SINCE WE LAST SPOKE: 2-19-15
NOT MUCH THIS WEEK: I apologize for this week’s abbreviated blog. The power went out in Beanoland Monday at 9pm and wasn’t restored until late Wednesday evening so I had little time to devote to this week’s sport’s world. As if there was ever any doubt I now know unequivocally I AM NOT a candidate to intentionally go off the grid.
QUITE FRANKLY COLLEGE BASKETBALL SUCKS: Though I prefer a College Football Saturday and can more closely relate to baseball and the challenges that game’s players face I do still love College Basketball. It is not an unconditional love however and if the pace, flow and player skill set doesn’t improve the day is coming when I won’t even be mildly fond of it. The game has become too physical, too perimeter oriented, too coach orchestrated while taking too dang long to play. It’s also too AAU as in "can anyone here dribble, shoot, pass or play alongside a teammate?" I know the game is losing its luster because I’ve found myself actually watching NBA games prior to April something I haven’t been remotely tempted to do since Magic was skinny.
I’m not the only one struggling with the game’s issues and entertainment quality. In a January article written by Sam Mellinger for the
Kansas City Star no less authority and ambassador for College Basketball than Jay Bilas was quoted as saying:
“I will fight for college basketball until the death, but sitting by and watching this ship sink is not good enough. Who could defend what we’re seeing right now?”
“I love this game, and it’s become unwatchable,” Bilas says. “It’s hard for me to argue with people I know and respect those who don’t want to watch our game. It’s hard to build a case why they’re wrong.”
Mellinger goes on to point out:
The sport’s problems are coming out of the shadows in what is largely an ugly season. This will almost certainly be the slowest season since college basketball adopted the (then 45 seconds) shot clock. This is a season of hopeless shots and streams of timeouts slaughtering any flow.
One game was 17-14 at halftime and tied at 55-55 after an overtime. Nine teams from power conferences have won games without breaking 50 points. Temple won a game scoring 40 points, on 11-of-48 shooting. Georgia Tech — an ACC program that gives out scholarships — scored 28 points. In a full, 40-minute game. No wonder fewer people are watching.
The article goes on to recommend the following possible solutions for improving the game’s entertainment value.
My reactions to those suggestions follow in bolded italics.
-Increase freedom of offensive player movement by returning to the stricter enforcement of hand and hip checks attempted early in the 2013-14 season.
I’m opposed. Last year’s experiment –though scores and shooting percentages increased- was not well received by fans, players or coaches –was abandoned at the most critical part of the season- and would only result in increased trips to the free throw line which is not exactly exhilarating and certainly isn’t time saving.
-Shorten the shot clock to 30 seconds
I’m for this proposal which will likely be implemented as early as 2015-16. I do fear that this will mean bad basketball will simply become faster bad basketball and would promote more ball handling and shooting by the wrong players. It will at the very least however increase the pace and discourage micro-managing coaches from orchestrating every dribble of the ball.
-Widen the lane and move back the 3-Point Line
I like this proposal as well. As players get bigger and more physical widening the lane would unclog a critical area of the floor and promote more penetration opportunities. Moving the three point line back would hopefully mean that only those capable of making a reasonable percentage of three-balls would be hoisting them regularly.
-Elect or appoint a College Basketball Commissioner
I say absolutely. I believe in order to implement the type changes that will be required to improve the sport there will have to be an ultimate authority to ramrod those modifications.
VOL HOOPS PROGRESS REPORT The Vols have been slapped back to reality thus far in the second half of the SEC season and are coming off what if ESPN’s marketing machine had anything to do with would have been designated Miserable Matchup Week (That's a blog week which runs Thurs-Wed). No one’s personnel in the SEC can create more problems for the Small Vols than LSU and of course Kentucky. Both teams are simply too big for Tennessee to overcome regardless of how heroic the Vols efforts may be. We saw both the very worst (1st half vs LSU) and very best (1st half vs Kentucky) the 2015 Volunteers have to offer and the results were predictably the same. So we enter the last five games of the regular season needing to reverse the recent trend and win both remaining home games along with finding one more remarkable road performance to reach the 17 win plateau that most would consider a very successful season under the circumstances. Here is my characterization of what remains.
PROBABLE LOSSES: @LSU (Mar 4)
PROBABLE WINS: Vandy (Feb 26); S Carolina (Mar 7)
TOSSUPS: @Ole Miss (Feb 21) @Florida (Feb 28)
A POTENTIAL BRONX BOMB OF A SEASON: With A-Rod’s latest
heartfelt apology behind us the circus is officially back in town with too few genuine attractions and too many clowns. This has the potential to be the least entertaining, hardest to watch season of my Yankee fandom which –more regretfully every year due to advancing age- dates back to 1963. Oh I’ve seen plenty of underachievement and downright lousy baseball but never without someone in uniform that I would tune in every night to watch or consider to be a true Yankee. I’ve been blessed with a string of easy to pull for stars that has spanned my greater than 50 years of fanhood. There was Mantle, Murcer, Munson, Guidry, Mattingly and Jeter. Now there’s..well…uh…I..you know..NOBODY. The Yankees everyday –as if any are ever healthy enough to play daily- are a collection of fading mercenaries most of which are both non-productive and injury-prone. Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran and Scott Drew are only a shadow of what they have been in prior stops. Mark Teixeira is easily one of the finest men I have ever had the pleasure to meet yet I cringe watching him consistently under perform in the middle of the order. The pitching
staff is even shakier. Skinny C.C Sabathia couldn’t get me out, Michael Pineda has been injured since inception, Ivan Nova won’t pitch until June and while extremely fun to watch Masahiro Tanaka may be even more fragile than his countrymen who preceded him. If those four don’t produce good luck staying in the race with such stalwarts as Chris Capuano and Nathan Eovaldi.
I do look forward to once again watching the well-rounded Jacoby Ellsbury and the supreme-effort Brett Gardner patrol two-thirds of the outfield while bolstering the top of the order. I also -though mourning the departure of Derek Jeter- look forward to the defensive wizardry of Didi Gregorious at shortstop while wondering if he will ever hit enough to man the position full time. I will also view with rapt attention Dellin Batances’ attempt to be as adept at the closer role as the Yankees have become so accustomed to and if not can Andrew Miller?
Regardless of his feeble attempts to put the past behind him A-Rod can’t help but be what he has been for the vast amount of his time as a Yankee, an over-priced; under productive; over-the-top distraction. I’m praying that Chase Headley can be consistent enough to keep A-Rod in the dugout except for when it’s time for the DH to take a hack. Part of that supplication –which will likely go unanswered- is he will do us the ultimate favor of hiding from the cameras in the clubhouse between at bats. Jeter has always been there to counteract A-Fraud's classless, selfish act an underappreciated yet remarkable feat in itself. Where can Yankee fans turn now for day-to-day enjoyment? Your guess is as good as mine.
IN A PERFECT WORLD: Fort Loudon, Watts Bar and Norris wouldn’t experience winter weather that made them seem like the Great Lakes.
