What's wrong with college basketball?

[NewsCopy]

The attendance dip has been particularly notable during the regular season, with average Division I crowds dropping each of the last four years. The NCAA won't release numbers for 2011-12 until after the tournament, but USA TODAY's calculations show another slight dip across the six biggest-name conferences -- the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern. Their collective average is down almost 6% in four years.

The rest of the story

[BayouBaller]

Ask the people this simple question, "Why don't you attend a UL basketball game?"

They will tell you. Pay attention. Then, address the concerns if you want to improve attendance. Here's mine:

1. Legitimate scheduling conflicts.
2. Games are often boring and lifeless.
3. The atmosphere was predictable.
4. Games often look nothing like what I can see on television every night.
5. I often leave feeling worse than when I entered the Cajun Dome.

Next!

[cajun4life]

Ask the people this simple question, "Why don't you attend a UL basketball game?"

They will tell you. Pay attention. Then, address the concerns if you want to improve attendance. Here's mine:

1. Legitimate scheduling conflicts.
2. Games are often boring and lifeless.
3. The atmosphere was predictable.
4. Games often look nothing like what I can see on television every night.
5. I often leave feeling worse than when I entered the Cajun Dome.

Next!

#2 can be fixed with better student support, I mean 2000 crazy, loud, obnoxious student support.

[locoguano]

I believe you are seeing the same "white flight" from basketball, especially the NBA, that occurred in the late 70s. The NBA was in major financial trouble until Larry Bird and his nemesis, Magic Johnson, turned the league around.

[duggie85]

(moved post to more appropriate thread)

[CajunNation]

This is a very interesting topic.

Last week, Jay Bilas was on Mike and Mike. He and Greeny got into a fascinating discussion on the very topic of how college basketball is in deep trouble.

While they were short on answers, they cited the problems in detail.

Bilas believes that there are major problems and that they are not being discussed because the people in control of the NCAA refuse to even admit there are problems., i. e., attendance, viewership, poor officiating, and loss of interest by the fans in the entire regular season.

They cited recent comments by Pitino about how ridiculously irrelevant and a waste of time conference tournaments are.

The problems have been a long time coming.




1) Conference basketball tournaments are a waste of time and money and are completely detrimental to the health of the sport. Auto-bids should be handed out to the regular season champs. Reward excellence.

2) Another big factor in the decline in fan interest is the changing of the NBA eligiblity rules years ago. No more dynasty programs and no more guarantees in recruiting. You don't know what you're getting.


3) Also, a previous poster hit on something as well. "White flight".

Think back 20 or 30 years ago. Think about the Southern states and just how much more money universities there have poured into baseball and softball programs over that time frame. It's exponential growth.

Now, has that same growth happened in basketball? Nope.


4) Finally, it's a cultural thing too. Discipline. Hard Work. Fundamentals. Mental toughness. These are rejected by today's ESPN highlight culture.

Wooden and Knight would never become household names if they were entering Coaching today.

Bad basketball is HARD to watch.

[reddot]

The game as it is today poorly played and officiated. Bottom line it is hard to watch 80% of the time. Great defense these days is just teams hacking up on less talented offensive players.

[Cajunsmike]

This is a very interesting topic.

Last week, Jay Bilas was on Mike and Mike. He and Greeny got into a fascinating discussion on the very topic of how college basketball is in deep trouble.

While they were short on answers, they cited the problems in detail.

Bilas believes that there are major problems and that they are not being discussed because the people in control of the NCAA refuse to even admit there are problems., i. e., attendance, viewership, poor officiating, and loss of interest by the fans in the entire regular season.

They cited recent comments by Pitino about how ridiculously irrelevant and a waste of time conference tournaments are.

The problems have been a long time coming.




1) Conference basketball tournaments are a waste of time and money and are completely detrimental to the health of the sport. Auto-bids should be handed out to the regular season champs. Reward excellence.

2) Another big factor in the decline in fan interest is the changing of the NBA eligiblity rules years ago. No more dynasty programs and no more guarantees in recruiting. You don't know what you're getting.


3) Also, a previous poster hit on something as well. "White flight".

Think back 20 or 30 years ago. Think about the Southern states and just how much more money universities there have poured into baseball and softball programs over that time frame. It's exponential growth.

Now, has that same growth happened in basketball? Nope.


4) Finally, it's a cultural thing too. Discipline. Hard Work. Fundamentals. Mental toughness. These are rejected by today's ESPN highlight culture.

Wooden and Knight would never become household names if they were entering Coaching today.

Bad basketball is HARD to watch.

Conference tournaments don't have much impact ont the Big 6 leagues but mean a lot for the mid-majors. Having the tournament opportunity keeps teams working hard to improve as the season progresses. Without them, you would see lots of teams throw in the towel soon after they lost a few conference games. As far as defense goes, it has never been better unlike what some people think. That is why games are often not as entertaining as in years past. What I really have noticed in this year's tournament is how few transition baskets are scored and how many games are primarily half court affairs. It maybe that today's coaches want more control so there are fewer open court plays. I have one suggestion on how to improve the game; limit the no. of timeouts teams can have in the last two minutes.

[CajunNation]

.... Having the tournament opportunity keeps teams working hard to improve as the season progresses. Without them, you would see lots of teams throw in the towel soon after they lost a few conference games.

That door swings both ways.

I've see many teams after a bad start to the season coast all the way until the conference tourney. We have made regular seasons amount to nothing more than a 4 month long exhibition season.

Also, if a team has so little pride and guts to quit after a few losses, my God, just what value are those players and what good is a Coaching staff that lets players do that. Why don't they work even harder to catch the conference front runners? Basketball seasons are very long. Lots of things can happen. I point you no further than last year's Cajun squad for proof.

Conference tourneys are a joke for the Big Conferences, and a way to send sub-par representation to the Tourney for the Mid-Majors.

College basketball is very reminiscent of a 1600m run at the Olympics or any other professional meet. Everybody jogs for 3 laps and sprints the last one. All you have acomplished is find out who has the best kick, not who the best miler is...or basketball team., so to speak.

[CharlieK]

Easy,

Too many left handed point guards playing right handed.

[reddot]

Easy,

Too many left handed point guards playing right handed.

Such a simplistic viewpoint surely there must be some tidal charts we can refer to. Anyone?