The UConn Huskies Are Not the Best Team In The Nation?

The Best Team In America is UConn?

Let’s begin…

So that happened.

    Man that was one of the most unwatchable games I’ve ever seen. Honestly I would not be surprised if someone told me the players were injected with a liquid that was opposed to making people happy. There are 12 year old softball games that are more compelling. That game was so bad that it took me 2 days to write about it. I almost decided against writing about it, because I didn’t want anyone to know I watched it. I was ashamed of myself. IT’s probably the same feeling 30 year old men have when they buy Justin Bieber tickets.

Now everyone agrees that the National Championship game was terrible. Both Butler and UConn had terrible shooting performances, and they were equal culprits in the crime of making that game unwatchable. However, I still hear people saying that UConn is the best team in the country. Really…you have got to be kidding me!

UConn spent the entire season showing the Nation their limitation, and proving to everyone that they were not in the top echelon of college basketball. So, now because they won 6 games in a row that means they’re the best team? I don’t want to take anything for the huskies. They had a great tournament run, and are the 2011 champions of college basketball. They are champs, nothing more and nothing less, but they are not the best team because they won single-elimination tournament.

It’s traditional to think that because someone wins the NCAA Tournament, they are the best team in the county. However, I would argue that since when is a sudden death is not a good way to determine who’s the best. If that were the case every sport on every level would do it. The truth is it’s the worse way of determining who the best team is. As a matter of fact I think the BCS does a better job of determining who the best team is in a season. There has only been one time since the BCS came into existence when I thought the BCS Champion wasn’t the best team (In 2003 you could argue that USC was better than LSU). Does this mean the college basketball should adopt a BCS system? Not necessarily. Instead they should implement a playoff series format.

If the goal is to determine the best, then there should be a series of games played to determine who the best is. Instead of having the NCAA Tournament as currently constructed. Why not invite the best 16 teams, and play five game series. Not only would this give you a champion, but it would significantly reduce the argument of who was the best team. And don’t tell me it can’t be done, because it can. College baseball holds a series to determine who the best is. So, it can be done.

The NCAA Tournament is used to crown the champion of college basketball. However, that champion is not always the best team. Until another format is adopted get use to teams that may not be the best, being crowned as champions. Whether they change the system or not I will continue to watch the games. I just hope that I’m not embarrassed the morning after.

-Kortney Shane Williams

Comedian and Writer

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Is College Basketball Full Of Parody Or Do All The Teams Stink?

What Does It Mean If BYU Gets A #1 Seed?

Let’s begin…

    I keep hearing people say that college basketball is full of parody. Really…have you been watching the games? These teams suck. If you think even half these games are worth watching, there are some six year old soccer games at your local park that I think you’d be interested in as well. Now I don’t want to sound like some older curmudgeon, and start ranting about how Phi Slama Jama was the greatest team assembled. What I will say is I don’t see many NBA players in college this year. I think there are about 7 NBA players in college basketball, 10 on a good day. Consequently there are not many good teams. The bad news for college basketball is that this isn’t going to get any better.

    There will be times in college where the talent level will be high. It’s just the fact of how things work. There’s probably somebody producing a man child right now with arms like Scottie Pippen, and hopes like Darvin Ham (That’s right a Darvin Ham reference). However, even if this were to happen it wouldn’t improve the product, because the talent would be spread out among the legions on teams. “So Kortney what’s going to happen?” I thought you’d never ask. The college basketball regular season will continue to become more irrelevant, while the post-season will gain in popularity. In all actuality this may be the best case for college basketball. The NCAA Tournament is second to none at attracting both the hard core and moderate sports fan. So this could be great for the NCAA. At the same time don’t confuse a competitive post season with parody, because these teams suck.

-Kortney Shane Williams

Comedian and Writer

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KortneyShaneComedy@gmail.com

https://thekortneyshanepillar.wordpress.com/

 

College Basketball’s Biggest Problem, One and Done

Let’s begin…

   I can sum up this year’s college basketball season in three words, “One and Done.” Now when I mention the term one and done. Your mind probably goes to the common place of the NBA rule, which mandates a player to be either 19 or one year removed from college. You know the rule…the one that was supposed to save immature intercity kids from the traps of the evil real world. When in all actually they were making sure NBA owners didn’t give their money to kids that were more concerned with the purple drank than playing basketball. That’s a bad rule, but it’s not the rule I want to talk about (Even though I just wrote a paragraph about it). I want to address why there seems to be so many upsets in college basketball.

   Every week it we have a new #1 one team in college basketball, and every week that team loses. Many people have said it is because there are no great teams in college basketball. Now I will concede that there is some validity to that assumption. However, I would also argue that the number of upsets can be contributed to a meaningless regular season. Rankings in college basketball don’t mean anything. Every good team has an opportunity to win the national title (via the NCAA Tournament). Consequently games don’t mean as much, and you get weekly upsets. This is College Basketball biggest problem. “Well Kortney how do you fix it?” “I thought you’d never ask (actually I knew you would ask, because I’m the one writing the blog).” I think the number of NCAA Tournament bids should be contract from 68 to 48, and bids should be rewarded to teams based on record, with an emphasis on conference play. Here is how the tournament bids would breakdown in a 48 team field.

• 6 Automatic bids for regular season Conference Champions in the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, and SEC
• 32 Automatic bids for Conference Tournament Championship (If the respective conference has no tournament? The bid will go to the team with the best conference record. If the tournament is won by a team already holding a bid. The bid will go to the tournament runner up.
• The remaining 10 spots will be at large bids.

   The tournament seeding would be decided by a panel as it is now. The only tweak is that the top 4 seeds in each region would get byes into the second round of 32. While the reaming lower seeded teams would compete in, “The First 32” (You see how creative I got with that title…pure genius). My tournament regional brackets would look like the one below.

   Now I know many people would say that this system would be unfair to teams from weaker conferences. To that I would say, each of those weaker conferences would receive an automatic bid for their conference champion, and they would be eligible for the 10 at large bids. I would also say, it’s not the job of the NCAA Tournament to be fair. The tournament’s only obligation is to pick the best teams. This isn’t a charity case. If you want charity, go to the NIT (which would inevitably feature underachievers, and any team coached by Seth Greenberg).

   At the end of the day you have to make college basketball’s regular season meaningful. I believe contracting tournament bids would be a step in the right direction. I maybe be wrong, but something needs to be done. If not, get use to the one and done.

-Kortney Shane Williams

Comedian and Writer

www.facebook.com/kshanecomedy

www.youtube.com/kshanecomedy

KortneyShaneComedy@gmail.com

https://thekortneyshanepillar.wordpress.com/