NCAA

I find it interesting that nothing is being said about the NCAA championship. For me the only good news is that Kentucky lost. The bad news, uconn won. They announced it on the hourly news or I wouldn't have known. Oh ya, Duke and some others lost. It's the same old same old. Outside of BYU there are several teams I could have cheered for but none of the ones that keep passing it around and that get the 5 star recruits.

NCAA tourney is fun, but it renders the entire season meaningless. UConn lost by 33 points in their regularson finale. They were the best team in the tournamet, but they weren't the best team in the nation and they weren't the best team in the season. They just got hot at just the right time.



Winning a national championship isn't about being the best. It's about being the hottest at the very end.



Playoffs are dumb for this reason - in any sport. They discount everything that has come before and put ALL the emphasis on one stretch of play.



MLB - who cares about the previous six months, Just get hot for that seventh month and you're the best!



NHL - who cares about the previous seven months. Just get hot for that eighth month and you're the best!



NBA - who cares about the previous six-seven months. Just get hot for six weeks and you're the best!



NFL - who cares about the fall and early winter. Just get hot for three games and you're the best!



I get that you have to make the post-season so the early games do matter. But they only matter in that they get you to the tournament. Once that tourney starts nothing else matters.



In fact, you could be, hypothetically, 94-0 going into the NBA finals and if you lose the series, then you really didn't accomplish anything and somehow because of one seven game series the previous nearly 100 contests don't mean much.

SpiffCoug wrote:
NCAA tourney is fun, but it renders the entire season meaningless. UConn lost by 33 points in their regularson finale. They were the best team in the tournamet, but they weren't the best team in the nation and they weren't the best team in the season. They just got hot at just the right time.



Winning a national championship isn't about being the best. It's about being the hottest at the very end.



Playoffs are dumb for this reason - in any sport. They discount everything that has come before and put ALL the emphasis on one stretch of play.



MLB - who cares about the previous six months, Just get hot for that seventh month and you're the best!



NHL - who cares about the previous seven months. Just get hot for that eighth month and you're the best!



NBA - who cares about the previous six-seven months. Just get hot for six weeks and you're the best!



NFL - who cares about the fall and early winter. Just get hot for three games and you're the best!



I get that you have to make the post-season so the early games do matter. But they only matter in that they get you to the tournament. Once that tourney starts nothing else matters.



In fact, you could be, hypothetically, 94-0 going into the NBA finals and if you lose the series, then you really didn't accomplish anything and somehow because of one seven game series the previous nearly 100 contests don't mean much.

Ah, a BCS fan.



I'm not too sure many people think that Championship = Best. I think people think Championship = Excitement = Bragging Rights.

And then the sun came up and I had to get out bed--it really sucked.

Playoffs treat the regular season for what it is: REGULAR. It's a chance to prove that you belong in the playoffs and a chance for your team to improve to prepare to play in the tournament. The players on the court/field decide their own fate through play as opposed to a group of people speculating, which leads to the single most exciting thing in sports: upsets and cinderella stories.

The problem with putting all your marbles into the regular season is that it doesn't allow for improvement. You better have everything right from day one. Playoffs, particularly a series, should show who has matured and improved as a team. Single elimination can require some luck but do can hitting everything right in the regular season.

SpiffCoug wrote:
NCAA tourney is fun, but it renders the entire season meaningless. UConn lost by 33 points in their regularson finale. They were the best team in the tournamet, but they weren't the best team in the nation and they weren't the best team in the season. They just got hot at just the right time.



Winning a national championship isn't about being the best. It's about being the hottest at the very end.



Playoffs are dumb for this reason - in any sport. They discount everything that has come before and put ALL the emphasis on one stretch of play.



MLB - who cares about the previous six months, Just get hot for that seventh month and you're the best!



NHL - who cares about the previous seven months. Just get hot for that eighth month and you're the best!



NBA - who cares about the previous six-seven months. Just get hot for six weeks and you're the best!



NFL - who cares about the fall and early winter. Just get hot for three games and you're the best!



I get that you have to make the post-season so the early games do matter. But they only matter in that they get you to the tournament. Once that tourney starts nothing else matters.



In fact, you could be, hypothetically, 94-0 going into the NBA finals and if you lose the series, then you really didn't accomplish anything and somehow because of one seven game series the previous nearly 100 contests don't mean much.

Although you don't get to a what is best I get the feeling I couldn't disagree with you more. Sports are exciting because they are who wins the competition that day not who's best in my humble opinion. (this is why the BCS sucks. It's twisted sports in to being who's "best" instead of who wins. It's often the same team but its not the same)



(With that said, March madness has kind of turned in to bowl season for me. I love it the first week or so, then it just on and on and I tend to lose interest.)

The problem with finding "the best" is that the debate could be over before a season is halfway finished, especially in MLB or the NBA where you have so many games. That would make the latter part of the season excruciatingly meaningless, and the games would become less relevant as the end of the season approached.



Playoffs and championships build excitement and investment to a pinnacle at the end of the season. "The Best" would just be an academic exercise in boredom.

I agree with Spiff.



Sports have become playoffs for playoffs' sake. Playoffs are indeed fun, but they would be even more fun if they were more reflective of the performance of the entire season. An extra home game, a bye week, or a "higher seed" is not a reward for excellence over the entire season.



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mormonrasta wrote:
I agree with Spiff.



Sports have become playoffs for playoffs' sake. Playoffs are indeed fun, but they would be even more fun if they were more reflective of the performance of the entire season. An extra home game, a bye week, or a "higher seed" is not a reward for excellence over the entire season.



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I disagree with both of you.

I love the tournament and if you played it 100 different times, you'd have 100 different stories and oodles of different winners. Neither UConn nor Kentucky dominated their way to the end.. 1-2 less fouls and Wichita State beats Kentucky in the 2nd round.. I didn't even pick UConn to win their 1st round game.. What if Djieng of Iowa State (I'm sure I misspelled that) didn't get hurt in the previous games.. Uconn had to go through them.



it's beautiful... I love it... I love everything about the NCAA hoops tourney.



I don't care about who the best is, I care about who's left standing... I in the history of the NCAA tourney I don't think 2 teams had to go through so many good teams to get to the final..



and it's not an easy task to get in the dance.. the regular season is useful in many ways....



This year we watched a couple teams grow up in the dance, that doesn't always happen, I really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed that almost nobody would have believed you if you told them how things would play out this year. I love March Madness but there's nothing beautiful about this tournament without the difficulty and grind of the regular season to get you there.



BYU was rewarded this year with a dance ticket because of what they did and who they were willing to play in the regular season.. imagine how awesome college football would be if you were required to schedule strength into your nonconference schedule and that by doing so, it reflected in who the post season was put together... a 16 or 8 team playoff (constructed fairly) would blow away any tourney in this country in my mind. I would be glued to the tv if college football ever did it the right way. Thankfully hoops does



And the end result is not the only memory at the end of the day... are any of going to forget what the womens team did as a 12 seed? How they went toe to toe with the eventual national champs and led them in the 2nd half!! (what!!!) amazing... it was soo fun!

No matter how you do it - most fans love it while their team is still in it and lose interest after they are no longer in it. Still fun for lovers of the sport to watch great players and teams play even if not their team - but for most fans the interest level drops.



Tournaments give Cinderella a chance to dance.



That part is magical.



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