Kavorka!
By Joe Torosian
“Well, it’s alright, even if the sun don’t shine
Well, it’s alright (alright), we’re going to the end of the line.”—Traveling Wilburys
Kick it!
Oh, I have always been a Jaime Jaquez Jr. fan!
On the NCAA Tournament, I will always root for a mid-Major over a national power. This means I will always be a Gonzaga fan and someone who heavily leans toward Villanova.
But I have to wonder, with the way college basketball has changed over the years…Is the Villanova-Gonzaga way the way to be a powerhouse?
The one-and-done bores the snot out of me. The poster-child for this is Kentucky, and I find the Wildcats the most boring of all programs to watch. I just don’t care.
Kentucky is like a Michael Bay action flick where a team of specialists or SEALS gets wasted early, and only one survives. And—for some reason—we’re supposed to care about the guys that got wiped out and the lone survivor’s pain and need for payback.
Those original characters weren’t around long enough for me to care about, let alone learn their names. So I don’t care about the movie…and thus, I don’t care about Kentucky, Duke, or any other major basketball power… Except USC…Marv Safford lives!
(I’ve been waiting for years, but isn’t it time for Wally Szczerbiak’s eyebrows to turn into butterflies?)
No, I’m not watching the NCAA Women’s Tournament…I had a hard enough time watching the men’s “First Four” last night.
UCLA-Michigan State was entertaining. Norfolk State, Drake, and Texas Southern were like listening to elevator music. Please let the doors open. Please let this music end.
I know we love the idea of Cinderella making an appearance in the tournament, but we forget that a lot of women in the kingdom had to try on the glass slipper before Cinderella was found. She also had a cadre of ugly sisters, and I think their names were; Mount St. Mary’s, Wichita State, Appalachian State, Drake, Texas Southern, and Norfolk State.
And it’s the “First Four,” and CBS, TBS, TruTv, TNT are all trying to capture the moment of heartbreak for the teams when their moment ends. All of these close-ups of players with tears and lost in a sullen state of despair– while laying on the floor–after the final buzzer is…Boring!
I watched my first NCAA Tournament from start to finish in 1976… I’ve seen this movie over 40 times. I no longer care! Lose a play-in game? Sayonara! Don’t pass go, don’t collect $200, and wait like the rest of us for the second season of “Ted Lasso.”
Because of the one-and-done nature, because of the urgency that 95% of the players know their career is coming to an end, you will get exciting finishes. But should a thrilling final-minute excuse 39-minutes of poor basketball?
In the last thirty years, there have been some great moments. I’m not arguing that, but I appreciated the NCAA Tournament before it had a shot clock.
Before the shot-clock, Villanova beat a Georgetown team with Patrick Ewing. North Carolina State and Lorenzo Charles beat Houston and Phi Slamma Jamma. Fans hit the jackpot on March 14, 1981, when in successive NBC cut-aways, they saw: Kansas State and Rolando Blackman beat a 26-1 Oregon State team at the buzzer… Arkansas’ U.S. Reed beat defending National Champion Louisville at the buzzer…and St. Joseph’s beat number one ranked DePaul at the buzzer on John Smith’s lay-up.
So the game was exciting before and after the shot clock. But before the shot clock, NC State, Villanova, and even St. Joseph’s had a shot. This is because the game was about the game, not athleticism.
What we appreciate about football–the chess match, the adjustments, the strategy–much of that, if not all that, in basketball has been lost.
In football, I like defensive struggles. They don’t bore me. In baseball, I love 1-0 pitching duels. They don’t bore me. I like physical, bruising, hockey matches that end 1-0. They don’t bore me.
Current basketball (for the most part) bores me. For me, high-scoring in basketball doesn’t automatically equate to good basketball. The shot-clock is not bad, but I don’t know if it makes the game better…Or just increases the odds for an athletic team.
Last night I saw games in the 40s & 50s with a shot-clock, and they were clank fests. Like trying to watch Keanu Reeves act.
Basketball is a game of strategy. I don’t know if it got better than Marquette’s Al McGuire going against North Carolina’s Dean Smith in the 1977 championship.
We speak of Jim Valvano with amazing reverence today. But he just would’ve been another coach, and, unfortunately, just another guy with cancer, if he hadn’t earned the opportunity to out-coach Houston’s Guy Lewis in 1983.
Would fans remember Villanova’s Rollie Massimino without his opportunity to out-coach Georgetown’s John Thompson (BTW, many people out-coached Thompson) in 1985?
I want to know when a game starts that I have a shot if I execute correctly. I want to live out hard work beats talent. I want to see if I can discipline my team to play our game and not be forced to play the game that the rules dictate—by design—to aid the more athletic team–often, the less disciplined team.
The Dude abides…
1,180
1 John 3:1
Joe T. is the author of “Tangent Dreams: A High School Football Novel” … “Temple City & The Company of The Ages” … “The Dead Bug Tales” … “The Dark Norm” & “FaithViews for Storm Riders”…all five available through Amazon.com.
www.JoeTorosian.com
jtbank1964@yahoo.com
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MeWe: Joe Torosian
Be sure to read:
College Hoops Breakdown—Every Monday by Riley Saxon
The Urena Express—Every Wednesday by Steven Urena
