recent times the movement and restriction of the NBA has provided us with higher quality individuals at the college level. Unfortunately, this fact does not necessarily translate to overall team performance in the eyes of some deeper rooted fans. Arguments have been made that early powerhouse teams like UNC, Duke, UCLA and Georgetown, to name a few, were much more dominate then the teams of recent years. This is where I have a problem.
Over the course of the past few years as well as this season, I have witnessed too many fans assessing team strength based on individual dominance. This fact can also be attributed to rule changes restricting player criteria in the NBA. Many fans witnessed Texas last year as a good team simply because Kevin Durant could man handle opponents in all aspects of the game. While I am not denying the fact that his talent certainly made the team a more viable threat, I consider this year’s Superstar less club much more of a dangerous tournament opponent. I fear that this perspective is slowly going to grow to dominate the college ranks and potentially even infiltrate the selection committee. Call me crazy but I little faith to believe that it isn’t possible.
Further still, I am not so sure I would jump on the boat of fans that insist that a Tim Duncan led Wake Forest club could purely dominate my beloved Gator team from last year. While Tim’s club was clearly well talented on all ends of the floor their dependence on Duncan seemed to be the Achilles Heal too. On the other hand, Florida could suffer the inside loss of Horford and still blast you on the scoreboard from four other positions. Now, I am not saying that the Gators are the best team ever to have won a championship but I wouldn’t rule them out of a top ten discussion. Meanwhile point being, that I hope USC vs. Kansas State aka (O.J. Mayo vs. Micheal Beasley) match-ups don’t dumb down the highly prestigious NCAA brackets.
Frankly, I am not in love with the personal match-ups and find the NCAA team dynamic to be way more satisfying. In fact, if I wanted personal match-ups all the time I would focus more on the NBA because their match-ups are always more entertaining when broken down to one star vs. another star. Simply, I watch college basketball to see things that the NBA doesn’t produce and one of those is a huge focus on overall team play and strategy. I understand that all basketball has to have team focus to a degree but only in the NCAA can you have a number 15 Belmont almost beat a number 2 Duke. A game like that just doesn’t happen much in the NBA despite the scoreboard reflecting a similar end result.
All of that being said, the addition of these rules within the NBA have provided basketball with advantages, in the areas surround quality of product and more solid fundamentals. Just imagine if USC’s O.J. Mayo had entered the NBA early, he would have been swallowed up and potentially become another Kwame Brown (spelled wrong). He now is given the chance to grow and develop and even tack another year to his resume before tests the NBA waters. In this regard we are once again faced with a clear case of a sport's Catch 22!
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