I’d like to premise this article with a few comments that have led to my love for the NBA as the greatest basketball being played in the world, easily better than that of NCAA ball.
I grew up in Denver, home of the Broncos and Nuggets, and later on, the Rockies and Avalanche. My dad gave me a love of sports, and he was also a Denver native, born and raised. He never went to college, which I think is a reason he never was drawn to college sports.
The first college football game I cared about and attended came in my freshman year at Colorado State, watching the Rams play the University of Colorado Buffs at New Mile High Stadium.
I still have not been to a CSU basketball game, mainly because the team is consistently in the basement of the Mountain West Conference (which is not exactly strong, particularly in basketball).
The Rams men’s team were the last picked into the NCAA tournament in 2003, with Jason Smith leading the team, CSU’s second-ever NBA draftee.
Believe me, I am “Proud to be a CSU Ram,” just not that proud of the weak teams we put out from year to year.
Basically, I am not a sell-out, bandwagon-jumping, fair-weather fan who likes whoever is on top at that current point of time. I’m a homer. Always have been, always will be.
Growing up in Denver, I learned how the media influences what teams are popular, with the Nuggets getting no national games for entire seasons. Part of it was that the Nuggets were absolutely horrible throughout the '90s, and part was that Denver is still thought of as a “dusty old cow town.”
The Nuggets being so bad (the Broncos weren’t much better) led to me being an extremely loyal fan, leaving less room for other teams to pull some of my fanhood away from my two favorites.
Now that I put my biases out on the table, let’s get to the reasons the NBA is much better than the NCAA.
Recently, I found myself immersed in March Madness, a Saturday afternoon with no other sports on besides NASCAR and the PGA Tour. Hey, I like golf (especially as a hangover nurse) on a weekend as much as the next guy, but I wanted more. I wanted the NBA.
I forced myself to watch relatively meaningless games which paired up powerhouses and no-names. Blowouts in the making; blowouts they turned out to be.
This is where I find my first beef with the NCAA—too many games are blowouts. Of the 38 games that had completed as of writing this article, 18 were decided by more than 10 points, seven by more than 20.
The separation of talent is too great for smaller teams to compete with huge programs like UConn, Duke, North Carolina, etc. Plus, there are two major conferences that have the majority of talent and the best teams.
The ACC includes Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Florida State and so on. The Big East consists of UConn, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse, all of which are consistently power players in the NCAA. The Big East and ACC are so deep, what makes other conferences think they have a chance?
The NBA has parity, or is at least much closer to it than the NCAA. Most teams, usually 20-25 of 30 have a chance to win the NBA championship at the start of the season.
The talent is spread more evenly throughout the league, which leads to more competitive games.
There will always be blowouts in basketball, but there are far fewer in the NBA than NCAA, which is more attractive to fans.
Next, the clocks in college are wacky, and should be synced up with the NBA. The college shot clock is far too long at 35 seconds. Twenty-four seconds, the same as the NBA, would be better than the eternity the current 35 second clock takes. Also, college games should be broken into four 12 minute quarters.
Shorter shot clocks and longer game times would lead to higher scoring and better games on the whole. College kids frequently use up the long shot clock with pass after pass, leading to a missed jumper, which must be where the term March Madness comes from, because it is definitely maddening.
College games could be higher scoring, which produces a more exciting game for fans.
I love how NBA games go to 100-plus points almost every night, whereas college games are usually played into the 60s.
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