NCAA

Well, Monday night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship has come and gone, and many of us were shocked by the outcome.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs, #1 all season, went into the tournament undefeated. This 2 week process was almost expected to be a coronation of sorts, seeing as how the Bulldogs had run rough-shod through opponents all season long.

The Zags opponent, Baylor University, had other thoughts. The Baylor Bears were the #2 ranked team all season long, and also got to the title game as expected.

This long awaited matchup was supposed to take place in December, in among all places, Indianapolis, IN. However, due to COVID-19 complications, the game was cancelled after a player and a staffer for Gonzaga tested positive. Thus, Monday night’s much anticipated clash was long overdue.

After Baylor outlasted Houston on Saturday, and Gonzaga barely got by UCLA with the help of Jalen Suggs’ half court buzzer beater, we all figured that Monday night’s final, would be just as entertaining. As it turned out, the singing of the National Anthem by various front line workers was the most entertaining part of Monday’s coverage.

The Bears blitzed the Bulldogs from the opening tip! Baylor’s Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell put on an absolute show! Butler killed the Zags from downtown, while Mitchell drove to the basket at will. Sometimes taking it all the way to the cup, and other times kicking it to an open man for the three pointer or finding a cutter in the lane for an easy bucket. Baylor’s defense was stifling, and wreaked havoc. Gonzaga couldn’t get anything going, trailing by as many as 19 in the first half.

The Zags cut the lead to 10 at the half, and in the 2nd half, briefly got the lead under 10, but then Baylor turned on the jets to finish them off and claim their first national title in Men’s Basketball in school history.

Gonzaga had the opportunity to go undefeated and become the first undefeated national championship team since the 1976 Indiana team that featured Isiah Thomas. Many teams have tried and failed to finish off an undefeated season. There was Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in 1979, the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in 1991 that featured Larry Johnson and Stacey Augman, and the 2015 Kentucky team that featured Karl-Anthony Towns.

Those were all great teams, but the fact that no one has been able to finish off a season undefeated speaks to how difficult it is to pull off. The best players don’t hang around for more than 1 or 2 seasons. It’s hard to say no to that NBA money. With players not staying for more than a season or 2, it’s hard to build on what was done the previous season because it’s like you’re always starting over. Is that to say that we’ll never have another undefeated champ? No, but it’s so much more difficult now

Congrats to both the Baylor Bears and the Gonzaga Bulldogs. You both had great seasons, and endured probably the most challenging season in sports history due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that vaccines are available, maybe next year’s tourney will be a little closer to what we can refer to as normal. But I guess time will tell.

This week it was revealed that several current and former NCAA college basketball players received impermissible benefits.  Several of the schools mentioned in the probe that the FBI is now involved in are national powers and include Michigan State, Alabama, Duke, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina Seton Hall, Texas, USC, Washington, Clemson, Kansas, Louisville, Wichita State, South Carolina, Utah, Xavier, Notre Dame, Virginia, Creighton, Iowa, Iowa State and Vanderbilt.

This all started last year when the computer of Andy Miller, founder of the ASM Sports agency, had his computer seized by the FBI amid allegations that his agency illegally provided under the table payments to several college and high school players and their families.

But enough about the allegations.  What is the NCAA gonna do about it?  This is a pattern that has continued to happen over and over again, and will continue to happen until a solution is brought to the table.

The issue is that collegiate athletes bring in millions and millions of dollars for their respective schools, but the athletes responsible for this windfall receive nothing.  Many argue that they do receive payment in the form of a full scholarship that pays for their education, and room & board.  But many of these kids come from disadvantaged situations where they would not normally be able to afford to pay for college.  So yes, their education is paid for, but many of these students don’t have spending money for basic necessities that scholarship money does not pay for.

With coaches getting multi-million dollar salaries, universities raking in 1oos of millions of dollars in profits, there’s something wrong when the players that are responsible for this happening get NOTHING.  Why can’t players receive a stipend?  Players should reap some of the benefits that they are helping these schools get.

If something isn’t done we will continue to see this happen over and over again.  The main reason you’ve got players leaving early is so that they can get paid.  If the NCAA is at all interested in seeing the probations and sanctions stop, or players leaving the college game early in order to pursue the riches of an NBA contract, they’ll do what is right.

The NCAA is a 501(C)(3) organization.  What that means is that they are a non-profit organization.  That being the case, what’s wrong with giving some of those profits that they can’t keep back to the students that create them?  A regular member of the student body is allowed to have a part-time job, but athletes are not.  Is that fair?  Let these kids get paid.  Time will tell, but we will soon find out how greedy the powers that be are.

Last night the NBA held its annual draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.  Of the 30 players drafted, 16 of them were international players.  But let’s take a deeper look at the problem with this year’s draft.

This year, as well as many other years, we saw an increasing number of underclassmen being drafted.  But are they ready?

Several years ago the NBA along with the NBAPA came up with a plan to stem the tide of high schoolers entering the league.  You had to be at least 1 year removed from high school to enter the draft which led to players enrolling in college for one year then bolting for the NBA.

This has had a negative impact on both the NBA and the NCAA.  First off, you get guys in the league who aren’t ready to play “grown man” basketball, and it has watered down the quality of the game.  This is why you have so many teams with low shooting percentages, high turnover rates, and guys who throw temper tantrums on and off the court.

Secondly, it’s having a negative effect on the college game.  While March Madness is still an extraordinary phenomenon, fans like myself no longer have players to follow for more than a season at a time.

By no means am I saying that these guys should be banned from making money, but there has to be something done about the influx of “not ready for prime time players” in the NBA.

One solution I propose is to utilize the D-League (DEVELOPMENTAL LEAGUE) similar to how the MLB uses minor league baseball.  Allow these guys to come into the league, but if they’re not ready, sit them in the D-League until they are.

If a guy doesn’t want to go to college let’s use the D-League as a viable alternative.  Let these young guys go to a league where they can actually hone their skills before they make it to the big club.  After all, college is not for everyone.

I would much rather see guys like Buddy Hield, Kris Dunn, and Denzel Valentine get drafted, rather than guys who have only gone through a 1-season audition and may never live up to their “potential”.  Not to say that these upper classmen are sure things, but at least you’ve seen the body of work, and know what you’re getting.