Last year, for example, the three best players on Kentucky's national championship team were freshmen. Kentucky fans no doubt love those kids, but the reality is that those players were really only Wildcats for a single semester.
The fans never really got to know their stars. And then they were all gone and a new batch rolled into town.
It was not always like that. Every single person who follows basketball, for example, could have told you that Shane Battier went to Duke. But is Kyrie Irving, who also attended Duke for about 10 seconds, truly a Duke guy in the way that Battier is?
Can Duke fans tell you Kyrie Irving stories the way they can tell you Battier stories or J.J. Reddick stories? Of course not, because Kyrie Irving was not there long enough to provide story material.
The one-and-done phenomena has done more than make us unfamiliar with the NCAA's top players. It has also led to a hideous decline in the quality of play over the past few years. It's often difficult to tell whether you are watching a college basketball game or some sort of basketball/football hybrid. Last year, average Division I scoring reached its lowest point since 1982.
It's not just because of the lack of team continuity and player commitment. It's also due in large part to the way college basketball games are refereed, and more indirectly, the way those referees are overseen. In essence, referees have stopped calling fouls so long as players keep their arms vertical. Coaches have caught onto this, and they have begun teaching players to "foul with their chests," which is every bit as much a foul as a foul with an arm ? only it's not called as a foul. And for reasons that defy understanding, the hand checking that is heavily policed in the NBA is almost always permitted in the college game.
Link: http://news.
.com/dont-fooled-march-madness-college-basketball-trouble-163000923.html
The fans never really got to know their stars. And then they were all gone and a new batch rolled into town.
It was not always like that. Every single person who follows basketball, for example, could have told you that Shane Battier went to Duke. But is Kyrie Irving, who also attended Duke for about 10 seconds, truly a Duke guy in the way that Battier is?
Can Duke fans tell you Kyrie Irving stories the way they can tell you Battier stories or J.J. Reddick stories? Of course not, because Kyrie Irving was not there long enough to provide story material.
The one-and-done phenomena has done more than make us unfamiliar with the NCAA's top players. It has also led to a hideous decline in the quality of play over the past few years. It's often difficult to tell whether you are watching a college basketball game or some sort of basketball/football hybrid. Last year, average Division I scoring reached its lowest point since 1982.
It's not just because of the lack of team continuity and player commitment. It's also due in large part to the way college basketball games are refereed, and more indirectly, the way those referees are overseen. In essence, referees have stopped calling fouls so long as players keep their arms vertical. Coaches have caught onto this, and they have begun teaching players to "foul with their chests," which is every bit as much a foul as a foul with an arm ? only it's not called as a foul. And for reasons that defy understanding, the hand checking that is heavily policed in the NBA is almost always permitted in the college game.
Link: http://news.
.com/dont-fooled-march-madness-college-basketball-trouble-163000923.html
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