The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

March madness is here. The television networks, as they do every March, are hyping the "one and done" basketball tournament as millions upon millions of dollars are poured into this event (forget the fact colleges don't pass the profits onto students to lower tuition fees or the athletes themselves aren't seeing a dime for their efforts) and the audience tunes in year after year. I tried taking it in for the first time last year, and I won't do it again.

Basketball already has a problem with too much scoring, so each basket isn't all that meaningful. You see games finish 115-100, so over 100 baskets have been completed over the course of the game. One goal in hockey, one run in baseball or one touchdown in football has the potential of being all that's needed to win. This can sometimes mean no one really give their full 100% until the final quarter.

With NCAA, this is compensated by the high energy of the young players and there are a number of mistakes made that make for entertaining basketball. Problem is, it comes to a streaking halt when there's about five minutes remaining.

If your team has the lead, there' s no sense in trying risk scoring any more points. Instead, you try to purposely foul the other team so they can throw for one point on the free throw line. You then try to score another basket, and if you don't, you purposely foul the other team again once they get possession so they can try for a free throw.

Again and again, until time expires.

Does this make for an exciting game? No. And I don't understand how people put up with it. The final minutes of the game should be tense and exciting. But it takes about 30 minutes to finish 3 minutes of game time and any interest is lost and the channel is changed.

Well that's just me; everyone else stays tuned in. They don't need a new fan or anything, but just FYI, I won't be trying to watch anymore.