Men’s college basketball in the modern era
Things ain’t what they used to be. It may be a tiresome lament, but it’s also a timeless lament. Things have changed, and with the changes we’ve seen a lot of the institutions we used to hold dear lost some or all of their luster. It’s a simple fact of life.
This holds true not only to entertainment and politics, but to sports as well. Take NCAA men’s college basketball as an example. Twenty-five years ago you could argue that there was nothing that compared to it in the public consciousness. John Thompson’s Georgetown teams, featuring Patrick Ewing, were everyone’s favorite menacing bad guys. Then you had the likes of Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, a high-flying offensive machine. Or Louie Carnesecca’s St. John’s RedMen, a team of New York City gymrats who’d rather be playing ball than doing anything else in their lives.
Teams, coaches and personalities like that were what made men’s college basketball great, what made men’s college basketball a reflection of the broader sporting landscape of the united states. But with the age of cable television, then the internet, that greatness has faded. Gone are the Dean Smiths, the John Woodens, the Bob Knights. Gone are the Thompsons and Carneseccas. Gone is the notion that men’s college basketball is great in and of itself, instead replaced by the understanding that the players aren’t competing for the university or fanbase, but for the themselves. For the right to go onto the NBA and make millions trying to be the next Michael Jordan.
Now, I don’t blame anyone for wanting to be rich or to be great. I certainly wouldn’t turn down the money in the unlikely event of an NBA team offering me a contract (and given how poorly the Knicks are run, it’s not entirely out the question that that could happen). But I think there’s an element of respect for the process that’s missing from men’s college basketball in this day and age. The University of North Carolina is no longer a place where you make your legend begin; it’s merely a rest stop, or a weigh station on the road to bigger and better things. That attitude cheapens the whole notion of basketball in America.
Of course, you can’t exactly put a genie back in the bottle, so it’s probably not worth lamenting the loss of the aforementioned luster. Men’s college basketball in the modern era isn’t what it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining, that doesn’t mean it’s not good.
It just means it’s different.
