March Madness

[Yukon Jack]

Well, March Madness is on! College basketball at its finest!

What is the appeal of basketball? Scoring every minute at least twice? The presence of genetic freaks of 7 feet in abnormal human height? Or simply, because it is THE politically correct sport?

Give your opinion.

[Boges]

Well, March Madness is on! College basketball at its finest!

What is the appeal of basketball? Scoring every minute at least twice? The presence of genetic freaks of 7 feet in abnormal human height? Or simply, because it is THE politically correct sport?

Give your opinion.

Actually the appeal of Basketball is less than it was in the Jordan years. Many NBA teams are losing boatloads of money, that's why much of the season was cutoff. A new collective agreement needed to be signed.

As for March Madness. It's appealing for things like the last minute games with VCU this weekend where both games were in doubt until the buzzer. Or having an unknown school like Lehigh beat the powerhouse Duke.

Also the fact that you have 48 games played in four days this weekend. Basketball can be exciting if you have a vested interest in the teams. That's why having a pool and a bracket to fill out makes the tournament exciting because even if you couldn't care less about a school like Baylor, you want them to win because you have them getting to the Elite 8.

But if you really have no cheering interest in either team, watching the final two minutes of a Basketball game is all you need to see.

College basketball also suffers from the fact that really good players only need to play one season in college before going to the pros. In the past it was almost expected that a player would be at a school for awhile. I believe the last great NBA player to play 4 years at their school of choice was Tim Duncan at Wake Forrest and he played in the mid 90's.

A team like Kentucky is favoured in this tournament but the team is full of freshman. The coach, John Calipari recruits so well that he has to restock his team every year because they all leave for the NBA after one season.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Boges

[punked]

Basketball is second only to Hockey for its awesomeness period end of story.

[Yukon Jack]

Basketball is second only to Hockey for its awesomeness period end of story.

That may be so, because the acolytes of either hockey of basketball have never had the fortune of watching a a TEAM HANDBALL game.

[bush_cheney2004]

The NCAA men's and women's national basketball tournaments have broad appeal for several reasons:

1) Millions of university & college alumni and families get to support their team(s) and re-live the past

2) David and Goliath matchups and competition that are least tainted by corruption.

3) Gambling and social gathering based on bracket outcomes and ultimate champion

4) Like baseball/softball, a lot of people can relate to the game having played basketball themselves (compared to football or hockey)

There is no analog for the NCAA basketball tournament in Canada, but Canadians are on some teams. Steve Nash (Santa Clara) had a short intro to promote the televised tournament this year. Kevin Pangos from Newmarket, Ontario played for Gonzaga. Many other nationals participate in the games as well.

[Shady]

I love March Maddness. Especially the first Thursday and Friday. So many games, and the networks usually take you from game to game depending on the situation. I also love the first round of the NHL playoffs when there's a few games on each night for a week or so. Although I wish they'd go back to the format of eastern conference one night and western conference the next night. I like it when they alternated games that way.