Problem with the Tournament?

We’ve spoken about it before, but the halcyon days for college hoops, in general, and the Cardinals in particular, were the 1980’s. Not only did the decade showcase all of Louisville’s Final Four’s, but it featured the two most memorable games ever played, the Valvano NC State upset over the Houston Cougars in ’83, and the impossible win for Vilanova over the dark and scarey evil empire of the Hoyas two years later.

We’ll never hit those heights again, and many of the younger readers of Master Rutherford’s non pareil daily journal can merely “try to remember,” a time in which they didn’t live. It’s like Frank, and Linda, and theoldman, and me reflecting on Babe Ruth, or Jimmy Foxx, or Joe Dimaggio (less than 20 more strikeouts than home runs in his CAREER) or some other legend that preceded us. We are awed, then imagine, then accept. To convey the excitement, the newness, and the pure joy of the time would be, to borrow an old rock lyric, “like tryin’ to tell a stranger about rock ’n roll”.

It had the newness of your first love affair.

Does everybody have that? Good.

The NCAA Tournament in the 1980’s was The Show. Nothing else even came close.

That said, it’s still the best thing going. We Big East types are interested in just about every Big East game, and are certainly interested in every Cardinal game. Yes there is Cardinal baseball, and Cardinal football, and some of the other sports, but many of us, especially the non locals, go into subdued mode in a couple of weeks, because we are not natives and cannot relate as well to the other programs that have not had such a national profile.

So the ratings are down, but ratings are generally down for everything. The biggest mistake the NCAA could do would be to “dumb-down” the tournament as to appeal even more to the masses. Yes, I’m a reactionary, and I know that’s not always good, but if individual tastes could be usurped by Nielsen television ratings, we’d all be watching “Dancing With The Stars” simply because more people are already watching it. And that’s not the way to have fun.

Good post, Yawnz. I wish that the dude would have offered a way to save college hoops, though.

Memphis to go home tonight.

We win big, tomorrow. As easy as macaroni and cheese.

My first thought when people start wondering how to tweak the NCAA basketball tourney is that this ain’t broke, and it does NOT need fixing. It is the best tournament of any sport at any level anywhere on the planet.

Now… having said that… I wouldn’t mind seeing 6 more small school teams getting a shot with 3 more play-in games. Or whatever the NCAA wants to call them. Having the small schools threaten the big boys is kinda fun. But seriously, by the time we’re down to 16 or 8 or 4, they ain’t got a snowball’s chance and the serious business has begun.