Without Sports, Who Would Cheer for the Nimrods?
As is typical for this time of year, there's lots of fun news from the world of college basketball. Duke lost at home to Georgia Tech, snapping a forty-odd game win streak (since the last time Maryland beat them in that pit they call a gym). Syracuse beat Pittsburgh in an ugly game, handing the Panthers their first loss ever in their new building. Stanford and St. Joseph's continue their undefeated seasons, the first teams to be undefeated this late since UNLV lost in the Final Four in 1991 (winning me $32, I should point out). And Maryland showed signs of life, edging NC State in a hard-fought game last night. (Which I stayed up late to watch, despite having an early class this morning. I are a genius.)
If I could shake this damned cough, I'd be really fired up.
The big news, though, is the new breakthrough in pedagogy represented by Jim Harrick Jr.'s class on basketball coaching. The final exam has been cited by a zillion people (I got the link from Sean Carroll's Preposterous Universe (coming soon to a blogroll near you)), but it's worth highlighting a few of my favorite questions. You just have to like a test whose hardest question is:
9. How many officials referee a college basketball game?
A) 2; B) 4; C) 6; D) 3.
I could actually imagine a few people getting that one wrong. Of course, the very finest question on the test has to be:
11. What is the name of the exam which all high school seniors in the State of Georgia must pass?
A) Eye Exam; B) How Do The Grits Taste Exam; C) Bug Control Exam; D) Georgia Exit Exam.
I can't decide whether this is simply a truly disgusting display of hubris, or if he really thought that he needed to make the answer that obvious, because otherwise they might get it wrong.
It's been fashionable in recent years to predict the imminent demise of college basketball, due to students leaving early for the NBA, or just skipping college altogether. With the recent court case involving Maurice "Pompatus of Love" Clarett, this has spread to college football.
Those predictions are all grossly overstated. If anything, it's the NBA that's in danger from the influx of high school kids. College sports will continue in spite of the talent drain, and those of us who appreciate actual basketball will still have something to watch.
If there's a real threat to college sports, it comes not from the players, but from walking sacks of excrement like the Harricks pere et fils, Gary "She's a Girl, and She's Terrible" Barnett at Colorado, and Dave "Frame the Dead Kid" Bliss at Baylor. The people making a mockery of the system are the coaches, not the players.
What's especially sickening about all this is that it comes in the rare year when there's truly a story worth celebrating in college basketball, namely the undefeated season of the St. Joe's Hawks. It's a small school in a second-tier league, with a coach who's a class act, players who go to class, and a too-small point guard who might be the best player in the country. You want to see everything that's good in college sports, it's all right there.
But all we're talking about is the antics of assholes like the Harricks.
Posted at 8:39 PM | link | follow-ups |