I have always liked men's college basketball better than the NBA. I never really experienced a seminal moment when I decided that pro basketball wasn't doing it for me. Rather, through a laundry list of transgressions, the NBA has slowly and almost completely weaned me from the Michael Jordan high I experienced as a youngster growing up in 1990s Chicago.
I could easily point to several commonly criticized aspects of the NBA to explain my bias for college ball. The average NBA game routinely features some of the worst officiating in American professional sports. Whether it's favoring superstars, tearing the 'traveling' and 'carrying' violations out of the on-court rulebook or even pulling a Tim Donaghy and fixing games, NBA referees have compromised the league's equality and integrity for as long as I can remember, and it only gets worse during the playoffs.
Then there is the fourth-quarter phenomenon. This phenomenon goes as follows - in any NBA game, regardless of which teams are featured, the fourth quarter will be at least 10 times more exciting than everything that came before it - because the players will try 10 times harder during that final quarter than in every minute before it. This applies to the NBA season as a whole. For the rational sports fan, the fourth-quarter phenomenon should remove any incentive to watch the first three quarters of a pro basketball game or season. Like the salad and breadsticks at the Olive Garden, the first three quarters are merely filler before the main course, except that the lazy defense and poor shot selection won't actually give you indigestion - at least until you remember how much your courtside tickets cost. Look no further than the Utah Jazz (7-3), a talented team led by All-Star point guard and ex-Illinois Fighting Illini stud, Deron Williams. During their last five games, the Jazz have been outscored by 41 points during the first three quarters and entered the fourth quarter facing an average 65-73 deficit. During their last five games, the Jazz are also 5-0. How? Utah has outscored those five opponents by 80 points in the final frame - and a few overtimes - and by an average of 38-22. Deron Williams has literally taken control of games - most recently by draining a tear drop winner against the Charlotte Bobcats with 0.8 seconds remaining. And Jerry Sloan's Jazz have become the poster boys for the NBA fourth-quarter phenomenon.
Finally, I have a huge problem with the so-called "One and Done" mandate that players must be 19 years old or complete a year of college ball to be eligible for the NBA Draft. Since 2006, the rule effectively has outlawed the high-school-to-NBA leap made famous by stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. This system has worked wonders for the NBA, which gets a free farm system in which to cultivate its future first-round picks. It also boosts the quality of NCAA play and the size of college coffers - albeit unevenly - while feeding Wahoo fans' faith that the next Sean Singletary is just a Tony Bennett recruiting pitch away. And it helps the bleeding heart basketball reformers sleep at night, secure in the knowledge that the NBA will never again exploit physically and mentally immature high school players. But where the prep-to-pro problem depreciated the college game, the hypocrisy-laden one-and-done rule has undermined everything from the definition of student-athleticism to the missions of the NCAA and colleges across the United States.
The NBA may not be exploiting prep players, but college basketball coaches and programs certainly do. Ever since a 2009 NCAA investigation determined that Memphis one-and-done Derrick Rose cheated on his SAT, I have been unable to embrace the All-Star point guard and Chicago native as the face of the Chicago Bulls. But John Calipari - Rose's coach at Memphis during the NCAA title game season - isn't the only coach selling college as a no-work, all-play basketball paradise to high-profile recruits like Rose, regardless of their academic or character issues. Calipari had his 2007-08 season vacated, but don't feel bad because only the NCAA ultimately suffered. Rose was the top NBA Draft pick, teammates Joey Dorsey and Chris Douglas-Roberts also went pro, and Calipari landed an even better coaching gig at Kentucky a year later. And that doesn't even begin to account for the massive spikes in school revenue generated by ticket sales, media exposure and applications to Memphis. Snagging a five-star pro prospect pays instant dividends more than worth the risks of violating NCAA recruiting, academic or financial regulations for college athletes. One-and-dones bring money, press and championships to their schools even if they leave college as immature as when they arrived - if not more so.
Whether it's in officiating, on-court effort or off-court expectations, basketball superstars get special treatment in the NBA. This breeds a pro basketball culture filled with unapologetic, egotistical star players admired too much for their ability to throw a ball and held accountable too little for everything else. To quote George Orwell's "Animal Farm", "All animals are equal ... but some animals are more equal than others." But when Sylven Landesberg's suspension late last season becomes the exception rather than the rule for upholding equal standards for academics and character - even for superstars - I worry that the caustic NBA environment cannot help but infect the NCAA basketball landscape with increasing potency. That's why it was so refreshing to watch the Virginia men's basketball team defeat William & Mary 76-52 Friday night. Last year, Landesberg's suspension and subsequent departure highlighted a mass exodus of upperclassmen, but the loss of leadership and experience paved the way for Tony Bennett to start fresh with seven freshmen, senior Mike Scott's dependable post play and senior forward Will Sherrill's grit and hustle. I don't expect 19 points on 83.3 percent three-point shooting from freshman Billy Baron every night, but if he and the rest of the Cavaliers can make postponing the pro basketball mindset a season-long habit, I might actually invest in a Virginia No. 15 jersey. On opening night at John Paul Jones Arena, I got my basketball appetite back; NCAA Hoops is where it's at - and the NBA is still just salad and breadsticks on the road to March Madness.
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