http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/050404&num=0

By Skip Bayless
Page 2


I write this at the risk of being sentenced to one year in solitary confinement with a TV I cannot turn off that runs an endless loop of Dick Vitale saying, "COLLEGE BASKETBALL – IT'S AWESOME, BABY."


College basketball is awesome, baby.


But pro basketball is better.


I love the NCAA Tournament, don't get me wrong. But I love the NBA playoffs more. Better format, better rules, better refs, far better players.


If you sentenced me to one basketball season in solitary confinement with a choice between the NCAA or NBA TV package, I'd go pro. When I flip back and forth between college and pro games, the difference in skill and athletic ability is as startling as the difference between men's and women's college games.



Amare Stoudemire could be dominating the NCAA Tournament ... but he's dominating the NBA instead.
Do I want to see "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway, or in, say, St. Louis? I like St. Louis, site of tonight's NCAA title game. But gimme Broadway. Gimme NBA streetcars with desire and the greatest overall athletic ability of any players in any sport.


And please don't gimme that old wives' tale – probably started by Dick Vitale's wife – that pro basketball players play hard only in the last two minutes. Pure propaganda. I am astounded by how hard most NBA teams play – tip to buzzer, on both ends – night after night of an 82-game schedule. If veterans don't continually give it the old college try, they'll lose their jobs to one of the onslaught of straight-out-of-high-school players.


That's the biggest reason that college basketball has lost a little appeal for me. I want to see stars shine – to see things I've never seen before – and so many of the players who could be dominating this NCAA Tournament are already taking over NBA games. LeBron. Carmelo. Amare. Even Dwight Howard and J.R. Smith are already emerging as All-Star candidates.


Forgive me, but I haven't seen a single player in this 65-team NCAA field who will have a significant impact in the NBA. Andrew Bogut, Sean May, Chris Paul, Wayne Simien and Deron Williams will be starters, but I'm not sure they'll be stars. Two NBA general managers have told me they think Williams could be a top 10 pick because he's such a mentally tough floor leader who does so many "little things." But I don't see the quickness, the penetrating ability, the creativity -- the big things.


The media buzz is that North Carolina freshman Marvin Williams could be the most talented player in the tournament. Yet when he plays, which has been surprisingly sparingly, he often looks like a freshman trying to fit in. Give me Gerald Green, who went Tracy McGrady on his competition the other night in the McDonald's high-school all-star game. Green has signed with Oklahoma State, but it won't surprise me if he's playing in the NBA next season. He's too good for college basketball.


This year I see no Kareem or Walton, Magic or Bird, Ewing or Olajuwon. This year, the games have been the stars. No all-time great team? No problem for the dyed-in-the-wool-letter-sweater college diehards. This is democracy at work, the American dream. At least 20 teams could've gotten hot and won it all. The early-round results were far more amazing than the individual feats. Vermont beat Syracuse? Kansas lost to Bucknell?


As a basketball fan, I would have preferred to see if Syracuse would have been too talented for Michigan State, or if Kansas could have overcome Wisconsin. Vermont and Bucknell could not have advanced in the NBA playoffs because they would have lost Games 2, 3, 4 and 5 of a seven-game series. I don't want to see fluky upsets. I want to know which team is truly better.


I was talking about pro prospects the other day with an NBA general manager, who mentioned he "really liked the way Hakim Warrick played in the Big East tournament."


I said, "Yeah, but he really stunk it up against Vermont with 10 turnovers and a bunch of forced shots."


And the GM said: "Hey, it's one game in the NCAA Tournament."


Yes, March Madness is exactly that – pure madness. The games go so quickly. The officiating is so terribly inconsistent. The foul trouble can be so game-changing so early with only five allowed. The three-point line is so anyone-can-get-hot-and-shoot-you-in-the-heart close.



Andrew Bogut may be a pretty good pro player -- but do you really think he'll be a star?
Anything can happen and always does.


Yet to me, March Madness is a blast for many of the wrong reasons.


Give me 48 minutes instead of 40, seven games instead of one. Give me NBA refs, who do an underrated job of governing gifted giants. Give me six fouls instead of five. Give me a man-sized three-point shot – four feet farther than the NCAA's. Give me players who, on any given weeknight, make me go, "Wow."


Give me the Spurs or the Pistons playing lock-down defense. Give me Steve Nash's Flying Circus in Phoenix. Give me the most agile 300-plus pounder the world has ever seen – Shaquille O'Neal. Give me a LeBron dunk or pass. Heck, nearly every time I watch San Antonio's Manu Ginobili, he does something I'm not sure I've seen before.


I love this game.


At least, I love it a little more than college hoops.


But if you live in a college hotbed without an NBA team – Louisville, for instance – you're probably wishing I'd go live in Albania. You're muttering to me that college basketball is so much more pure because these kids are sitting in the same classrooms you sat in and they're having the time of their lives just the way you did at Dear Old U. The pep bands, the cheerleaders, the student sections. The color, the pageantry.


The hypocrisy.


I'm sorry, but your college team serves as your pro equivalent. The best players on your team probably wouldn't have chosen – or been chosen by – your school if they weren't basketball players. And some of them would have skipped Dear Old U. altogether if they'd been assured they'd go in the first round of the NBA draft.


You say you're sick of how much money these NBA players make? I'm just as outraged by how little college players make – room, board and tuition. The NCAA makes untold millions off the NCAA Tournament and its TV contract. And at least part of the appeal of March Madness is all the technically illegal gambling pools that make month-long viewers out of so many office workers who wouldn't know Vermont from Bucknell.


Only in America.


Both college and pro basketball are extremely entertaining. But at least the NBA's entertainers make the money they deserve. To me, that's more pure.


In part, the NCAA sells fairy tales. Mostly, the NBA sells reality. Amazing reality. Physical genius, as former NBA coach Dick Motta called it.


Yes, sometimes that reality includes Latrell Sprewell, who's in the last year of a five-year, $62-million contract, demanding a raise because he has a family to feed. Sometimes, it includes Ron Artest, the human technical foul, going after a fan in the stands and starting a riot. Sometimes, it includes the NBA version of Wally Cleaver – Kobe Bryant – committing adultery and being embroiled in allegations of sexual assault.


Yet I get just as sick of college apologists scoffing that the NBA is just a bunch of overpaid, underachieving thugs. That's an absurd exaggeration. Trust me, college basketball has its share of underpaid thugs. Trust me, college diehards: Most NBA players practice and play just as hard as most college players.


College basketball is more of a coach's game, and too many over-coach the life out of it. The NBA is more of a players' (and fans') game. NBA coaching is just as crucial and far more complex, though pro coaches don't get (or take) anywhere near the credit that celebrity college coaches do.


Several times last weekend, I watched college teams fail to get a shot off in the final 10 seconds or so of a tie game. Last year, I watched Derek Fisher of the Lakers make an astonishing shot – catching, twisting and releasing with 0.4 seconds left – to shock the Spurs.


Last Sunday, I watched Kentucky's Patrick Sparks make an overtime-forcing 3-pointer that was astonishing for the wrong reasons. How did a shot that off-line bounce so softly around the rim and finally fall? Yet the shot was off-line because Sparks was rammed in midair by Michigan State's Kelvin Torbert. No, there wasn't any hand-to-hand or arm-to-arm contact. But that clearly was a shot-changing hip-check foul that was not called.


Sparks should have been shooting a free throw to win a game that Kentucky eventually lost.


Yet the refs were so caught up in whether Sparks' toe was touching the 3-point line that they took more than six minutes to decide that the shot did indeed count for three points. Most NBA refs would have quickly and correctly called the foul and the foot.


But I still love college basketball.


I just love its big brother more.

My wife went to st johns during the Wennington-Jax-Berry-mullin years and the city just loved them. For the first time we were sucked into to the college game and the rivalry. Georgetown-St Johns was epic!

Now living in the hot bed off college hoop in tobbaco road, I can see the other side. Duke-UNC-Wake-NC State are all close and this place just hops. Around here, the NBA is second fiddle. Why? Amung white folks, its a little bigotry and divas. The divas is what I call what the money does to these kids. Michael is still loved and can do no wrong! I played golf right behind him years ago and he and barkley were just ahead. We caught up to them at one hole and these guys were just buzzed beyond belief. We played two holes with them and they were a mess! Barkley is a jerk, but he was cool one on one with us. Mike was guarded but he was ok once we realized we did not want anything form him. I joked that my kids don't know who he was, and would not care unless he was playing in MSG. This was after his second retirement in 1998. We played after the knicks run in 1999 and I told him we needed him. We all made fun of spreewell! It was funny, Barkley ripped Spree pretty good! I won't repeat it word for word, but he said he was very rough and needed charmschool! After three holes at the halfway house we told them to go on and we'd keep the riff raff from them. I think they were playing for 10g a hole and seemed like they wanted privicy. While they are who they are, and they were cool with us, I don't want to starphuch wit them! These guys certainly don't need any MORE small white guys sucking up th em!

A friend got me into the fund raiser party at a restaurant that nite and I was with a group who was just all in awe of him. I had not mentioned our encounter and when he was walking by with his "group" I yelled out "Yo mike, did yah get charles good?" He came over, shook my hand and said "Nalod" (no,he used my real name!) "you know I got him good!" and left the party. The group I was with , some UNC season tix holders were just jawdropping he knew me! It was funny!

Back to the article, I think that the college game is "different" and wish there was an age limit as too many kids need more seasoning in life and on the court. But you can't deny a man the ability to earn a living, so it will be what it is. In a way, parity has now inflicted the NCAA and it will be more interesting in a way. Teams will be teams instead of a few stars on teams. Thats not such a bad thing.

The college game is about the culture of the region and these teams are loved by the alums. Its a social event and big business!

I have seen both sides and must say it really depends on where you live. If the team is not winning, the NBA is real bore if your following a team. I think the euros are helping as ball movement is fun to watch. The spurs and suns are fun to watch. Our knicks are not so fun these days!

I flew a few years back with the wake team en-route to a maryland game back when they flew commercial and I got to say those boys were fun to be with and were having a good time! I think for some those will be amung some of the best years of there life! ONly one of them went to the NBA, and he (randolph Childress) was the most somber. He had real pressure with a bad knee! I think these kids if they can do both, have a college career, get an education, travel on jr national teams, visit other countries, and make a gazillion dollars would be the best. I think they learn to handle their own affairs, learn how to deal with people better, not be taken advantage of, adn in general be happier. But thats my opinion, and That is what I would tell my son to do. But I understand the way it is and the money involved for those who don't have any! My son is no hoop god by the way, and we don't have to worry about it.

Remember Miles Simon a few years ago with Arizona? Kid was MVP!

I don't know if he is playing in Europe or not,but this kid was on top of the world!

Pittsnoggle! What a name!

Posted by Nalod:

Remember Miles Simon a few years ago with Arizona? Kid was MVP!

I don't know if he is playing in Europe or not,but this kid was on top of the world!

Pittsnoggle! What a name!

yea I remember miles simon, he was somehow related to darryl strawberr's ex wife, I think that was her brother.. anyway,simon was a good collegian but I figured that he would not make a great or even good pro. he was not really quick, didn't have great handles nor a great shot, he was just average at a lot of things, but not very good at many...