College basketball needs a fix

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April 15, 2015
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April 15, 2015

When I was a child in the early-to-mid 1990s (gosh, I feel old), college basketball was better than the NBA in every way.

The style was better. Teams played a brand of ball that was high-scoring and exciting – fan-friendly action that was compelling to everyone viewing the game.

The teams were better. The best programs in the country in a given year all had three, four or even five NBA-bound players. They were all dominant players – upperclassmen who couldn’t be stopped. Guys like Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber and others ruled the floor – each beginning their fame on collegiate hardwood.


Heck, the competition and competitiveness was on top of the NBA, as well. In the 1990s, everyone knew the Chicago Bulls were going to win the NBA Title every single season of Michael Jordan’s career. That was a very poorly kept secret. But in the college game, all bets were off and the NCAA Tournament was pure magic. The teams that were favored actually lost from time-to-time, something that never happened in the past era of the NBA. Drama ruled the day and it was magical basketball to witness.

Flash forward 20 years into the present (I feel old again) and the roles are completely reversed.

The NBA is far and away the superior brand of basketball and college basketball, quite frankly, stinks. It’s nothing compared to what it once was – a mere distant memory to fans (like myself) who remember when the sport was relevant.


This is a topic that has been discussed, hashed and rehashed over and over again over the past several years as diehards have tried to do something – anything – to revive life into the sport that’s declining in popularity.

Scenarios have sometimes been dramatic like a grossly expanded NCAA Tournament or complete overhaul over the system and the rules that guide universities.

But to me, it’s not that difficult and just a handful of minor things need to be done to polish the sport’s quality of play and competitive balance.


The first thing that I’d do is modernize the sport, starting with the 35-second shot clock.

The 35-second clock needs to die in college ball. With it, teams run half-court offense and create a pace of play that is boring and completely unwatchable. I’m not one of those guys that thinks the college game should adopt the 24-second clock that the NBA has – that’d be too drastic of a change. But I think that if the rules committee shrunk it to 28 seconds or 30 seconds, the sport would get drastically better overnight.

More possessions mean more points. More points means more excitement. More excitement means more fans and more interest. It’s a total win-win for everyone. Fans attend basketball games to see drama and non-stop action. No one wants to see Wisconsin run a weave, motion offense for 30 seconds.


So with the shot clock now shortened to 30, I’d also make a few less dramatic tweaks to the game. For starters, I’d get rid of the possession arrow (which is universally disliked), and would bump the foul out number from five to six. While we’re at it, let’s also get the officials to call the game a little more liberally, as well.

It’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between college basketball and college football. Sometimes the two sports have similar contact. Make the officials blow their whistles and force coaches to adjust the ways in which they teach. The great ones will evolve and adjust. Over time, we will free ourselves from the tyranny that is the too physical style of play that exists today.

But we can change the rules until we’re blue in the face and it won’t matter unless a few systematic and fundamental eligibility changes are made in college basketball.


Now, of course, we’re talking about the infamous “one and done” rule, which forces high school players to attend college, but only requires them to stay in school for one year before going to the NBA. Of course, this creates a phenomenon where the best players play just one season of college basketball and then turn pro. That creates a whirlpool where the best teams have an almost entirely new squad from one year to the next with the top dogs like Kentucky losing sometimes upwards of six or seven players early to the NBA per season.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed. This kills the game’s identity and hurts the overall flow. By the time fans learn the new players, the season ends and everyone goes pro all over again.

Brush. Rinse. Repeat.


To me, I don’t think it’s fair, nor even constitutional that high school players are forced to attend college for one season against their will. If I graduate from high school and want to be an offshore worker, I am free to begin my career at age 18 in an attempt to support my family and myself.

So why can’t basketball players do the same? The argument throughout history was that they weren’t ready and the one year of college was to help the players’ maturation.

In many cases, guys were not.


But what do guys like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and many others have in common? They didn’t attend college and evolved into superstars.

The best of the best will be freakish enough to play pro ball at age 18. So let them do it.

BUT …


Add the caveat that if someone does bypass the NBA and opts for college, then they must stay in school for three years.

This would lessen the star power of the college game, because obviously, all of the best players would go pro out of high school.

But it would greatly help the college game’s continuity.


We’d see far more upperclassmen players, which would increase the overall quality of play 10-fold from what we see now.

The teams that play the cleanest, purest basketball are the major conference schools with senior players. Creating incentive to stay in school would make everyone be the winner.

Something needs to be done. The sport needs a doctor.


I remember when the college game was the top dog.

But it’s a memory that is far too distant in the past.