Zirg said:
citay said:
...at the NCAA. Seems our Canadian friends play by a 24-second clock, while the NCAA still goes by the 30-second clock. What a joke. It's high time the NCAA joined the modern world.
You'd think with their slumping attendance they'd take a page out of the NBA's playbook, and shorten the time clock to 24 seconds. I mean, the NBA did that in 1954--63 years ago! Back when it took 11 hours to fly from New York to London by prop plane; a letter took days; and you sent messages via Western Union. Football has gone up-tempo, hockey has become an exciting end-to-end sport that has invaded even Tampa, Florida, and ESPN has found a market for thrilling, high-flying X Games.
But college basketball? Six seconds slower than the NBA was in 1954, and Canada is today.
I'd make it a 16-second shot clock. If I were a coach, my team would put up shots within 12 seconds.That'd scare the bejeezuz out of the old purists, but would put Millenial butts back in the seats for a game that should be a helluva lot faster than it is today.
How is attendance at Canadian college b-ball games doing? U of Sask had 490 fans at their last home game,fyi. Half the NBA arenas are 1/4+ empty too, no matter how much the league lies. I've been to NBA games where the arena is half to 1/3 full, yet the official attendance will still be listed as 13,000 or some BS, so don't quote me NBA attendance stats. In the NBA where every guy is a legit player a 24-second clock isn't a bad thing, but a 24 Second clocks in college turns into a lot of guys chucking desperation shots every-other possession when the clock gets low. A team that can move the ball around and be patient and wait for a quality shot deserves to be rewarded. If a team truly thinks it benefits them to shoot right away, nobody is stopping them from doing that,but it's been 25 years since LMU. If that style of game worked in college, somebody would be doing it. More ppl watch March Madness than ANY other basketball games,period. Everybody loves watching underdogs like Princeton when they knock off far-more athletic top-ranked teams. Take that aspect away, and they will lose a lot of that appeal. If you want fast,terrible b-ball you can get U of Sask season tix.
All these years later, we're still talking about LMU. Paul Westhead took a small Catholic mid-major located next to an airport and turned the program into a national sensation. They were on TV almost every week. In the NCAA tournament, they took down an Alabama team that featured three future NBA players, including Robert Horry. They could be down ten, twenty, no problem. Because they had such fast-strike, momentum-changing abilities, they were in every game.
So what happened?
My theory: Conditioning. Remember, they not only shot the ball quick, they pressed all over the court. To do that, they endured a brutal pre-season training, and were in better shape than any opponent. But when Hank Gathers died of a heart attack, I think most coaches said, "It's just not worth it. We're not going there."
So Westhead went to the pros where those guys were REALLY not in shape. If you knew what NBA players consumed before games, everything from junk food of all kinds to cigarettes of all varieties, you'd see the product was far from top quality. Not only was Magic Johnson not going to take crap from a college coach, he wasn't going to work to be in the best possible shape either. Even today, when Ty Lue took over the Cavs, the first thing he said was, "We've got to get in shape." That's the dirty secret of the NBA.
As for our Griz last night, certain trends are emerging. First, a great backcourt. Rorie and Oguine are first-rate. With them on the court, we'll not be out of any game in my opinion. Then: Incredible depth. (Wish we had one more year of experience up and down the roster, but so be it.) As to the two young bigs. Remember, Quale was always in foul trouble as a freshman, trying to contest every shot. You've got to learn when to contest, and when to let go. It takes time. I think we should redshirt both those guys.