Excuse Us While We Enjoy NCAA Hoops ‘Snoozefest’

By Mike DeCourcy
DeCourcy is a columnist for Sporting News who occasionally graces us with his presence in this space.
There’s nothing more predictable, dull and unnecessary than the big national voices turning up each February and March, once the Super Bowl has ended, to tell us how predictable, dull and unnecessary the college basketball regular season has been.
The tired old song that college basketball is a one-month sport comes up every year, and this week it was Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock, who almost certainly will share this revelation through his various national platforms.
[img=http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080211/86524.jpg]
Fans still seem to enjoy February hoops even if some writers aren’t.
Football season occupies those with jobs like Whitlock’s right up until early February, and so they see no need to bother with the early machinations of college basketball season – the Maui Invitational, the Jimmy V Classic, the start of conference play or, of course, Kansas vs. Florida Atlantic.
Which is OK. Whitlock is a terrific talent and, increasingly, an important social voice. If he chooses not to pick up on the happenings in college hoops until the NFL completes its season, or later, that’s perfectly fine. However, the notion that what occurred while he wasn’t watching amounts to a “snoozefest†is a bit precious.
While J-Dub wasn’t watching, here’s what “bored” the rest of us:
-- Kentucky’s collapse. Whitlock thinks college football is cool because Appalachian State won a once-in-a-lifetime game at Michigan. Somebody should have linked him to one of the many stories recounting the UK’s losses to Gardner-Webb and San Diego.
-- The arrival of the most productive freshman class in the history of college basketball, featuring several players who will become long-term stars of the game. Including: Derrick Rose of Memphis, Michael Beasley of Kansas State, Eric Gordon of Indiana and Kevin Love of UCLA.
-- Duke fashioning a national contender out of a lineup with no true center or power forward.
-- Major, season-altering injuries at Pitt, Dayton and Arizona.
-- Memphis lasting through 23 games without a defeat and threatening to become the first team to enter the NCAA Tournament unbeaten since UNLV in 1990-91.
If the college basketball regular season is of no consequence, why do capacity crowds keep showing up for home games at Kansas, North Carolina, Xavier and scores of other programs? Whitlock might not believe the college basketball regular season is dull if he’d been to Purdue for the suffocatingly delirious atmosphere surrounding the Boilermakers’ home win over Wisconsin, or to Valparaiso for its rocking home loss to Butler.
Unlike college football, which plays an entertaining regular season so that a bunch of people can vote on which team they believe should be champion – the silliest conclusion to any sport, in any country of the world – college basketball’s regular season creates the storyboard for the most spectacular championship extravaganza in the U.S.
It wouldn’t be March Madness if November, December, January and February didn’t come beforehand.↵