As much as people hate on the BCS, you generally can't deny that the teams that play in that final game are the best two. You can't always say that for this tournament.
mweir145 wrote:As much as people hate on the BCS, you generally can't deny that the teams that play in that final game are the best two. You can't always say that for this tournament.
This is typically up for a huge debate on an annual basis as recently as this year with undefeated TCU. It's also the absolute most boring form of post-season in all of sports.
mweir145 wrote:I certainly don't like them when an entire season of excellence ends because of a loss to a bad team like VCU.
That is exactly why I (and many, many others) love college basketball. VCU is not a bad team, bad teams don't make the final four. They are a decent team that caught fire at the right time. It's exactly what makes college basketball awesome.
Having an excellent regular season is great, having a great tournament run is better.
I didn't say it wasn't exciting, especially for casual fans. Close games and one-off upsets certainly are.
And what you define as decent, I define as mediocre to bad. I watch a lot of college basketball and VCU isn't even in the top 30 teams this year. Looks like they've gotten hot from 3PT range for a stretch, but how long can you really expect that to last?
It seems to me you dislike what makes college basketball special. I'm a bit more than a casual fan, I watch plenty of college ball myself, so I'll respectfully disagree that VCU is a bad team. A bad team can get a win or two in the tourney, but bad teams do not make the final four plain and simple.
College basketball is, and always has been, about "getting hot for a stretch" in some shape or form. And it doesn't matter what I expect, what I know is VCU only has to stay hot for two more games.
I could care less if the two best teams during the regular season are playing in the final game. I want to see the two teams that are playing the best basketball playing each other. If that's the two best teams during the regular season, great. If it's an 11 seed and an 8 seed, I'm fine with that too.
mweir145 wrote:As much as people hate on the BCS, you generally can't deny that the teams that play in that final game are the best two. You can't always say that for this tournament.
This is typically up for a huge debate on an annual basis as recently as this year with undefeated TCU. It's also the absolute most boring form of post-season in all of sports.
Yeah, sometimes there's one other team that lays claim to being the best. But nobody doubts the quality of the SEC teams that routinely destroy the B10 or B12 teams in the final.
Metroid wrote:It seems to me you dislike what makes college basketball special.
A three week luck-filled, crapshoot of a tournament doesn't make college basketball special. It only hurts the chances of the best teams in any given season getting a championship.
I watch college basketball over its 4 month season because I enjoy watching competitive, talented athletes give it their all every minute of every basketball game, something you won't see in the NBA until the playoffs. When the best teams don't end up playing each other at the end of it, it's disappointing.
I'm a bit more than a casual fan, I watch plenty of college ball myself, so I'll respectfully disagree that VCU is a bad team. A bad team can get a win or two in the tourney, but bad teams do not make the final four plain and simple.
Mediocre teams have winning stretches all the time (in any sport). It doesn't make a team good.
College basketball is, and always has been, about "getting hot for a stretch" in some shape or form. And it doesn't matter what I expect, what I know is VCU only has to stay hot for two more games.
I'd love to see VCU win, if only for the storyline. But they're not better than anybody left in this tournament and the hot shooting they've shown in their five games is rather unsustainable.
I could care less if the two best teams during the regular season are playing in the final game. I want to see the two teams that are playing the best basketball playing each other. If that's the two best teams during the regular season, great. If it's an 11 seed and an 8 seed, I'm fine with that too.
We'll have to agree to disagree, then. I want to see the best teams in the country playing each other , it makes for good competition and good entertainment (you can't tell me you didn't want to see what Oregon could do to stop Cam Newton a few months ago). It also makes for a real champion. Watching a few teams that got hot over a few games doesn't give me that.
If people would stop viewing the regular season in college football as the "the regular season" there would be a lot less complaining about the bowl system. College ball already has a playoff system, it's just that it's called the regular season.
mweir145 wrote:We'll have to agree to disagree, then. I want to see the best teams in the country playing each other, it makes for good competition and good entertainment. It also makes for a real champion. Watching a few teams that got hot over a few games doesn't give me that.
It just seems like what we enjoy and want out of college sports are very different. I love college sports exactly the way they are. Call it luck-filled, call it a crap shoot, call it whatever you want, I call it special. It is what it is. If you are the best team in the country, don't lose. It's pretty easy really.
The real champion is the team that plays well enough in the regular season to get in the tourney, and then plays the best ball through the tournament. If VCU wins it all, they aren't a false champion, that's just silly. What we are seeing with VCU is college basketball in all it's glory. It's exactly what I love about the sport and exactly why I watch. If it turned into some homogenized minor league version of the NBA where the same handful of teams were playing in the finals every year, I wouldn't tune in.
Metroid wrote:If people would stop viewing the regular season in college football as the "the regular season" there would be a lot less complaining about the bowl system. College ball already has a playoff system, it's just that it's called the regular season.
And it's much better that way for me.
It just seems like what we enjoy and want out of college sports are very different. I love college sports exactly the way they are. Call it luck-filled, call it a crap shoot, call it whatever you want, I call it special. It is what it is.
The tournament is a luck-filled crapshoot, not college basketball. There's nothing wrong with their regular season, it's the format of their postseason that I have a problem with.
If you are the best team in the country, don't lose. It's pretty easy really.
Sorry, but this isn't football with a short 12 game season. It doesn't work that way with other sports like basketball or baseball...the best teams lose all the time. It doesn't mean they aren't still the best.
If VCU wins it all, they aren't a false champion, that's just silly. What we are seeing with VCU is college basketball in all it's glory. It's exactly what I love about the sport and exactly why I watch.
We're seeing a mediocre team get hot for a few weeks with a bit of luck. If that's what you like to see out of a national champion, that's your prerogative. But it's not mine.
If it turned into some homogenized minor league version of the NBA where the same handful of teams were playing in the finals every year, I wouldn't tune in.
The NBA playoffs are a great event, precisely because the best teams in each league are playing each other at full intensity and effort. If that ever happened in college basketball, it would be an amazing thing. I'd love to see it happen, but people are too fascinated and obsessed by the tournament each year.
To put it simply, I watch sports to see the best compete against the best at the end of the season. When that doesn't happen (see VCU, see Giants/Rangers 2010 WS), it's kind of disappointing.
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by mweir145 » Sat Apr 02, 2011 5:18 pm 
