I watch way too much college basketball. I’m almost embarrassed about how much of my life from November to March is consumed by college hoops. I stay up too late watching it. I waste too much time reading about it or talking about it or just plain thinking about it. I think you could adequately call me “obsessed.” Or, to be kind, “avid.” But, I have ZERO interest in tonight’s championship game. This one is always partially for all the fly-by-night late-February fans, but this year’s has taken that to a new level. It’s a flat-out slap in the face to the game’s true fans. Neither Kentucky nor Connecticut were probably even in the TOP THIRTY best teams for the FOUR-MONTH regular season. And, now, these two teams will play a 40-minute game to decide the 2014 “champion?” No thanks…
I don’t accept this.
To me, the 2013-14 college hoops season resembles the 1994 baseball season. It happened. There were some great individual performances and some elite, memorable teams. But, in the end, no one was actually crowned “champion.”
I hate it in some ways too, they’re not the favorites, but not cinderellas. In another way though, Kentucky is all kids, they weren’t in the top 30 because they were learning to play together. If you ran back the season starting today, they would probably be a top team from go. It’s not a flukey run from a middling team. It’s a team with a gigantic ceiling that had to grow into it over the year. I have no idea what uconns story is. Shabazz Napier plays terribly and they still beat Florida by TEN? Umm…how?
But it’s a tournament. Not the season. It’s who has the best team combined with the best strategic seeding combined with the best good fortune. The winner isn’t necessarily the best team, sad to say. And the real entertainment, IMO, is the fun of seeing whose bracket does the best. On any given day ………….