Higgins: Refs, coaches, players share blame
THE GOOD, OLD DAYS
After watching too many college games the last several years where lousy shooting teams struggle to score 60 points and officiating crews hijack the action because they believe they get paid per whistle, it’s clear to me why the NBA has become a vastly superior product.
Admittedly, the NBA is partly to blame for the college game being nowhere near the level it was 15 to 20 years ago.
The NBA rule requiring a player attend college for at least one year has removed the backbone from many college coaches scared to discipline, or forcefully coach, Mr. One and Done.
When a college coach does discipline players and maybe sacrifice a win or two, like Alabama’s Anthony Grant has done this season, he’s hailed as an “old school” coach. To me, there isn’t a higher compliment.
Only when it’s NCAA Tournament time do you see consistently wellcoached, disciplined teams, which is why March Madness is still one of the best times of the year. It’s the months prior that are excruciating.
The crux of the problem is many high school blue - chippers are so advanced as athletes they don’t think they need to work on fundamentals. And many of the younger high school coaches who value winning over teaching the game just toss aside schooling players on the basics if they have guys who can jump over defenders and dunk.
In the NBA, you won’t last unless you
have basketball skills. The NBA is about guys like Zach Randolph who aren’t worldclass athletes, yet understand the fundamentals and nuances that result in double - doubles on a nightly basis.
There’s also not much flow to college games. It’s mostly due to players who can’t make and won’t even attempt midrange shots, so they try to drive and draw fouls. They know college officials blow their whistles more than New York traffic cops.
College officials call almost every touch foul. And almost every college game I’ve covered this season, the officiating crew was more concerned with whether a head coach was staying in the coaching box than with calling the actual game.
The ironic thing is that even after drawing fouls, college players can’t make more than three or four free throws consecutively. Why? It’s a midrange shot, and those are way too boring to practice for hours.
Veazey: Sure, it’s bad, but not that bad
So we’re coming to the conclusion that professional basketball is easier to watch than college basketball. What next? A filet better than a burger?
Look, we know this already. When NBA teams feature the best of a college roster, it’s impossible to conclude otherwise.
And Ron makes a fabulous point in saying that the officiating in college games makes it worse. (So do free throw shooting contests in the final two minutes of a game, which seem to be a college basketball staple. Ugh.)
NBA rules are set up to facilitate excitement — like, say, when you get the ball at half- court after a timeout under your own goal in the waning seconds. College rules seem mostly eager to regulate shirts being tucked in and coaches’ dress shoes staying on the right side of an arbitrary line.
Statistically, it’s easy to see the decline of the college game. Point totals are down. So are shooting percentages. For all the excitement surrounding the 3-pointer, only 34.5 percent of them were made last year. In 1987, the first year of the shot, 38.4 percent were made.
So I’ve made my minipoints. But allow me to tap the brakes on this NBA lovefest for just a moment, OK? If someone in the MidSouth is coming to the conclusion that there’s a gulf between pro and college during this season, they’re basing it off as skewed a comparison as has ever existed in our area.
Why? Well, the Grizzlies are pretty good, first off. So the one pro team in our area to which most people are exposed has won more than they’ve lost, and they’re doing it in a wildly entertaining way. And then what of our college teams? Sure, the University of Memphis has piled up a bunch of wins, but would anyone confuse the Tigers for one of college
Last college basketball season wasn’t a bad one. The NCAA Tournament was exciting, for instance. And thousands and thousands of people filed into arenas across the country.
But compared to the season that took place two decades prior? No contest.
That 1990-91 season had some serious star power, what with Shaq and Kenny Anderson and Larry Johnson among the first-team All-american selections. Even Christian Laettner, in his junior season, had to settle for the second team. Duke won the national title in a Final Four that included Kansas, UNLV and North Carolina. On Feb. 10, No. 1 UNLV played No. 2 Arkansas in Fayetteville – and won, 112-105.
Consider, though, the statistical differences: Last year, teams averaged 69.1 points. In 1990-91, they averaged 76.7 points, which was just a point below the all-time best seasons (1970-71 and 1971-72). Last year, teams averaged 43.7 percent from the field. In 1990-91, they averaged 46.1 percent.
Stats have been on quite the decline in recent seasons. Last season marked the second-lowest field goal percentage average since 1966, with all five low numbers coming since 1997. And after a 17-year run of the scoring average residing at 70 points per game or higher, teams have averaged in the 60s every year since 2004. basketball’s elite teams this year? Didn’t think so. And on the periphery, we follow teams like Arkansas, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee. There’s not an elite team in the bunch. Nothing near it.
I wonder if we would feel as adamant about the superiority of the pro game if we turned back the clock to, say, 2008, when the Tigers were at their peak and dominating the college game — and the Grizzlies went 22-60?
Yes, the pro game always has been a better form of basketball. But maybe the gap these days is as large as it’s ever been — and maybe that cycle will change in the coming years, too.
Smith: Where did all the role players go?
You know why I like University of Memphis junior forward D.J. Stephens?
Because he does whatever coach Josh Pastner asks him to do, and he does it with no questions asked.
College basketball needs more D.J. Stephenses.
Higgins is right. There are too many stars — or should I say divas? Too many guys who think they’re headed to the NBA just because some scouting analyst decided to make them a 4- or 5-star prospect instead of a 2 or 3 coming out of high school.
And yes, most college players today are more concerned with making the highlight play rather than the fundamentally correct one. Blame that on the increased television exposure and the top -play countdowns on Sportscenter.
But if you’re asking why college basketball isn’t as attractive a product as it used to be, I say it’s because today’s game lacks players willing to accept roles.
Today’s player doesn’t want to be the guy who sets the screen. That isn’t good enough for him. He wants to be the guy scoring off it.
When you put five of those kinds of players on the floor together, things tend to get ugly.
Yeah, I know shooting percentages in college are down. And as Veazey correctly points out, the NBA is always going to look like the better product on a game -to -game basis because it picks from college basketball’s best.
But don’t tell me college basketball is any less exciting or fun to watch because guys aren’t taking bank shots and 15-footers any more.
Give me the college basketball regular season over the NBA regular season any day.
One’s a dramatic race to the madness that is March. The other is a needlessly long grind.
But it would be nice if the college game had more players willing to accept the roles they’re assigned without hesitation; guys who don’t pout when three games have gone by and they haven’t been asked to do a postgame interview.
College basketball has enough stars/divas. What it needs are more D.J. Stephenses.
Contact the writers at rhiggins@commercialappeal.com, veazey@commercialappeal.com, smithjas@commercialappeal.com