More NCAA Bashing
The hypocrisy that permeates big-money college sports takes your breath away. College football and men’s basketball have become such huge commercial enterprises that together they generate more than $6 billion in annual revenue, more than the National Basketball Association…And what does the labor force that makes it possible for coaches to earn millions, and causes marketers to spend billions, get?…
An Old Friend
Perhaps no one has noticed, but I have yet to write anything lengthy about KU basketball this season. There are a couple reasons for that – which I’ll get into in another post at some point – but the bottom line is I have a different relationship with the team and with college basketball in general this year. In fact,…
The BCS
So, I ‘m kind of late on this, since the BCS title game was Monday and all, but I might as well get it off my chest. I think the BCS is a gigantic scam. Now hold on. Before you go clicking somewhere else, thinking to yourself, “Of course it’s a scam. You’re just now seeing that?” allow me to…
Best Of The Naughts
The Lawrence Journal-World just completed their reader-driven contest to determine the best KU basketball player of the last decade. Weird timing, yes, since apparently everything that happened in the spring of 2000 gets pushed back to the 90s. But fun anyway. Some thoughts. It was interesting looking at their brackets – they went position-by-position – and realizing how unique KU’s…
A Bar Too High
Let’s get this out of the way right up front: expectations for athletes are never fair. Especially for kids who were high school stars and who move on to elite college programs. All these kids do is play a game they have some natural talent for very well and suddenly outsiders are ranking them against other kids their age, experts…
Pisser
Well, that certainly sucked. I should have done what I threatened to do midway through the first half: turn off the TV, get in the car, and drive until the game was over. It worked against Davidson three years ago. Perhaps it would have worked yesterday. Instead, I just turned the volume down when the second half began, pulled out…
How To Fix The Tournament
If you watched any of ESPN’s coverage the night the NCAA tournament pairings were announced, you know that Jay Bilas laid into the selection committee and some of their decisions. It was great TV as few analysts, no matter what issues they had with the teams that made and did not make the tournament, have attacked the committee so directly.…
52 Down
16 to go. Some first weekend of the tournament. Or week, I guess, with the new First Four games. The NCAA thinks it’s being sneaky, but it’s pretty obvious that we’ll have another tournament expansion sooner rather than later. It’s just a matter of logistics, mostly securing sites for an additional weekend of games. But it’s happening. Two years from…
Friday Notes
I’ve been stuck on a couple longer pieces all week. So to make up for that, a few smaller ideas crammed into one post. The new NCAA tournament broadcasting agreement is spectacular! Four channels with simultaneous games is about the coolest thing ever. We spent most of Thursday outside, enjoying the perfect weather, so I read e-mails and Tweets and…
Tourney Time
A lot of rambling thoughts about last weekend and the NCAA tournament. If you are a Facebook friend of mine, you know I only saw a few minutes of the Big 12 tournament. M. had a school event Thursday, keeping me away from most of the KU-Oklahoma State game. Based on the quality of play, that was probably a good…