That’s hyperbole, of course.  I would never argue that 1947 national champ Holy Cross, however good they were for their day, could share the floor with a Memphis or Tennessee or Duke of 2008.  Those pale teams of the distant past played a different game, and when looking at talent and athletic ability the comparisons aren’t kind.

But jump ahead a few decades, starting in the late 1960s-early 1970s, and consider this: UCLA teams led by Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton and assorted other All-Americans.  Undefeated Indiana winning it all in 1976 with the following starting line-up:

Scott May – F

Tom Abernathy – F

Kent Benson – C

Bobby Wilkerson – G

Quinn Buckner – G

All were seniors except for Benson, who was a junior.  Michael Jordan won one national title (1982) and hit the game-winning shot as a mere freshman, but the reality was Jordan was mostly a role player on a team dominated by upper classmen James Worthy, Sam Perkins and Jimmy Black.  That team defeated Georgetown and its freshman center Patrick Ewing, who would go on to win a title as a junior and lose in the final as a senior.  Into the 1990s you had veteran UNLV and Duke teams dominating the national scene with players like Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner.   

You see what I’m getting at.  Not long thereafter the top high school players in the country began to treat college hoops as an annoying inconvenience, something to grace with their presence for a few months or bypass altogether on their way to the pros.  So fans got to watch the best players for one year, maybe, and the quality of play took an understandable downturn. 

Suddenly teams that had a couple of juniors or seniors in their starting line-up were praised for their stability and understanding of the game.  Sophomores were considered veterans.  It was no longer a concern if your starting point guard was a freshman. 

Florida won its second consecutive title last year and most pundits pegged it to their experience – the Gators started one senior and four juniors.  How do you think Joakim Noah would have fared against Walton or Alcindor?  Or that senior-laden Indiana team?  I don’t think it would have been close.

Those shirtless, painted college kids going berserk at college games might try to argue otherwise, and their mere existence proves that college hoops is just fine, right?  Well, yes and no.  First off, I think many of those kids would show up for a snail race if told ESPN and Dick Vitale were going to be in the house… and they’d storm the floor and roll around in the slime trail if the home snail won. 

All sarcasm aside, college hoops is still interesting and the atmosphere far superior to the pro game, and the end-of-season tournament remains the best sporting event anywhere.  But the level of play can’t compare to previous years and decades, when the best 21-year-olds in the country annually battled for conference and national championships.

Those were experienced, well-coached, talented, powerhouse teams.  And compare that to today.  The best players no longer jump straight from high school to the pros because they aren’t allowed to, but they’re only sticking around for a year, maybe two, before departing for the dollars.  And I don’t begrudge them that, but the trend has left college basketball severely watered down. 

I don’t want to get overly sentimental for the past, but that’s the reality of it for longtime college hoops fan.  It’s like they went to their favorite pub to enjoy their usual full-bodied micro-brew and were told they no longer served the stuff.  And how’d you like a Coors Light, instead?  Sure, I’ll have one, if there’s nothing else, but it’s not nearly the same.      

My brother and I went to the Indiana-Wisconsin game a few weeks back in Bloomington, and about mid-way through the first half we looked at each other and my brother said: “These are two Top 20 teams??” I had been thinking the same thing.  (And on a side note: Eric Gordon is an outstanding player but I think he’s in for a rude awakening when – not ‘if,’ when – he turns pro after this season.  Six-four guards who are athletic and can handle the ball are dime a dozen in the NBA.  He’s a perfect example of a player who could use another year or two to work on his defense and shooting.)   

Ok, it was the Big Ten, which is suddenly fighting for respect in both football and basketball, but the trend is national.  There are few if any experienced teams that have gotten to know each other over the course of two or three seasons and play like it.  And there are few if any big-name stars – true stars – because they all leave for the NBA after a season.   

It has turned off casual fans like myself, people who have always enjoyed the game but feel no great allegiance to any one team.  I watched parts of the Tennessee-Memphis game Saturday night while I was in a bar – the other game on had Northwestern, which should probably be in Division III, almost upsetting Indiana.  Anyway, I knew exactly one player in what was the marquee match-up of the college basketball season.  That would be Derrick Rose, and the only reason I had heard of him is because he’s from my hometown of Chicago and people around here were disillusioned that he chose Memphis over Illinois.

The game itself was pretty good and Rose is a great player who I’m sure will be gone by next season.  Imagine how good he’d be, and how good Memphis would be, if he stuck around for the full four years.  How good would Ohio State be with Greg Oden and Michael Conley teaming up for a few seasons rather than just one?  And fighting for the Big Ten title with an Indiana team led by a seasoned Eric Gordon?

Well, some of us don’t have to imagine that because we remember the days when college basketball was like that every year.  The best young players in the country playing on great teams, not riding the bench for the Memphis Grizzlies or getting garbage minutes for the Minnesota Timberwolves.  If the current trend was the norm back then, Patrick Ewing never would have won that title because he’d have left Georgetown long before his junior year; that Indiana line-up probably wouldn’t have existed; Michael Jordan wouldn’t have been allowed a year to be a role player because his upper-class teammates probably would have been gone before he got there.     

The result is sad for the state of college basketball and the fans.  Sure, I’ll still be watching when the NCAA Tournament rolls around, and I don’t doubt it will deliver its usual thrills.  But it’ll be like drinking a Coors Light when what I wanted was a Bell’s Amber.         

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Andy Buchanan is the principal writer and editor for Wise Guides and Fan Sherpa after spending several years as a journalist working for the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune and other outlets. When not reporting, he was often at Wrigley Field watching the Cubs or planning his next visit to a ballpark or stadium. And yes, the title of the column is literal, as he has season tickets in the last row of the south end zone at Soldier Field.

  Posted On Thu Feb 28 , 2008
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