A New Era

So I'm watching some basketball this week, and I'm doing all I can to not get angry. First of all, the Illini that I watched all year are better than any of the teams that are in the Final Four. I watched massively talented teams (UConn, Duke, 'Nova, Memphis) play lousy basketball and lose to inferior teams. I see Hall of Fame coaches (Jim Calhoun) unable to get his team, which has a phenomenal combination of experience and talent, to play good, smart basketball, and finally run out of luck. There's terrible point guard play all the time. You see all sorts of just dumb plays from good players. You see teams try to give the game away. And I see bad refs dictating games through their calls and non-calls that just seem plain bad. And yet, I love March Madness.

But, that's starting to waver just a little bit.

I'm with The Sports Guy. College basketball is becoming unwatchable. Memphis-UCLA? Forget it. Even the LSU-Texas game was ugly. I watched the entire 2nd half and OT of the George Mason, UConn game. For a little stretch there, I was really, really impressed at the level of basketball that was being played. There was a beautiful run by Rudy Gay when he got like 9 UConn points in a row. George Mason's big men were posting up bigger guys and scoring with beautiful, classic post moves. I thought that I had stumbled onto a legitimately good game. And then, came the last couple minutes. Uggh. UConn chucking up bad shots, having to get bailed out with athletic offensive rebounds. George Mason missing free throws and not understanding how many timeouts they have. Somehow, George Mason left a UConn player alone until he had turned the corner for a layup, which just barely rolled in to force OT. As the OT continued, there was a little stretch where George Mason played some good offense, and took a nice 4 point lead into the endgame. And you saw them try to choke it again. They somehow parlayed a 5-point lead (which could've been 6 or more with some free throws) into a 2 point game, where (after 2 more missed free throws), UConn actually has the ball with 6 seconds left. Figure that Williams will drive into the middle for another short jumper (which he's been dominating with all day, all season, really), or for Anderson for another clutch J (after he did it twice against Washington). Instead, Rudy Gay goes coast to arc, and takes a STEP BACK, FADEAWAY, 3-POINTER!!! When they were down 2. Geez. Welcome to the Final Four, George Mason.

And this wasn't even the worst last-second decision of the weekend. Enter Mr. Raivio of Gonzaga. Watch the tape of this one. About 11 seconds left. Down by 1. You have the player of the year, who's scored 24 points already, just standing there, wanting the ball to set up a last shot for the win. Instead, you ignore Adam Morrison, and fly down the court, with the player of the year still in the backcourt, in shock. You proceed to lose your dribble in a double-team, and lose the ball altogether, giving it back to UCLA for free throws. Of course, Morrison did miss the previous two chances to ice the game with a bucket. So who knows. Naturally, UCLA doesn't ice the game with 2 free throws, but rather leave it a 2-point game after only making 1 of 2. And with 2.9 seconds, all Gonzaga could get a desperation heave to their center (who's not exactly Christian Laettner), who throws up a terrible looking shot from 17 feet, that never had a chance.

All I know is that it's becoming darn-near impossible for me to watch a game that doesn't either involve a team that I'm interested in (at this point, it's just the Illini) or involve a little guy upsetting a big guy. In the past, I could just watch good basketball. And really, I think that I still can. It's just that even on this big stage, good basketball is hard to find. Even the George Mason-UConn game today... you change that jersey on George Mason to something like Maryland, and I probably lose all interest.

I think that this is carrying over from other areas of my life. I'm just much more interested in the process of how things happen, rather than the outcomes. And these processes that I've been watching are enough to make someone angry.

-Chairman