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May 21, 2013
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 March Mildness: How the NCAA Tournament Lost Its SwaggerPosted on Apr 1, 2010
By Mark Heisler So, how’s your bracket doing? That bad, huh? The modern NCAA Tournament, like so much else today, isn’t about just them, but you! For purists (read: actual fans, as opposed to people filling out office pools), there’s still enough left of the tournament to draw a double-figure TV rating for the championship game (CBS is praying), but it may be close. The NCAA’s perfect tournament would see the No. 2 and 3 seeds crash in the first four rounds, creating the buzz factor that gets someone named Ali Farokmanesh on Sports Illustrated’s cover, but lets all four No. 1 seeds make the Final Four. Advertisement Duke, the surviving No. 1, had to sneak past Baylor, another nobody from nowhere at season’s start. This, at least, gives America someone to root for: whoever the Dookies play. If college basketball, once the girly-man little brother of college football, took a rocket ride into the stratosphere of marquee attractions, the rocket has reached its apogee. Actually, it reached it from 1992 to ’94, the last three NCAA championship games to draw World Series-like 20-plus TV ratings. Now the Finals are descending—or hurtling—toward single figures after last spring’s record-low 10.8 for North Carolina’s demolition of Michigan State. Since NBA economics require many dollars, games and l-o-n-g, d-r-a-w-n o-u-t playoff series, the NCAA Tournament is the highest-level single-elimination event in basketball, making it special. Nevertheless, in the Big Dance’s present incarnation, other words come to mind, like bloated, over-commercialized and bland. Where have you gone, Billy Packer? Will someone please tell Clark Kellogg that however glib it sounds, saying a team should “get in transition” is like saying it should make more of its shots. What if the other team doesn’t want to let them get in transition? This just in: It doesn’t. Today’s teams don’t just let you take the ball off the board, outlet it and run a track meet to the other end. Instead, they balance the floor on offense, enabling them to get back when the ball turns over. Of course, Kentucky’s John Wall is another matter. He just gets the ball, turns around and zooms to the hoop, making everyone in his path look like traffic cones. Unfortunately, there’s only one of him. And before him, there were none. But I digress. Modern college basketball is often dated back to the 1968 game in the Astrodome between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s UCLA team and Houston with Elvin Hayes. Personally, I date it back to the 1964 Final Four in Kansas City when UCLA won its first title, beating Duke. I was there with my brother, Gerry, and my friend, Ben Kahn, having driven over from the University of Illinois and having bought tickets at the window of the old Municipal Auditorium. We got seats about 20 rows behind the basket, which we didn’t like. So we sneaked onto the floor, sat among the photographers behind the baseline and watched Kenny Washington, a reserve Bruin forward, knock down his jumpers out of the corner, arcing majestically over our heads. We also saw “Dr. Strangelove” that weekend. It didn’t get any better than that, at least until I started dating. Stubhub now sells tickets for both nights of this weekend’s Final Four in Indianapolis’ 70,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium for prices ranging from $290 to $11,500, but none are even available for the lower sections behind the baseline. Now if I was a junior in college and someone gave me those tickets, I’d auction them off and buy a BMW. I mean, it’s only basketball. Five years later, they even started televising the Finals nationally. Now with HD and monster flat screens, like, who needs to be there? By the ’80s, the tournament was rocking with sensational finales, as in 1983 when Jim Valvano’s rag-tag North Carolina State shocked Houston’s Phi Slama Jamas, and 1985 when little Villanova shot 79 percent in its “perfect upset” of mighty Georgetown. [Editor’s note: Thanks to one of our sharp-eyed readers with a long memory for alerting us to year errors in an earlier version of this paragraph.] Somewhere in there, CBS decided to tie up the rights, like forever, or at least the next 11 years, for which it paid $6 b-b-billion. It took football until 1999 to get back into the picture, marquee-wise, with its BCS Championship game, which has since averaged a 17 rating, the highest for any U.S. event but the Super Bowl. Now the Big Dance starts amid huge interest in the selection process, like mid-major conference tournaments that choose their lone representative, according to the new science of Bracketology. Invented by a humble St. Joseph’s College PR guy named Joe Lunardi, it’s not vaguely a science. Whatever it is, President Barack Obama filled out his on ESPN’s air, although the Prez crashed along with everyone else on Kansas. As much fun as it is to watch the mighty fall, too many now fall for the tournament’s good, as stars flee to the NBA at ever younger ages, cutting the gap between big programs with rosters made up of McDonald All-Americans, and everyone else. Until 2007, when the NBA’s minimum age was 18, high school stars like LeBron James went right to the NBA, and the colleges, at least, never knew what they were missing. Now, the NBA’s minimum age is 19 and it’s “one and done,” just enough time for college fans to fall in love and have their hearts broken.
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By christian96, April 5, 2010 at 10:21 pm Link to this comment
Does anyone know how much money
Report thisDuke University received from the tobacco industry
over the last several years?
By benewbury, April 4, 2010 at 5:55 pm Link to this comment
Kudos on correcting the Villanova/NC State bit, but could someone also correct the record on 2008? Memphis didn’t win a title to be stripped of… Kansas beat them and won the 2008 title game.
Report thisBy christian96, April 4, 2010 at 8:03 am Link to this comment
Today, April 4th, there is an article on Kentucky.com
about the controversy surrounding basketball players
who come to college for one year and then leave for
the NBA. The article is titled: “UK Notebook: One-
And-Dones Pose Quandry For Todd(President of the
University of Kentucky).” I wrote the following
comments following the article which are appropriate
for Easter Sunday:
Christian96 wrote on 04/04/2010 10:34:51 AM:
Report thisWhat do you expect from these youngsters? They are raised in a society
that places extremely high value on “Fame and Fortune.” I’m one of few
Counseling Psychologists who believe in the Bible. I’ve studied it for
32 years since my father’s heart attack on Good Friday, April 8, 1977.
I’m convinced the Bible was written by men who were inspired by the
Holy Spirit. I’m presently writing a book for young people to explain
how the Bible relates to their everyday lives. For those of you who
don’t know much about the Bible, one concept it strongly teaches is that
“you can’t worship God and money.” You have to make a choice. I was born in a coal mining town in Muhlenberg County Kentucky and raised in a
coal mining town in West Virginia. Because of the cruel way coal mine
owners treated the miners they had to fight to form a union. During that fight there was a popular song among the miners that ask the question, “Who’s side are you on brother? Who’s side are you on?” Well, it’s that way now in society with it’s worship of money. Since
you can’t worship God and money, “Who’s side are you on brother? Who’s
side are you on?” Appropriate questions for today, Easter Sunday!
By samosamo, April 2, 2010 at 12:17 pm Link to this comment
Distraction worked to perfection.
Report thisBy Don, April 2, 2010 at 5:59 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Sports nuts are funny like in “wake up and smell the roses, dudes.” Basketball is a game—HELLO! In the case of the NCAA, it’s a collosal game, mainly intended to showcase tomorrow’s top professional picks. It’s part of the NBA proving ground that now starts with kids as early as 10 who are “prepared” and packaged to move through high school and maybe a couple of years of college to pro status regardless of whether they can read, write or compute as well as the average fifth grader. Good if they can, of course, but no one who is part of the process’s management cares for anything much more than their ability to dribble, pass, transition, shoot, jump, defend. But I love March Madness and the race to the Final Four because it’s the last time most of the players will ever perform in front of the cameras. I like to see them get a little public visibility for all they’ve forfeited in pursuit of what is, as the author begrudgingly suggests, just another over-blown, over-indulged entertainment, rigged in favor of big people (like in size), big schools (like in program budgets), big bucks (like in all the money it generates for a privileged few). As for the sports nuts in this mix, find a better fix—like writing about the world’s socio-political challenges and finding solutions for what ails the human race. FYI, Duke takes it all in the end and if they don’t I don’t care unless it means I hit the pool in my local bar.
Report thisBy Stephen, April 1, 2010 at 5:23 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Not to be too picky, but the following quote has a couple of factual mistakes:
“By the ’80s, the tournament was rocking with sensational finales, as in 1982 when Jim Valvano’s rag-tag North Carolina State shocked Houston’s Phi Slama Jamas, and 1983 when little Villanova shot 79 percent in its “perfect upset” of mighty Georgetown”.
North Carolina State defeated Houston in 1983. Villanova defeated Georgetown in 1985. Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas defeated Olajuwon and the Cougars in 1984.
Report thisBy Hulk2008, April 1, 2010 at 1:31 pm Link to this comment
Mr. Heisler gives away his lack of interest in basketball when he indicates he’d sell his tickets to buy a BMW. Conversely, a true basketball purist might sell his Beamer to get NCAA tickets.
It’s true that bball now looks like a junior NBA league. That’s because “college” is only remotely associated with these sports - long ago recruits were interested in swapping their talents to get an education .... er, you know, a SCHOLAR-ship. Now a recruit often changes schools to get a better shot at going pro - sometimes more than once.
Until colleges put the emphasis back on education, and the NBA leaves students alone until they graduate, bball fans might as well enjoy what is offered. Too bad that the announcer on Sports Line the other night said he “hated” underdogs (e.g. Butler). Unlike the NBA, the kids, the crowds, the excitement, and a certain level of unpredictability make the NCAA tournament entertaining even for the jaded media. In fact, the media ruins coverage with their various big-school biases and all those goofy in-depth stories about athletes’ family histories etc.
P.S. I never cared much for Billy Packer anyway. Clark Kellog could slam dunk Billy any day of the week.
Report thisBy drew, April 1, 2010 at 12:31 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
this is the best tourney i can remember. this is what basketball is supposed to be. most people think there are a lot of ‘upsets’ but thats just the average person not knowing about basketball. these teams all have quality players now. hey, those kids who ‘upset’ the bigger name school? they are all on scholarship too, my friend.
this tourney is perfect. dont touch it. just get it off cbs. for some reason, they like to televise the 1/16, 2/15 and 3/14 games. those are the least interesting games i have ever seen, even the ones where the lower seeds won. show better games and youll get better ratings.
Report thisBy Chris, April 1, 2010 at 10:55 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
While I agree with many of your recommendations, I
think this year’s tournament is great! I love the
upsets and the “mid-majors” even if they do screw up my
brackets in the office pool.
A Butler/Duke final game would be the perfect set-up
Report thisfor a Hoosiers moment.
By christian96, April 1, 2010 at 10:22 am Link to this comment
The AP selected John Wall All-American. If you have
Report thisany of the Kentucky games watch John Wall. He
definitely gets an “A” for offense but barely a “C”
for defense. That averages to a “B.” If “B” is
good enough for All-American then I guess the AP
knows what they are talking about. The article
didn’t mention the possible amount of money bet(tax
free) on the tournament. Money has ruined sports
as it has just about everything else in society.
I, also, dislike the way CBS televises the games.
If I want to watch a game other than the one CBS
is televising I have to go to my computer to watch
it. Somehow watching a game on a 17” computer screen
doesn’t compare to watching one one a 50” HD screen.
Couldn’t ESPN carry some of the games?
By benewbury, April 1, 2010 at 9:04 am Link to this comment
Mr. Heisler has done well for a person who apparently pays little attention to NCAA basketball.
1. Memphis winning the 2008 title comes as quite a shock to people in Lawrence, Kan. What was all that partying about? They were pretty sure Kansas won that.
2. I’m not sure how Baylor (a 3 seed) was a ‘nobody’ from out of ‘nowhere.’ They just have LaceDarius Dunn and Ekpe Udoh and finished this year with 28 wins in a pretty tough conference.
Aside from those two (the first bordering on unforgivable, at least from the perspective of a Kansan and, yes, we all have religious feelings about the game of college basketball and are understandably sensitive given the three epic chokes around that 2008 title,) the tone of the article is pretty on. Especially the bit about the baseball rule. NCAA basketball should go to that: either straight to the pros or 3 years as an ‘amateur.’
Report thisBy daybedoe, April 1, 2010 at 6:53 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I thought all these upsets was what made March Madness so entertaining. Lower
Report thisseeds beating higher ones, no-name schools taking down the established
programs, buzzer beaters, kids trying as hard as they can for 40 minutes or more.
Everyone’s bracket took a beating this year. Relax and enjoy!
By C.Curtis.Dillon, April 1, 2010 at 5:02 am Link to this comment
Stopped watching NCAA men’s ball years ago as it just became junior version of NBA. All the jams and NBA style play turned me off. Not at all interested who wins the tournament this year or any other. Was a big UCONN woman’s fan when I lived in Connecticut and my youngest went there. That was real BBall ... the women didn’t feel the need to dominate under the basket and just slam the ball home. They actually had to play a teem game ... what a concept! Now that I live in Eastern Europe, I get to watch many NCAA second tier players (even a few UCONN players I watched in Storrs) do their thing over here. Much better games because there isn’t the pressure to be a star. NBA would be so much better if they actually put TEAMs on the floor instead of 5 individuals each trying to upstage their peers. Of course, that violates the American ideal of the individual ... it’s more socialist to work together to accomplish something. How boring!
Report this