The NCAA tournament generated its highest ratings in over 20 years this past weekend spurred by a bundle of close games and upsets. On Thursday and Friday, 10 of the 32 first round games were decided by a bucket or less with two 3-seeds falling to 14-seeds. Over the weekend, a 1-seed (Villanova) and two 2-seeds, including Kansas, dropped to much lower-seeded teams.
Apparently, for a lot of fans, the combination of drama, specific match-ups, and telecast times outweigh the negatives. Here are some not-so-nice elements of the tournament:
1. Scrimmages for Top SeedsThe four 1-seeds clobbered their opponents by an average margin of 26 points. In over 30 years of seeding, no 16-seed has defeated a top-seed and only a couple of games have ever been near-misses. In a tournament about drama and competitiveness, these lop-sided games amount to little more than scrimmages. Besides being boring, its a huge advantage to top seeds to have a one-game bye. One solution would be to expand the slate of Tuesday/Wednesday play-in games from four to sixteen, where all of the 13-16 seeds play against sixteen other teams. The winners of these games could then be randomly assigned to games against the 1-4 seeds. (The random assignment could take place in advance so that teams could scout each other.)
2. Detracting from DramaClose games are entertaining but slow-as-molasses finishes are not. The boatload of timeouts available to coaches and fouling at the end of games takes away from the drama rather than enhancing it. The Wall Street Journals Jason Gay aptly described the state of affairs as resembling watching ones grandparents unpack the groceries.
3. Fouls Galore But Few WhistlesFor fans under 35 who have been weaned on players grabbing, bumping, and shoving, the hyper-physical play doesnt seem to diminish enjoyment very much. Its a bit like Soviet citizens who grew accustomed to bread lines. Thats life. For those who can remember the aesthetics of the game before basketball turned into wrestling, its hard to watch at times.
West Virginias Bob Huggins actually gave expression to this obvious devolution and its cause over the last 30 years. Speaking after their upset of Maryland, he said, if we foul 100 times, there only going to call 20. So, he distributes playing time among a dozen players and instructs his Mountaineers to play with an aggressiveness that Attila-the-Hun could appreciate. These tactics bring praise from most college basketball analysts as inspired coaching. The one inaccuracy in his statement is that it is more like 300 times than 100.
Of course, Maryland could hardly complain. Their win against low-seeded Valparaiso came with a saving grab by the Terps Varun Ram on Valpos Keith Carter shown below that analysts have hailed as great defense.
NCAA Tourney in One Picture: Drama and Uncalled Fouls
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/briangoff/2015/03/24/college-basketball-fans-tune-in-to-ncaa-tournament-overlook-the-negatives/
