Thank you Norman Chad (someone had to say it - college basketball)

[pokerfan]

Lame Games: College Hoops Ends on a Slow Note

By Norman Chad
Monday, March 16, 2009; E02

College basketball is a lie. It's a lie because it has nothing to do with college, but it's also a lie because, at game's end, it has nothing to do with basketball.

When it comes to March Madness, many think of Christian Laettner's 1992 buzzer beater for Duke against Kentucky. But most of the time, the only thing beating the buzzer is a series of stoppages, with intermittent play.

No other sport changes its nature in the waning minutes more drastically. For 36 minutes of clock time, each team tries to score; for the final four minutes, the team that's behind just tries to foul. It's not basketball anymore, it's a game of tag.

The final 1 minute 54 seconds of the Southeastern Conference tournament title game between Mississippi State and Tennessee took 21 minutes. The final 12.4 seconds took 12 minutes.

The final 1:01 of the MAAC tournament title game between Siena and Niagara took 12 minutes.

The final 28.2 seconds of the Big East semifinal between Syracuse and West Virginia took nine minutes.

(To soccer's credit, the final 3 1/2 minutes of a soccer match takes exactly 3 1/2 minutes, well, plus injury time. Of course, nothing happens, but that is consistent with the rest of the game.)

Here is how many college basketball games play out:

Foul, foul, timeout, commercial, foul, timeout, commercial, foul, foul, timeout, commercial, timeout, commercial, foul.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/15/AR2009031501380_pf.html">Read the rest

[Tyrone Slothrop]

1. That's just the way the game is played

The endgame in chess is played in a radically different fashion than the rest of the game. Certainly doesn't ruin it for me. And I'd say that it's held its own over time.

Also, I reject the idea that it kills the suspense of the game; in fact, I'd go so far as to say that it heightens it. Do you really think it's more suspenseful for die-hard fans to watch the last 59 seconds of a game play out in real time? I can think of countless situations where I've been on the edge of my seat and the brink of a heart attack for 10-15 minutes, waiting and watching and wishing and hoping. The thing about

I didn't see any "solution" in the linked article. What do you propose? The refs should stop calling fouls for the last two minutes of a game? Teams can't call timeout during the last two minutes of the game?

[pokerfan]

3. One of the things I like about ice hockey

is that it takes about two minutes to play the last two minutes.

I would eliminate media timeouts (or at least reduce them). I would reduce the number of timeouts each team gets and let them carry any number them into the second half (eliminate the use-it-or-lose-it rule). And I'd make all timeouts thirty seconds.

Of course, all that goes against the purpose of basketball which is apparently to sell commercials.

[KamaAina]

2. Why, oh why, did he have to mention Chr-st--n L--ttn-r?

Right before the Kentucky fiasco, L--ttn-r had done the exact same thing to UConn, which had just that year emerged as a national power. Someday, of course, he'll burn in hell for all eternity, but in the meantime, it's just really, really annoying. :grr:

edit: header

[Dr. Strange]

4. Actually, I would say the shootout in soccer is a more drastic change.

(As a recent thread in the Sports Forum claimed.)
But I totally agree with this assessment. I wish there was a way to get rid of the free-throw shooting competition that so many close games devolve into.