Once again this March, I find myself in awe of the great state of college basketball. The game has never been in better hands, with wonderful coaches, the OAD, NIL money flowing, and the transfer portal.
Even with the high quality of games we are seeing this March, I still see some room for improvement.
My humble suggestions:
More Video Reviews - Video reviews are great for the game. One of my favorite aspects of the video review is how there is no time limit. Nothing builds excitement late in a close game more than having a group of officials huddle around a video screen while commentators discuss how huge the outcome of the call will be.
One of the best parts of the video review is that it allows coaches time to bring their players over and calm them down, draw up plays, etc. It's extremely important, for example, when there is a tie up on the court, that we stop the game, review the tie-up, and give the coach ample time to refocus his team.
The most important thing is that we get the call right. Always. No matter what other impacts the delay has on the game.
More Officials: I love refs. They are the most important component of the game. Unlike players and coaches, who are invested in who wins and loses the game, the officials are completely neutral, and accordingly, they deserve the most honor. At one of the games I attended last Friday, the officials received a police escort from the locker room to the court at the beginning of the second half. That was not enough. At a minimum we need them on horseback. And if horses are not available, then we need them carried in on the shoulders of male cheerleaders, with the band playing "Hail to Chief."
But anyway, we need more of them. One of the greatest changes in college basketball in my lifetime is the addition of the third ref. As soon as it happened, I realized, you have two people who are already great at their job, by adding a third, things will get that much better. And clearly they have. Every game I watch, I find myself expressing gratitude for the great job the officials did. My suggestion: add a fourth official, and maybe even a fifth. This will reduce confusion, and it will free up someone to spend more time making condescending remarks toward the coaches. Additionally, it would be someone else to point out that a play might require video review, or that they were not quite sure whether or not a player had his foot behind the line on a three-pointer. And since officiating is so consistent, we might even want an extra, "rotating" ref, who can just run in and out of the game, and relieve one of the of the on-court refs. If coaches can sub players in and out, the refs should be allowed to do it even more.
Give the refs greater discretion: In the final minute of the Iowa-Richmond game, Iowa made a basket and tried to call timeout. Even though there was roughly a three-second gap between the ball going through the net and the Richmond player inbounding the ball, all three officials refused to award the time out to Iowa.
Good for those refs.
Clearly, the refs know better than coaches and players what a team needs, and in this instance, the official knew a time out to stop the clock and set their defense would not be bad for Iowa. Just foul and send Richmond to the line. That is all you need. The refs knew that. The poor coach didn't.
Accordingly, I say we expand the refs discretion. We have already granted it on fouls. Now, let’s expand it to awarding time outs, allowing substitutions, maybe even setting line ups. Refs know best, and we need to amplify their impact on the games.
Less Transparency: This is a no-brainer. The NCAA tournament selection committee is among the most noble group of men and women humanity has to offer. The way they tirelessly sacrifice their time with such little gratitude should humble us all.
And then, they create the NET and generously update the results daily, and we try and pressure them to use it for the seeding decisions, as if we understand the NET better than the committee does! Who are we to look at rankings and then question the committee’s decision to ignore them?
And if that is not all, I feel so bad when a committee member graciously goes on tv and talks out of both sides of his mouth just so we can have a sense of what really goes on. We should all be ashamed. We should just be happy that we have a committee and a tournament. We need to quit pressuring these people and forcing them into lies on live tv.
Just imagine how poor a job we would do if we had to sacrifice dozens of hours of our time over several weeks seeding a tournament. They are probably not even getting home-cooked meals during the days leading up to the selection.
This just needs to stop. No transparency. Just let the committee choose the teams however it sees fit and we just sit back and enjoy the tournament.
More Farewell Tours: I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say how heart-breaking it was to hear Kryzyzewski announce his retirement pre-season, and how disappointing it was that his team gave such an unacceptable performance in his last game at CIS. Additionally, I don't understand why ESPN devoted such little time to covering the events leading up to, during, and after the game. It was very disappointing that they did not use this event to launch "ESPN-K".
But, having seen how a great (and albeit premature and understated) farewell tour can be, my main hope for now is that we can see more of these going forward.
We all love our coaches (UK fans need no reminder here).
So, this off-season, after they have all had time to unwind and take an island vacation, I hope that all the big name coaches of college basketball take some time to go on a retreat, to get away from the hassles of their jobs, and pesky fans, and just spend some quality time together. And while they are there, they should work on planning their own farewell tours. Calipari, Boeheirm, Pitino, Self, Izzo, Wright, Pearl, Barnes, etc., should all coordinate their individual retirements (at least a decade away), including who goes first, who will play whom where, and lay it out so ESPN can go ahead and begin planning (and we, as fans, can brace ourselves for their departure). This will be tough on all of us. But, we can all go back and review Krzyzewski's speeches, Vitale's letter to Kryzewski, etc., as a balm for our souls, as we deal with the stress and despair of the pending departure of these great men.
In the meantime, we can all start compiling our thoughts for our own thank you's to these great men. How they have helped us in our lives, helped us raise our children, etc.
As you watch the regionals this weekend, think about how much better the games would be if these items were in place.
Enjoy the games.
Even with the high quality of games we are seeing this March, I still see some room for improvement.
My humble suggestions:
More Video Reviews - Video reviews are great for the game. One of my favorite aspects of the video review is how there is no time limit. Nothing builds excitement late in a close game more than having a group of officials huddle around a video screen while commentators discuss how huge the outcome of the call will be.
One of the best parts of the video review is that it allows coaches time to bring their players over and calm them down, draw up plays, etc. It's extremely important, for example, when there is a tie up on the court, that we stop the game, review the tie-up, and give the coach ample time to refocus his team.
The most important thing is that we get the call right. Always. No matter what other impacts the delay has on the game.
More Officials: I love refs. They are the most important component of the game. Unlike players and coaches, who are invested in who wins and loses the game, the officials are completely neutral, and accordingly, they deserve the most honor. At one of the games I attended last Friday, the officials received a police escort from the locker room to the court at the beginning of the second half. That was not enough. At a minimum we need them on horseback. And if horses are not available, then we need them carried in on the shoulders of male cheerleaders, with the band playing "Hail to Chief."
But anyway, we need more of them. One of the greatest changes in college basketball in my lifetime is the addition of the third ref. As soon as it happened, I realized, you have two people who are already great at their job, by adding a third, things will get that much better. And clearly they have. Every game I watch, I find myself expressing gratitude for the great job the officials did. My suggestion: add a fourth official, and maybe even a fifth. This will reduce confusion, and it will free up someone to spend more time making condescending remarks toward the coaches. Additionally, it would be someone else to point out that a play might require video review, or that they were not quite sure whether or not a player had his foot behind the line on a three-pointer. And since officiating is so consistent, we might even want an extra, "rotating" ref, who can just run in and out of the game, and relieve one of the of the on-court refs. If coaches can sub players in and out, the refs should be allowed to do it even more.
Give the refs greater discretion: In the final minute of the Iowa-Richmond game, Iowa made a basket and tried to call timeout. Even though there was roughly a three-second gap between the ball going through the net and the Richmond player inbounding the ball, all three officials refused to award the time out to Iowa.
Good for those refs.
Clearly, the refs know better than coaches and players what a team needs, and in this instance, the official knew a time out to stop the clock and set their defense would not be bad for Iowa. Just foul and send Richmond to the line. That is all you need. The refs knew that. The poor coach didn't.
Accordingly, I say we expand the refs discretion. We have already granted it on fouls. Now, let’s expand it to awarding time outs, allowing substitutions, maybe even setting line ups. Refs know best, and we need to amplify their impact on the games.
Less Transparency: This is a no-brainer. The NCAA tournament selection committee is among the most noble group of men and women humanity has to offer. The way they tirelessly sacrifice their time with such little gratitude should humble us all.
And then, they create the NET and generously update the results daily, and we try and pressure them to use it for the seeding decisions, as if we understand the NET better than the committee does! Who are we to look at rankings and then question the committee’s decision to ignore them?
And if that is not all, I feel so bad when a committee member graciously goes on tv and talks out of both sides of his mouth just so we can have a sense of what really goes on. We should all be ashamed. We should just be happy that we have a committee and a tournament. We need to quit pressuring these people and forcing them into lies on live tv.
Just imagine how poor a job we would do if we had to sacrifice dozens of hours of our time over several weeks seeding a tournament. They are probably not even getting home-cooked meals during the days leading up to the selection.
This just needs to stop. No transparency. Just let the committee choose the teams however it sees fit and we just sit back and enjoy the tournament.
More Farewell Tours: I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say how heart-breaking it was to hear Kryzyzewski announce his retirement pre-season, and how disappointing it was that his team gave such an unacceptable performance in his last game at CIS. Additionally, I don't understand why ESPN devoted such little time to covering the events leading up to, during, and after the game. It was very disappointing that they did not use this event to launch "ESPN-K".
But, having seen how a great (and albeit premature and understated) farewell tour can be, my main hope for now is that we can see more of these going forward.
We all love our coaches (UK fans need no reminder here).
So, this off-season, after they have all had time to unwind and take an island vacation, I hope that all the big name coaches of college basketball take some time to go on a retreat, to get away from the hassles of their jobs, and pesky fans, and just spend some quality time together. And while they are there, they should work on planning their own farewell tours. Calipari, Boeheirm, Pitino, Self, Izzo, Wright, Pearl, Barnes, etc., should all coordinate their individual retirements (at least a decade away), including who goes first, who will play whom where, and lay it out so ESPN can go ahead and begin planning (and we, as fans, can brace ourselves for their departure). This will be tough on all of us. But, we can all go back and review Krzyzewski's speeches, Vitale's letter to Kryzewski, etc., as a balm for our souls, as we deal with the stress and despair of the pending departure of these great men.
In the meantime, we can all start compiling our thoughts for our own thank you's to these great men. How they have helped us in our lives, helped us raise our children, etc.
As you watch the regionals this weekend, think about how much better the games would be if these items were in place.
Enjoy the games.
