I'll preface this blog with a statement that I do love Maryland basketball. Mark Turgeon was a brilliant recruiter who couldn't make an in-game adjustment if a gun was held to his head. I'll always wonder what the ceiling for his team was during the lost COVID season... Kevin Willard was a great upgrade who seems to already be leaving his mark on the program. They're a fun, competitive team who could surprise a few come March. If only they could learn to play on the road...
That being said...these are not the Terps I was raised on. This is not the college basketball landscape I grew up loving. In many ways, it's borderline unrecognizable.
For some perspective, I'll throw out there that I'm 31 years young; meaning I was ten for the Terrapins first and only men's NCAA championship. Easily one of the fondest memories of my childhood. Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, Lonny Baxter and company shaped my youth, with Gary Williams at the helm; what a time to be alive. After two soul-crushing losses to Duke the previous season, including the 22 point deflation in the 2001 Final Four, this was a true redemption story. If you enjoyed fundamental basketball, this was a team you had to root for.
In subsequent years, we saw the Drew Nicholas' improbable game winning three, the meteoric rise and fall of Jon Gilchrist, yelled, "who?!" anytime Mike Jones jacked up a shot, witnessed the reign of Greivis Vasquez-- ended prematurely at the hands of Corey Lucious-- and much, much more. College basketball was a high-quality staple not only in Maryland, but nationwide. Moments like these were commonplace among fan bases who had grown to not only know and love their players and schools, but vehemently despise rivals. It was a family-like emotional investment as much as a fandom.
Over the course of the last decade or so, we've seen a drastic shift in many of these mainstays. The result, in this blogger's humble opinion, has been a watered down and crappy on-court product. Elite teams are few and far between, with the stars never shining for more than a year or two before moving onto the professional side of things. Young, bench guys transfer away in search of playing time instead of growing within a unit, while many budding stars at mid-major colleges move to more marketable universities to boost the talent around them and increase their national exposure. Many of these young men are following a true "me first" approach, within a team game setting.
Don't get me wrong, these guys are college basketball. Their desire to benefit off of the personal effort and risk they endure is absolutely valid. For far too long, the NCAA hamstrung these young, hopeful athletes with rules and regulations that were not only selective and restrictive, but often hypocritical. And if you wanted to make it to the league, you had to play along.
This shift in power from the corporate NCAA to the individual is enlightening and empowering; two things every one of these universities claim to embrace for their student bodies as a whole, yet vehemently worked to suppress for their athletes for decades. Unfortunately, in the process, not only has the quality of the game decreased, but the overall fan experience has dramatically fallen, at least from the electric collegiate game I once knew. It's been hard to pinpoint exactly what the cause of this is...but I've narrowed down the culprit to a few possible things.
Conference Realignment
It all seems so trivial when it happens. New teams gain relevance and seek to join conferences to increase the athletic footprint they can leave nationally. At least in my lifetime, this started with the Big East, which slowly shifted from the marquee grouping to a patchwork group of teams willing to keep the conference alive. Institutions like Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech led the way, leaving for the ACC. Just the tip of the ice berg for what was to come.
The Big 12 now consists of ten teams, while the Atlantic Ten and Big Ten are now up to fifteen and fourteen, respectively. The PAC-10 is now the PAC-12, but at least have consistently had the correct number of schools. There's no sense anymore in the conference names, regions are getting skewed, old time rivalries being all but eliminated; along with many of the traditions that come along with them.
Gone are the stories of phone calls to visiting hotel rooms at all hours of the night, the pulling of fire alarms and the theft of prized school heirlooms. The raucous students camping out for nights at a time to secure tickets for the big game. Seismic matchups like Duke-Maryland, UCONN-Syracuse and Pittsburgh-West Virginia, just to name a few, have evaporated. It felt like Duke-UNC was just another game this passing weekend, with virtually no hype leading up to it. More football than hoops, but even the Battle of Bedlam is soon to be on it's way out. For a 90's college basketball baby, the landscape I had grown accustomed to is no more.
Now what we're left with are colleges looking for the next big thing, or a quick, easy pay day, rather than program and pride building. Conference foes that barely know one another, media-hyped "rivalries" that change year to year as talent comes and goes. Was this a problem the NCAA created on it's own by permitting conference membership to have such an impact on funds and postseason potential, or a manifestation of the greed as a whole? The truth probably lies somewhere in between, but unfortunately it's the product and fans paying the price.
Transfer Portal Protocol
Oh the ever changing transfer rules...back in the day, leaving schools meant a year of sitting out prior to getting back on the court, barring extenuating circumstances. They were uncommon occurrences, with limited results, outside of missed playing time. Nowadays, it's the wild west, with immediate eligibility and multiple transfers now in play. Don't like your coach? Try again at another university. Playing time not what you want it to be? Move on to one with less competition. The power has mightily shifted to the player.
I'll say it again, I'm not opposed to this shift in control. The players are the product and should have a say in where they spend a sizable percentage of their young lives. But when discussing the effects it's had on college basketball as a whole, it has to be mentioned. People aren't getting to grow with and know the players for their favorite teams because they're gone after a season. Potential connections are being lost that strengthen the collective fandom of universities. One and done factories like Kentucky may be used to this, but majority of the NCAA seemingly took pride in trying to win through team building and fundamental improvement; a style that's fleeting more so with each passing year.
Now, many of these men are taking the easy way out rather than honoring a commitment. Adversity is often avoided for convenience, obstacles replaced with appeasements. Talent is far more coveted than effort.
And that lack of effort is directly seen on the defensive end of the court. Last season, just four teams held opponents to under 60 PPG. In 2020-'21, that number was down to two. Ten years prior, nineteen teams accomplished that feat. Two years after that ('12-13), a whopping thirty one teams limited opponents below such a number.
If you're watching the games, you know increased offensive efficiency is not the source of this. One could be quick and blame the three pointer, but that's being currently shot at a lower percentage than it has in the last two decades (SI.com). A faster pace may be a side effect of the three point bonanza that basketball's evolving into, but it isn't the only cause.
It feels like a culture of improvement through proxy has replaced personal gains and team growth. This has led to more parity in the NCAA, but at the expense of higher level fundamentals. Players aren't making the developmental strides they seemed to in the past, the talent just seems to be spread more nationally, creating an influx of opportunities for those willing to bet that their next situation will be the one that puts them over the top. Often far more optimism than reality.
Lack of commitment and chemistry has lead to true team defense being slowly phased out of the game, replaced with flashy steal and block attempts that look great on Tik Tok, but too often lead to exploitable zones and easy buckets. But hey, got that one big highlight, right?! A mindset far too many of these student athletes have grown content with...bringing us to our final factor in the deterioration of college basketball...
Social Media/NIL
One of the biggest drivers in the shift we've seen in college basketball has been the accessibility of social media for self promotion. Nationally televised games and tournament appearances are not the only methods of publicity for athletes anymore. A healthy roll of Instagram highlights and strong followings boost some of these young adults to celebrity status before they even go on official college visits.
Predictably, their expectations are escalated as they ascend to higher levels of play; accompanied too regularly by the inability to cope with adversity. When things are good, the kid's a super star. When things go south, the finger comes out. Teammates suck, coaches don't know what they're doing, the program as a whole is busted; and there's 10,000+ followers who'll ride along in agreement to feel apart of the squad. Need validation? Twitter's got you covered.
Impressionable, young adults craving fame and success are finding it with ever-increasing ease as new social media trends emerge and evolve. Clout is replacing production as bad habits are reinforced. Corrective suggestions and critique has become hating, if for no other reason than the fact that there's a larger group of people out there willing to recognize individual accomplishments rather than analyzing the big picture. Had ten turnovers and your team lost by twenty? No big deal, that dunk highlight got you 250,000 views.
And all of that's before we even touch finances. With NIL opportunities now rightfully* in place, professional basketball for a living isn't even necessarily the end game for many of these players. At the turn of the century, you either made it big in the NBA, scraped by overseas, or were done after your four years in college. You might make a few local connections along the way, but those were your main sources of revenue from the sport.
Nowadays, we have kids earning six figures before they even commit anywhere, almost regardless of overall ability. If you can market yourself on the sport, there's money to be made off of it. As a result, flash and personality are being developed just as much as skill. ISO ball is growing as athletes are just as focused on building personal highlight reels as they are actually succeeding at the sport that's driving their income.
The avenues to support oneself before, during and after a playing career have vastly expanded. Dunkers, street ballers and distance shooting specialists can now make a living going viral with ease compared to the effort it would take to actually round out their skill sets for equivalent success in team ball. Great for the individual, but undoubtedly plays a large part in reducing the quality of play on the court.
All in all, as alluded to a few times above, I'm all about the players gaining autonomy within the former-monopoly that is the NCAA. They've always been the driving force behind a system that rewarded them with pennies on the dollar compared to the revenue they generated. I just wish a middle ground felt more achievable: one that allows these phenomenal athletes to make what they deserve while preserving the legendary cultures, environment and quality of play that college basketball can, and has, historically provided.
There's no quick fix to the problem either. Implementing a rule similar to college football may be one way to improve the collegiate product, requiring student-athletes to play for two seasons prior to declaring for the draft. Combine that with the ability for players to go directly from high school to the NBA again, rather than using the NCAA as a launch pad, would also potentially boost investment in the game itself.
NIL deals may also begin to fuel a slower push to the pros, increasing the overall talent levels. If there's no need to rush out of college for big money, there may be increased willingness to stay in school, pursue a degree and fortify their craft in the process.
But given the state of the things, none of these hypothetical solutions would fully fix the problem. Which is fine, I'd settle for any improvements at this point. Perhaps many of these issues will reset themselves in time once conferences become a bit more set, so it's possible I'm just being impatient. Maybe I'm just watching the wrong teams. Time will tell though, and I won't be holding my breath in the meantime. Just wishing that we can get college basketball back to a higher level sooner than later.
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@Choppinglines
*I own no rights to any images found in this blog
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