College's Conference Pride is Sick and Dying

Does the idea of college conferences matter in basketball anymore?

Up through the 1990s, naturally it was a source of pride for a fan when his favorite college team was stacked. A North Carolina Tarheel was happiest with a win over Duke. Any combination of games involving Connecticut, Syracuse, and Georgetown made for revelry.

But conference pride existed, too. UNC beating a ranked Syracuse team from the Big East, for example, was almost as sweet. Especially if it happened in the tourney. 

There used to be a running debate about which conference was better and deeper. That argument came to a head from the 1980s through the turn of the century -- the ACC and Big East seemed to almost take turns winning NCAA tournament titles.

Now Syracuse is part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Texas A & M is in the SEC, and Utah has landed with the Pac-12 (which used to be the Pac-10, I mean the Pac-8).

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The so-called "BCS" conferences... or the

"major six"... or what-have-you... have all shifted in the last fifteen years. A high school sports fan doesn't know about John Thompson's Georgetown teams battling with Dean Smith and UNC; has little clue of the regional angst between observers and local media. The world is more interconnected and smaller, which is why a midwest college joining a conference on either coast isn't as strange as it once may have been.

There is an idea floating around that, within the next decade, the power conferences (read: the money-makers) will break away from all other schools completely.

What does all of this mean? That it is silly to drag out arguments about the "toughest conferences" anymore. Most of the old rivalries are gone, at least for the foreseeable future.

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Media and fans are trying to create new rivalries in an instant. But it seems forced. When top-ranked Syracuse and a talented Duke team faced off in February 2014, their first meeting as conference mates in the ACC, the game went into overtime and excited the fanatics. Within twenty-four hours, people were projecting a legendary contention that would last for the next decade.

We are trying too hard.

Slow down. We have to accept that the old days are gone. Media talking heads from the baby boomer generation can be heard complaining that the Duke-Maryland and 'Cuse-UConn battles have been

interrupted. They need to let it go.

We have to quit this smirking, "Well, Syracuse and Pittsburgh came into the ACC and are two of the top teams, what does that say about their new conference?... that they must not be that good!" It is all speculation.

This is supposedly and historically the BEST conference, and their good team lost to a "lesser" conference foe , therefore it is an upset and worthy of concern... is that "better" conference now falling away?...

What did best conference ever really mean, anyway? When anything depends on the decisions of sixteen- and seventeen-year-old boys as to what university that they will theoretically "attend", what does it mean?

It mean that your schools have the most money, which translates into better facilities, coaches, boosters, perks, exposure, and so on. That's all! There is no magical cloud or spirit that falls on a football SEC, or basketball ACC/Big East from a few years ago, that just makes them superior.

These schools attract better players and personnel because they have more "things" to offer... and from there, the myth builds upon itself, with some help from silly media and fanatics. Conference pride is a dead horse. We can't ride it anymore.

Justifiable Rage: Duke Blue Devils

It's not about Duke. It is about Coach K.

 

As soon as he leaves the Duke sideline, the school's basketball success will take a nosedive.

 

We have cultural amnesia, which is partly why the 1980s has gotten a retread in Hollywood lately. Transformers... G.I. Joe... Smurfs...

 

One thing we've forgotten in the last two decades is that the

University of North Carolina used to be what Duke is today.

 

UNC hasn't exactly declined--they are still one of the finest programs in the nation, year in and year out. But compared to their vintage standard of excellence, the Tarheels are a letdown for most of their passionate fans. And it is not the players' fault. It's not coach Roy Williams' fault.
 

North Carolina was, and will be again the second they win another national title, like the New York Yankees of college basketball. In their Dean Smith heyday, they were not hated for their success, not with the same fervor that Duke is.

There is a popular perception that "Duke has ALWAYS been good" which only a person under thirty would say.

College ball is about coaches more than player. They have influence, they stay longer.

So maybe Duke haters should hate Coach K instead.

Doppelgänger, NCAA Tourney '12 Edition: Kanye West v. Darius Johnson-Odom

Random rifle shots on the 2012 NCAA men's tournament:

• Doppelgänger--Marquette's Darius Johnson-Odom and entertainer Kanye West. Darius is like a younger, harder-headed version. Kanye is softer, but his head is much larger. They have the same underbite-prominent smile.

• The field has been whittled to 30 as these words are written. The obligatory upsets have splashed down. Duke and Missouri were #2 seeds that went down to #15's. Lehigh played out of their mind, and for a school like that, beating a perennial power is amazing. But it's no longer surprising when the Blue Devils go out early in the tourney. They live and die by the three. When they are hot in March, Duke is always capable of making the title game, but trey consistency only happens once in a while.
• For some reason, no one else asks why Coach K's game plan has shifted to three-point bombs in the last six seasons or so. Duke has a solid big man legacy, and that's changed since the turn of the century.

• As usual the referees are catching some heat. When the best image-capturing technology on the planet is replaying fractions of a second, sometimes the human eye will seem second-rate. The zebras should get the benefit of the doubt, unless the error was ridiculous.

• Ohio State's Jared Sullinger is the most easily-frustrated college player in recent memory. The mini tantrums are a sign of bad judgment, and it's a sure thing that NBA teams have taken notice. At least one team won't care, because Sullinger is very good. He's not transcendent on any level, however. He lost weight before this season, but his legs and feet are simply heavy. That points to a very average professional player--one who will likely spend a lot of time clenching his fists on the bench.

More Deadly Than the Male

For most guys, there is no good time to watch women play hoops.

If you agree with that, you missed three well-played games last weekend. The NCAA women's Final Four in Indianapolis was very competitive, and the title game was better than the men's. Which isn't saying much.

Texas A&M squeezed Notre Dame out, 76-70, in the final. That was after those teams beat two #1 seeds each to reach Tuesday's game. And two of the bullies on the block were Connecticut and Tennessee.

The big problem with women college teams is that the divide between the haves (UConn, Stanford, Tennessee, about a half-dozen others) and the have-nots (everyone else) has been huge since the ladies' tourney began in 1982.

Some years ago, it was not easy to appreciate Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes or Sue Bird when their college competition didn't always look ready to play. And watching the University of Conneticut's sublime Maya Moore destroy unskilled defenders doesn't show me how good she really is.

That's why I picked up on the women's tourney at its end. The teams are stronger top to bottom. The title game's stars, Skylar Diggins and Danielle Adams, led two teams who can really play.

Let's anticipate a shift. Maybe a female basketball recruit who was only thinking about one of the powerhouses will think about a Notre Dame or an A&M. Maybe the 101-39 scores I always see in women's hoops will start to equalize. While those kind of scores exist, people will know that the game is not competitive yet--that there just isn't a big enough pool of talented players.

In college, I wrote for the school newspaper. One of my beats was the women's basketball team, a team that went undefeated in conference play before getting beat down by Tennessee in a #1-#16 match-up. A few of the male writers on staff would laugh into their hand at me. Like a lot of men, they thought basketball was all about high-flying. They didn't know what I knew.

I knew that a skilled, fundamentally-sound player, no matter the gender, is dangerous. And very fun to watch.

Double Trouble

The ACC is supposedly having a subpar year. They've had several consecutive 'down' years. The conference's last couple of down seasons even ended with the title. The Big East usually is mentioned as the new standard in college hoops.

But it is no surprise when super conferences get six-plus teams in the tournament. With that many teams, there will be years when they all are pretty good. The problem is, that only gets you to the Sweet 16, at best.

And except in rare cases, no one cares about the regular season. History is packed with trivia; there isn't room for all that stuff. All people will remember fifty years from now, if anything, is who won it all.

There are a number of freshmen and sophomores in the Atlantic Coast Conference who will make noise this season, and next. Two of the fastest-rising stocks are UNC's Harrison Barnes and John Henson. They are already very good young players. Both have the potential for much more.

Henson is "Marcus Camby 2.0" as one game announcer described him: grasshopper-proportioned limbs, a small forward's leaping quickness, the hunger to keep you from filling your basket. He's even developing a few post moves, including a running flip shot that somehow goes in.

Barnes was on all the high school all-star lists. He disappeared for the first third of the year, reminding me a bit of Kobe Bryant's Laker debut. He took too many save-the-day shots and passed at the wrong times. He wore a I know I'm good; I just need one more shot look for a while... then it started to click for Barnes. He has that court vision that (my estimate) only about 5% of college players have--the ability to adjust in mid-dribble. Barnes is going to be one of the best players in Carolina history... assuming he stays.

NCAA Basketball Tournament: 'Parity' Is Like Ash In My Mouth

Another March Madness, another busted bracket. I only do one bracket a year, and picked Kansas to whip Villanova in the title game. We're done with the opening two rounds of the 2010 NCAA Tournament, and this is no longer possible. That's a fact. Also a fact: After the first weekend, the most over-used word is parity. "We now have parity." Parity? Where? When did that begin? When Cornell makes the Sweet 16 four of six years--that's when we can say that the playing field is level. Let's see Northern Iowa actually win the title, and then reach the second weekend again in '11. Only then could we claim that there is a true sense of unpredictability. But those things are not going to happen. More than likely, these teams (and the entertaining St. Mary's College) will be replaced by a handful of other upstarts. Every March, we get so excited over the upsets that we get amnesia. Upsets happen every year. Brackets get destroyed quick and in a hurry.

The one recent exception was 2009, where all four #1 seeds made it to the national semifinals. There will never be true parity in major college ball. Although the usual murderer's row didn't appear in the tournament this year--represented by perennial powers like UNC, UCLA, and UConn--do you really doubt that they'll miss again next season? Schools like North Carolina are just on a different level. They have the recruiting network. The money. The boosters and alums. Big-time community support that, in most cases, has been there for over a generation.

You're going to see the same twenty or so universities making the tournament for another generation. There are exceptions to this old-school theory, like a Gonzaga, which has built a winning program in recent memory. But they still aren't part of the upper echelon--they're merely outstanding (so far). They're not Michigan State, or Duke.

Yes: that kind of powerhouse, where a great coach leaving or a losing season are just bumps in the road. Not the beginning of a retreat to obscurity. Remember when that team did good that one year?... This is why I'll always be most enthusiastic for the NBA over college. (Other than the obvious upgrade in play and talent.) At least the pro league doesn't pretend to be something it is not. Its flaws are there for everyone to see. Meanwhile, the NCAA proposes adding thirty-two teams to the Madness, yet pretends that the phrase 'student-athlete' is still written in the correct order.

Come on. Try and convince me.

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