Don’t know about you, but my NCAA Tournament bracket looks like something a 2-year-old drew at Head Start.
I don’t blame this entirely on my own stupidity. Instead, I blame NBA Commissioner David Stern.
If Stern would have been adamant before now about an NBA age limit, there wouldn’t be a couple of so-so teams — also known as Bracket Destroyers — still alive in the NCAA Tournament, because average talent prevails in a watered-down product (see the New England Patriots).
Thankfully, the NBA’s collective-bargaining agreement expires at the end of the year, and insiders say the players’ union is ready to accept a rule that would require players to be 20 years old or two years removed from their high school graduating class to enter the NBA.
Now, before the shouting begins about the American right to make ridiculous cash without restraint, everyone take a look at their NCAA Tournament brackets and tell me they wouldn’t want to see LeBron James playing in this year’s NCAAs. Didn’t think so.
College players staying four years never will be the norm again, but the proposed age limit at least would allow the sport to return to a time where there was better competition and enough juicy individual matchups to make the excitement of the tournament last beyond the first weekend.
I remember when Michigan’s Fab Five — later named the Cash Five — got to the championship game in 1993. The Wolverines did it with first-round picks Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard, who all remain in the league. To get to the title game against North Carolina, they had to beat a Temple team with Eddie Jones and Aaron McKie, who both are still in the NBA and were high draft picks at the time. Once the Wolverines faced UNC, it was Webber vs. Eric Montross, the national player of the year. There was UNC’s tradition and a great tangle of big men to feast upon.
Compare that to this year’s tournament, where No. 6 seed Wisconsin beat 11th-seeded Northern Iowa and No. 14 Bucknell for the right to play No. 10 North Carolina State in the Sweet 16. Too many double digits for me. And of the four schools, the only draftable player is probably NC State’s Julius Hodge. When NC State and Wisconsin meet, the most intriguing matchup will be whether mascot Bucky the Badger can take on both NC State representatives, Mr. and Mrs. Wuf.
When the championship game comes the first weekend in April, there won’t be enough stars to draw greater interest from the public. And CBS is praying a team such as Wisconsin-Milwaukee doesn’t last past the weekend. Too bad the age limit isn’t in place now, because the NCAA Tournament field might consist of budding Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard and slam-dunk champion Josh Smith.
To this day, the 1979 title game between Magic Johnson’s Michigan State and Larry Bird’s Indiana State remains the highest-rated championship game ever. The two best players in the nation duked it out for the biggest prize, which served as the perfect introduction for the great Celtics-Lakers rivalry and two Hall of Fame careers.
