The Rockets have won 19 in a row. Why don't you care?

wow is right

 

Awful post. Awful tournament. Shitty basketball is shitty basketball whether the game is close or not. Today's NCAA Tournament is not the tournament of yesteryear. Same as the Eastern Conference in the NBA. Shitty basketball is shitty basketball and waxing poetic about March Madness doesn't make it quality basketball.

 

I'll third that wow.

I have little interest in the NBA. College hoops is the only sport in which I prefer the college game to the pro game.

Some of my favorite sporting moments have come with college basketball as the backdrop.

 

Whatever. There's no sense in argument when the argument has no sense.

 

Do you think the quality of play is good?

 

I do.

Better than most Miami Heat games I've seen this year.

 

Forget the Heat, better than most Boston Celtics games I've seen this year. The NBA has been better about this during the current season just because the West has little room for error, but most NBA games are played like a typical pick-up game.

Playing help-side defense or pressing is a faux pas. The typical offense is based around two guys. Hustle is a dirty word until the last few minutes of the game. I'll give the West its due this season for being entertaining, but most regular season NBA games could be strategized by a chimp.

 

Ah, hell, since Pancamo threw it out there, I'll jump on the bandwagon. In one way I understand the love for the NCAAT, but on another hand I don't. I hear people bash the NBA for having long playoffs...hell, I've even heard people bash the NBA playoffs because the best team wins the championship too often. I love watching the first weekend of the NCAAT. I put $5 in an office pool just like everyone else. It's great fun, but it ain't about the basketball. I just don't understand why people hold up this tournament as the most pure and fair way to determine a national champion.

The system in place allows for a team that did not win a single regular season game to be crowned the national champion. It's a travesty that some of the teams are even eligible to compete in the tournament. There are multiple teams in the tournament that would finish in the basement, or not even win a single game, in a major conference. There are a few coaches that will openly admit before the opening round games that it would require a miracle for their team to even compete. What people love about the NCAA tournament is when some shitty team from Dog Tick, Montana ends the season of a team that was superior throughout the entire season. It's not because the basketball is high quality.

 

But how often has the best team that year not won the national championship? This decade's champions were by-and-large the best teams, or near the top, throughout the season:

'98 Kentucky
'99 UConn was No. 2 to Duke, whom they beat in the NC game
'00 Michigan State
'01 Duke
'02 Maryland
'04 UConn
'05 North Carolina, similar scenario to '99
'07 Florida

It's not like an '86 Villanova happens every season, or even every decade. But I'll tell you this, if the 2007 Warriors had won the Finals, it would have been a damn great story, and just because they were an 8-seed it wouldn't diminish their status as champions, would it?

 

Yeah, cuz in the NBA, only quality teams make the playoffs. Like the No. 8 seed in the East, the 26-37 Hawks.

 

Funny. The Houston Rockets currently fly in the face of everything you just said. Last night, the most talented guy on the roster, by far, scored 19 points and his team still won by 18 points. Everyone else on the team contributed in a major way. Steve Novak? 3-4 from three, 11 points. Dikembe Mutombo? 6 rebounds 5 blocks in 17 minutes. Chuck Hayes? 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 0 shot attempts in 18 minutes. Mike Harris, playing his first NBA game ever? 7 rebounds, 6 points, 1 steal. Shane Battier, the ultimate college player? All around solid performance 3-6 3pt, 2 steals, 1 block. No defense? The Rockets held the nets to 30% shooting. If you watched the game, you'd know that Houston's defense has a HUGE part in that percentage. The Rockets are #2 this season in opponents FG%. Their opponents shoot 43.1% from the field. Over this winning streak, the Houston Rockets have been playing the best team defense I've ever seen an NBA team play (and I watch a LOT of NBA basketball).

There's a team out there playing ball just like all of the college fans say they like. They just don't want to hear about it because they'd rather go on and on about how the college guys "work so much harder" and play for the "love of the game." It's bullcrap. Watch some of the postgame interviews of the best teams in the NBA when they lose. It's easy to make it seem like you're hustling and working your ass off when you get to schedule absolute cream puffs for the majority of your non conference games and play 2/3rds of your games at home (I'm referring to the top teams in NCAA hoops).

 

No, because they would have been able to demonstrate that they were the best team over four 7-game series.