Time to ditch college basketball’s phony line dance

The eternal debate about the value of the college basketball postgame handshake line was given its semi-annual bump last week when a barney broke out between the coaches and players of Michigan and Wisconsin.

That is, of course, the No. 1 purpose of the line dance. It’s for TV directors to keep their fingers crossed that a forced confrontation will trend violent.

The No. 2 reason is to project artificial sportsmanship.

Anyway, on cue, the real screaming began the next day. The reasonable crowd proposed ending the unwritten “obligation” to put on a TV show. The ever-holy mob demanded it continue as a display of goodwill.

Just like those coaches, neither wanted to surrender an inch.

While there are multiple reasonable arguments, one point is always missed: The handshake line is not a century-long tradition. Rather, it just happened … when, exactly? It isn’t like it began after that first peach-basket game at the Massachusetts YMCA. It didn’t even happen as late as the late 1980s, and maybe not regularly in the early 1990s.

Patrick Ewing, the Georgetown coach, is among those advocating for a return to that relatively recent past, and he says he doesn’t remember a mandatory post-game receiving line being a custom when he played at his alma mater. And videos do not show any such to-do after he played in one of the most famous college basketball games of all time, the Hoyas’ 1985 NCAA final loss to Villanova.

The folk version of the development of the charade, which is about all that is available, is that it began sometime in the ’90s when when the head coaches began to share a post-game handshake. Soon after, the assistants joined the parade, followed almost immediately by the players. And the tradition grew. Figure that it began to develop into the mindless meet-and-greet that it has become roughly 35 years ago, or somewhere in the lifetime of almost every current college coach.

Check out any video of some of the heated Big 5 battles of the 1970s. The games ended and the teams darted to locker rooms at opposite sides of the Palestra. Too dated? OK, check out this week’s NBA games, when maybe — maybe — the head coaches will shake hands while the players settle for friendly waves from afar.

No one notices.

No one demands more. Just the TV directors.