For one month of the year, everyone and their brother is obsessed with college basketball. It’s the month that comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Likewise, college basketball season comes in with the crickets of apathy chirping and leaves with all eyes and ears fixated upon its One Shining Moment. Fitting how March, the month with the most well known descriptional epigram, is that month.
With the Champions Classic a couple days ago, a so-called “Final 4 based on chalk” or “Final 4 in November,” raises the question of “what has college basketball done to try and re-capture the interested level of March and duplicate in fall and winter?”
You have to credit Duke, and Kentucky, for doing more to generate interest in this sport than any other two programs.
In January, more people start to care about college basketball a little, and in February, you see a significant increase in attention. Fans start to tune in to see where they team could be headed in the big dance, or if they’re going to make it all.
Obviously, in March everyone is into this sport, fueled by their office bracket pools.
The rest of the year, only people who live in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana and North Carolina really care.
People in those states care passionately from October to April. If you’re a Kentucky Wildcats fan, you care about college basketball in the summer too.
Scheduling is a big reason why apathy runs amok in the pre-conference. No one wants to watch their power five conference team waste time pummeling a low-major or mid-major. Most of the pre-conference games are de facto preseason scrimmages.
However, the sport is doing a really good job of changing that.
The steps that college hoops has taken in this regard are really underrated and under-appreciated
The Kentucky Wildcats are doing their part and more to aid in this effort. UK are playing in yet another early season double-header showcase featuring UK, Ohio State, South Florida and Memphis. The Kentucky Wildcats will take on USF on Thanksgiving weekend at the home of the Miami Heat.
Big Blue takes on all comers, and they play on the biggest stages. The Kentucky Wildcats are in ESPN’s Champions Classic with Michigan State, Duke and Kansas. They’re also a part of the CBS Sports Classic with UCLA, North Carolina and Ohio State.
That’s the plus side of what Kentucky has done. (This link has a lot more on that)
We’ll get into the down side of Kentucky’s impact later.
Holiday Tournaments
Their are some great match-ups during what ESPN labels “Feast Week,” Unfortunately, no one’s watching them. Unless it’s the Maui Invitational. That has brand name recognition because it’s high profile, consistent, and it’s been around for awhile. Maui gets ratings and page views. The Paradise Jam? The Puerto Rico tip-off? Battle for Atlantis? Old Spice Classic? Wooden Classic? Has anyone ever heard of any of these?
WGAS Radio is on the air!!!
You’ve seen the attendance (or lack thereof) at these things.
You might only care where your college basketball team is playing and who they’re playing. During Feast week no one really gives a #$% about college basketball. You care about: shopping, food, shopping, shopping, food, food, shopping, NFL football, shopping and college football. No one cares about hockey, NBA or college basketball when all this is going on.
By “all this” I mean: Thanksgiving, the night before Thanksgiving when everyone gets Amanda Bynes level drunk and also Black Friday, the day people sleep outside for three days in frigid temperatures just for the right to get into fist fights over the chance to purchase $29 tablets.
Like Brad Daugherty said “the NFL slaughters everything.”
The ESPN NASCAR analyst, and former Cleveland Cavaliers and North Carolina Tar Heels legend says it all. College basketball rules March, and to a lesser extent February because there isn’t much else going on at that time in the sports calendar. The NFL rules everything, and college football is so far above all the other college sports in popularity it’s ridiculous. So when you have the holidays, NFL and bowl games, college basketball takes a big back seat. TV ratings numbers place college football as the second most popular sport behind the NFL, and it’s WAY above the MLB, NHL and NBA according to the numbers.
Let’s give college basketball credit for trying though. Aircraft carrier college basketball didn’t work out. Great idea, just bad logistics.
The Big Ten/ACC Challenge is a great made for television event. The Champions Classic is an even better idea. Duke was featured in both the highest and the second highest rated Champions Classic games ever. The Duke Blue Devils are the Donald Trump of sports right now. Not just hoops, but all of sport. You watch because you stand with them, or you watch because you stand against them.
Either way, you’re tuning in. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski has PHENOMENAL media skills. Love him or hate him, he’s the best in this regard. We saw that Tuesday night in how he handled being asked two ridiculously stupid questions following a very tough loss.
Love or hate Duke, you’re paying attention to how they’re doing; the entire season.
So while Duke and Kentucky have done so much to help grow the sport, especially during periods in which interest level is minimal, what have they done to also hurt the game’s popularity?
Well, every McDonald’s All-American Game is pretty much the same as every recruiting class rankings, just about every year. They’re dominated by Duke and Kentucky, and just a couple more schools.
North Carolina, Kansas, Michigan State, maybe a couple more programs here and there, but essentially, college hoops has become a completely predictable, boring oligarchy. At least until March when unpredictability reigns. Every year it’s the same handful of teams that dominate every recruiting cycle, and today recruiting is almost everything. No matter your opinion of the one-and-done method, it’s where the game is headed.
Developing and molding four year guys will become passe.
Duke and Kentucky have mastered this; let’s give them credit for it. On paper, and in conference play, college basketball has a 1%er class. It’s an era with a few elite haves, and lots of have nots.
And until March, it’s boring and pointless as hell.
Unless you’re a fan of the haves.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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