[Wizard of Os]

Pardon me while i briefly rant.

I hate the NCAA Tournament, can i just say that? (Well, it's my thread, so of course i can say that...)

Look, the emporer has no clothes, okay? Let's admit that. The sloppy play performed by these overhyped giddy shaky kids (who have apparently quadrupled the sugar content of their morning cocoa puffs over this two to three weeks) is quite frankly embarassing. The turnovers, the stupid mental errors (so beautifully captured in C-Web's immortal phantom timeout), the poor concentration and high clumsiness are ugly. This ain't basketball; it's scram-ball.

Some folks tell me that the good thing about the tournament is that, on any given day, any team can beat any other team. I say that's the silliest. Yes, the best often rise to the top and no team seeded lower than 1985 Villanova has ever taken the whole thing, but still. I want to see the best teams play for the championship.

O sure, the tournament has produced its share of excellent teams, performances and moments. Christian Laettner had some insane games, Tark's UNLV teams (the best NBA teams ever to play in the tournament) were slick, Carmelo Anthony was mind blowing, the Fab Five were indeed fab...but who remembers anything from the Arkansas championship in 1994 except for maybe Bill Clinton giving the thumbs-up in the midst of a zillion security dudes in a high box?

Argh.

All of which is not to say that i've neglected my duties as an american sports fan. I'm in a "league" online to pick the bracket. I've got no. 1 Villanova, no. 3 Iowa, no. 3 Gonzaga and sweet-sixteen home-team Washington in the final four. Believable, eh? Painstakingly did i study the bracket for five minutes and by way of highly sabremetrics-esque analysis called the coin flip did i arrive at my conclusion. And it's no weirder than anyone's else, i'm certain.

Cheers.

[pete_b]

Wizard,
How can you hate this tourney? The boys play hard and they do it for the love of the game. Sure some of them have NBA aspirations but the ones that don't are doing it for their school. Basketball gives alot of kids opportunities that they wouldn't have if they weren't any good at basketball. Boy when you see Syracuse play the way they did and then match them up...how could you not wanna watch? If you watch any of the Duke/UNC game then you haven't seen better drama anywhere. Wizard just sit and watch with an open mind....ONCE.

[Lefty Noob]

I hate the NCAA Tournament, can i just say that?

I bet you hate puppies and little children too, right? Meanie. But in all seriousness, I see your point. Yes, the play can be a little sloppy. But that's just because they play with such energy and emotion that it can be hard to keep cool, calm and collected. The best coaches know to keep your guys geeked up, but not TOO geeked up. I, personally, love it - there are few places in sports anymore where you can just see a bunch of kids playing their guts out, just praying for the chance to be one of the 64, 32 or 16 best teams in the country. It isn't all about winning it all, ya know?

[wvuauthor]

You are definitely in the minority Wizard. The NCAA tournament is one of the most exciting sporting events of the year. These kids work hard all year long to get to this point, and they lay it on the line if they are lucky enough to get there.

Nothing wrong with that at all!

[ThePundit]

Wizard: I actually think it's pretty high quality basketball.

Unlike the unwatchable NBA. some of these teams actually play the game the right way: They pass, cut, set picks, play D. And the players only have a couple of tatoos instead of the 10 that every NBA player has.

And what else is there to watch at this time of the year? This few weeks of hoops helps bridge the gap from the NFL to April baseball.

But I was wondering during the conference tournaments: Don't any of these kids have to be in class?

[cjg11582]

There is always a degree of unprofessionalism in every sporting event. Of course the mimium standard of play could be improved, but you're going to tell me The Superbowl was well executed football this past year? Were The Steelers the best team in The NFL all season? What about The Panthers-Patriots or The Bucs-Raiders Superbowl? There are a litany of Nascar fans on this site, drivers and crew members picking fights with each other after races and slandering each other in the media doesn't exactly constitute respectability. A female driver in Indy racing garners more noteriety than every other driveer in any circuit simply for being female. And to top it off, her peers fault her for it! The MLB is so developmentally flawed that the game is devoid of all integrity. And college football lacks a playoff system.
Every sport has its flaws, but the level of play, camaraderie and intensity these college teams perform with in The NCAA tourney is unmatched anywhere else. A team like Iona or Bradley wants too win a first round tournament game much more than The Yankees want too win a World Series. I just don't understand how someone can dislike this tourney and still remain a sports fan. People always complain about the NBA not utilizing team principals and that the league focuses to heavily on the individual. If you are one of those people, This current WVU team is who you should be watching. Not only do they play the consumate team game they execute it with precision. What's not to like about that?
I mean, what are you demanding exactly? You rattled off a slew of memorable moments and left off several others yet simlutaneously claim you hate the tournament. I guess this is all opinion and if you dislike basketball (much like I dislike hockey) then your perspective is much more relatable. But from just a basic understanding of what culminates a great sports experience, it seems unreasonable to discredit it.

[DrCool]

>>sweet-sixteen home-team Washington

Gotta throw a little correction at you. The University of Washington is located in Seattle, WA. The games will be played in Washington DC which is 2769 miles away from Seattle. Not quite what I would consider a "home-team".

Honestly I have never heard of anyone who "hates" the NCAA tourney. I know plenty of people who are indifferent but no one who hates it. This is the most exciting post season of any sport. 63 games in 11 days and you lose and you go home. There are upsets every year, amazing buzzer beating shots, players who come out of nowhere to make an impact, big time players making big time plays, coaches leading their teams, and Dick Vitale going crazy. How can you top that?

[Grozny]

The sloppy play performed by these overhyped giddy shaky kids (who have apparently quadrupled the sugar content of their morning cocoa puffs over this two to three weeks) is quite frankly embarassing. The turnovers, the stupid mental errors

You just describe college sports as a whole. Every watched a rivalry game in college football? It's not exactly the definition of perfection or anything even resembling a "How to play the game" video.

The level of play in college basketball has dipped, IMO. Personally, I believe it's because we never got to see potential superstar freaks like Kobe, James, McGrady, Garnett, J. O'Neal, and the like in the college game. However, I am still thoroughly entertained by this tournament.

Sure, sometimes the play gets sloppy and the kids may look a tad ridiculously with their curtains for shorts attire. It still has produced some of the most memorable moments in sports. Also, a TON of non-fans will actually watch it. The same cannot be said about the World Series.

[desertrat]

Funny post wizard. Though I love the tournament.

[legend]

If it were not for college athletics, jails would be full of young criminals. Luckily for society, coaches and administrators are able to pull strings and keep our jails from being overcrowded. If my daughter, who went to UConn and actually went to class on her way to a Masters degree, had stolen laptops from dorms like Marcus Williams did, she would have been at the very least expelled and put on a long probation after it cost me about ten thousand dollars in lawyer's fees.
Is the tournament exciting? Sure it is, but only because of the office pools. It is hard for me to root for kids who are in school on a free ride only because they can play basketball, while my wife and I worked hard to send a kid to the same school, where she never once saw any of these players go to a class. Fortunaltely, we are able to track their contributions to society in the police blotters.


Middletown-AP, Feb. 2, 2006 11:59 PM) _ State police have arrested former UConn basketball player Eric Hayward for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old psychiatric hospital patient.
The 32-year-old Hayward was a child service worker at the Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth in Middletown, where the girl was a patient. He has been fired from his job.
Hayward, of Meriden, played with the Huskies from 1992 to 1996. He was charged Thursday with six counts of second-degree sexual assault, five counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count of aiding escape from a hospital or sanitarium.
He was arraigned in Middletown Superior Court and held on $50,000 bond. His next court date is on February 23rd.

[Wizard of Os]

Originally Posted by legend

Middletown-AP, Feb. 2, 2006 11:59 PM) The 32-year-old Hayward was a child service worker at the Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth in Middletown, where the girl was a patient. He has been fired from his job. ...

Hayward, of Meriden, played with the Huskies from 1992 to 1996. He was charged Thursday with six counts of second-degree sexual assault, five counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count of aiding escape from a hospital or sanitarium. ...

This is brilliant. I love how they stuck in that non-sequitur of a mention of his college career; couldn't they have provided some stats?

[Wizard of Os]

Cheers all.

Wow, i really culled a bit of a sacred cow here, eh?

Apologies for the highly stupid mistake regarding the Washington (D.C.!) location of the one bracket. Espn.com's Sports Guy ran a column about the tourney in which "The Sports Gal" picked her winners. She made some fruity comment to the effect of "they are the home team, right?" And i got confused, since SGuy didn't answer. O well, i'm an idiot.

I realize that this is a seriously controversial opinion; i chalk it up to my sports aesthetic. I'd rather see the NBA guys show off and showboat while not facing the possibility of a turnover every time Smush Parker brings the ball up. It's just prettier, in my not-so-humble opinion.

I have slightly fewer problems with college football, but that too is seriously sloppy stuff.

Now personally and politically, i have serious problems with athletic scholarships. I worked pretty hard at the University of New Mexico ("You'll always be a Lobo, woof woof woof!") and actually learned a few things. Meanwhile, these dudes jack away for four years when the resources and money could be going to education which, in theory, is what higher education is about.

(I also think jacking away an academic free ride is lame as well, like, say a certain world leader whom will call W. and his outstanding performance at Yale.)

What basketball particularly needs is a minor-league system. I know this is not even close to an original idea, but with proper organization, it would work. I know that folks in Albuquerque would pay to see future stars (they've got a minor-league team these days), especially if some of the harder core talent is siphoned away from the uni team. And why don't folks in basketball-crazy Midwest (KC, Omaha, Topeka, St. Louis, Gary, etc.) have teams that are other than a repository for bubble NBAers?

Anyway, thanks for being tolerant of what looks like a crazy opinion.

O, and here's to guys like Shaq, who go back to college to finish a degree.

[Nitch]

Originally Posted by Wizard of Os

Pardon me while i briefly rant.

I hate the NCAA Tournament, can i just say that? (Well, it's my thread, so of course i can say that...)

Look, the emporer has no clothes, okay? Let's admit that. The sloppy play performed by these overhyped giddy shaky kids (who have apparently quadrupled the sugar content of their morning cocoa puffs over this two to three weeks) is quite frankly embarassing. The turnovers, the stupid mental errors (so beautifully captured in C-Web's immortal phantom timeout), the poor concentration and high clumsiness are ugly. This ain't basketball; it's scram-ball.

Some folks tell me that the good thing about the tournament is that, on any given day, any team can beat any other team. I say that's the silliest. Yes, the best often rise to the top and no team seeded lower than 1985 Villanova has ever taken the whole thing, but still. I want to see the best teams play for the championship.

O sure, the tournament has produced its share of excellent teams, performances and moments. Christian Laettner had some insane games, Tark's UNLV teams (the best NBA teams ever to play in the tournament) were slick, Carmelo Anthony was mind blowing, the Fab Five were indeed fab...but who remembers anything from the Arkansas championship in 1994 except for maybe Bill Clinton giving the thumbs-up in the midst of a zillion security dudes in a high box?

Argh.

All of which is not to say that i've neglected my duties as an american sports fan. I'm in a "league" online to pick the bracket. I've got no. 1 Villanova, no. 3 Iowa, no. 3 Gonzaga and sweet-sixteen home-team Washington in the final four. Believable, eh? Painstakingly did i study the bracket for five minutes and by way of highly sabremetrics-esque analysis called the coin flip did i arrive at my conclusion. And it's no weirder than anyone's else, i'm certain.

Cheers.

I hate college basketball too, but the tournament is exciting. The only reason that I think it is exciting is because of the pools and betting, but i ended up losing two dollars and hating what i used to like. I also like college basketball for a good laugh from the sloppy play.

[Wizard of Os]

Originally Posted by Nitch

I hate college basketball too, but the tournament is exciting. The only reason that I think it is exciting is because of the pools and betting, but i ended up losing two dollars and hating what i used to like. I also like college basketball for a good laugh from the sloppy play.

Sloppy play! See! That's what the tourney is good for: comedy. Jesus, if i want to see funny basketball, i'll check out the Harlem Globetrotters. I like the betting, too, but you might as well be being a lottery ticket unless UNLV is buying their way to the finals again...

Cheers.

[MJHMarc]

That is a sad but questionably true statement, Legend.