Why college and NBA hoops are failing
This post was provided by News Now Warsaw
By Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw
I had a few minutes last week in between games of boys basketball sectional week and I made a concerted effort to watch some college basketball.
I plopped myself down and locked onto a channel that was starting a weeknight doubleheader of teams trying to improve their resume to make the NCAA tournament field.
The longer I watched, the more I realized how totally out of touch I am about college basketball.
Part of that—I will admit it’s a big part of it—is that I am so busy during the college basketball season covering and studying high school boys and girls basketball teams that I don’t have proper time to track college teams the same way. My primary access to college basketball is spending a few Wednesday nights at the MOCC watching the Grace men’s and women’s teams play.
I have a better handle on the Crossroads League than anything else, and I can speak somewhat intelligently about the Big Ten and Notre Dame. That’s an occupational requirement.
And all of that makes sense to you, right?
But why are the ratings for both college basketball and the NBA down around the country?
I think the reasons for both are connected.
When I was growing up, college basketball was big.
Even as pre-teens, we knew who the players were on each team, and we would debate during recess at lunch who was going to be contending for the conference championships and the national championship.
We could name at least two players on each of the top 20 teams and all the teams in the Big Ten, which back then only had 10 teams in it.
And there’s the problem.
The rules change that allowed college kids to go to the NBA after one year of college has not benefited either college basketball or the NBA.
And it comes back to the fact that we don’t know who the players are.
We know the logos, and we know the jerseys, but we don’t know anything about the people wearing them.
Think about it: when the Lakers and Celtics dominated The NBA Finals in the 1980’s, we knew those guys before they were drafted by a professional team.
We knew Danny Ainge from BYU, Kevin McHale from Minnesota, Magic Johnson from Michigan State and James Worthy from North Carolina.
That was true because we had watched them play college basketball for at least three seasons. We knew what they were good at, what their weaknesses were, and how they would fit into their new NBA teams.
But we know very little, frankly, about today’s college basketball players. The good ones, like Cooper Flagg of Duke, will only be in Durham for a school year and then will be in the draft in June.
We know more about kids like Flagg than others—specifically those who come to the US from other countries.
On draft night, it won’t take long for a name to be announced that has people looking at each other without a clue who he is and what his story is.
That’s a massive problem for both the colleges and the association.
Fans are more likely to be loyal to a team, no matter what level we are talking about, when they know who they are cheering for.
Sure, Purdue fans are going to cheer for Purdue because they see the old gold and black uniforms and not cream and crimson. That secures their basic bond.
But fans want more. They want to be connected to the players on their team. Zach Edey, for example, is
someone that Purdue fans know. They don’t need to have ever met him. They watched him on the court long enough to know who he is and what he’s about.
Memphis fans knew him when he arrived there last summer.
And when you add that up with our societal lack of patience and focus, you get a passive fan base who is not engaged with the team, less likely spend money on tickets and merchandise, and less likely to consistently promote the brand of the franchise or college.
That makes it a lot harder on the marketing department.
The problem is there is no solution.
The only way to make this change is if the NBA puts the three-year rule back in place, and they aren’t going to do that.
These things only go one way, and it often isn’t a good way.
I hope the new high school transfer rules in Indiana don’t make the local game go that some way. If it does, “Hoosier Hysteria” could turn into “Who’s that kid.”
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