If you ever listen to Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman debate pro vs college basketball on a BS report podcast, you know that Simmons cannot be convinced that March Madness is better than the NBA playoffs. He says that the basketball is just better in the pros and that he doesn't want to watch sloppy play. It is an opinion that I have not really shared (until now). I mean, let's face it, March Madness is more dramatic and more exciting. You don't have George Mason making the Final 4 in the NBA. You don't have Butler coming within 2 inches of becoming the most unlikely National champion ever. You don't have any of that in the NBA.
One reason for this is that the pros simply don't make the mistakes that college players do. There is no reason for 8 seeds to ever beat a 1 seed. Say what you want about parity, but the fact is that an 8 seed is not even a top 25 team. They should not be able to beat a top 5 team. Yet it seems to happen every other year (including both in 2010 with Northern Iowa and this year with Butler).
I can't help but replay some of the huge mistakes in three of the weekend's games. First, let's talk about the Butler-Pitt game whose ending was simply stunning. Butler scored with 5 seconds left to go up 70-69. Pitt inbounds the ball to Gilbert Brown who before he can attempt a wild, last second, half-court is fouled by Butler senior Shelvin Mack. It was an amazingly stupid foul. After all, that shot is as low percentage as they come. It he hits the shot, you tip your cap and move on. But fouling him and essentially handing them the game is just unacceptable. Brown steps to the line and hits his first shot to tie the game at 70. He misses the next shot, Matt Howard grabs the rebound with 1.4 left and attempts to shoot a 90-footer for the win. He then gets FOULED - an even more inexplicable result than the former. You can blame Nasir Robinson for the foul or you can blame Jamie Dixon for having his players on the blocks. Whoever is to blame, you can't argue that this would ever happen in the NBA.
Next, in the Arizona-Texas game, the Longhorns were up by 2 points with 14.5 seconds left with the ball under their own basket. Instead of calling timeout when he was unable to find an open teammate, Corey Joseph got called for a 5 second violation. Arizona got the ball and put it in the hands of their All-American Derrick Williams who hit a shot and got fouled. Within a matter of seconds, the Longhorns went from being in control to being desperation mode. Again, not something you see in the pros.
Finally there was the UW game, a result that hurts even more because they are my team. I love that they are an exciting team. I love that they play fast and loose. I don't love that are terrible finishers. I don't love that they can't win tight games. Now I don't want to take any credit away from the Tar Heels - they hung in there all game - but we gave that game away. You knew the Heels were never going to go away and you knew that UW would have to be in top form down the stretch to beat them. Unfortunately for us, the Huskies got tight at precisely the wrong time and had their lead slip away. There wasn't one particular moment, but a bunch of them that compounded over time.
First, after going up 76-73, Justin Holiday didn't even make the Heels work when he lazily dribbled the ball into his defender. The next trip down was a mirror image as Isaiah Thomas also turned the ball over at half-court. Carolina went on a 7-0 run thanks to those blunders and the Huskies 5 missed shots/lay-ups. Then down 4 with under 2 minutes to go Terrence Ross repeated the feats of Holiday and Thomas earlier, leading to another Heels transition basket. That was the first time I officially knew we were done...yet the still fought on in spite of themselves. MBA hit a jumper with 1:36 left. Harrison Barnes missed a jumper and we had the chance to make it a one possession game. What happened? Well, Terrence Ross took an ill advised shot 8 seconds into the shot clock, after the Heels went up by 4 to stop any momentum. It wasn't that the shot was terrible, it was that it wasn't Thomas who was taking the shot. Finally with 17 seconds left, Scott Suggs hit a 3 to bring the score to 84-83. We had a legitimate shot, especially after Kendal Marshall missed his foul shot. Down by one, 5 seconds left...Isaiah on the court. It had the makings of some more late game heroics...and then the biggest mistake of them all occurred. Justin Holiday was unable to inbound the ball as he lazily tried to throw it over some dude with like an 8 foot wingspan. There were no ball fakes - just a straight up throw to the backcourt that never had a chance. With that the Huskies season came to and end. We had 13 possessions after being up by 3 and we turned the ball over 5 times, missed 8 shots and scored 7 points. It was another terrible mental breakdown by the Huskies and another sign of how much this team has to learn.
All three games were examples of how vastly superior the NBA game is. That is not to say that I prefer watching it, though. For me, the NCAA Tournament is so fun to watch because of the emotion; because of the ups and downs; because of the suspense and intrigue. The NCAA Tournament should be embraced for what it is - a competition where any team can win on any given day (well, except for the 16 seeds which may never happen) that is played by imperfect men. Part of the suspense is because kids make stupid mistakes. In the NBA, if you are inbounding the ball with 15 seconds left and you are up by two, the chances of you losing the game are slim. It makes it almost boring...but in the imperfect world of NCAA basketball, anything can and will happen.
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