Big East basketball is nearly unwatchable now

[TinyManInside]

Every other game is played in the 40s or 50s. Cincy up 48-39 with 4 minutes left.

 

[MikeSU02]

Every other game is played in the 40s or 50s. Cincy up 48-39 with 4 minutes left.

It's not just the Big East. It's college basketball. The quality of basketball is terrible.

But with that said, this is the snapshot we are going to have of where these players are in their careers with the current structure.

Lots of bricks, lots of clutching and grabbing, lots of low scoring, close (and spun as "exciting") games.

 

[CorduroyG]

every team has turned into wisconsin

 

[moqui]

It's not just the Big East. It's college basketball.

yeah but the BE is a particular offender.

Look at the most recently updated KenPom stats, which include the entire regular season. Of 33 automatic bid conferences, The BE ranks 29th in tempo, 29th in effective FG% and 26th in offensive efficiency. Among the Big Six conferences, only the B1G plays at a slower pace (ranked 31st), but at least they are more efficient (18th)

 

[MikeSU02]

yeah but the BE is a particular offender.

So the ugliest of the ugly step-sisters?

 

[TinyManInside]

I blame the refs for a lot of this. It is getting to the point where if it doesn't leave a week-long bruise, it's not a foul. If I want to watch football, I'll watch football.

 

[moqui]

Conference USA is 4th in tempo, 7th in EFG% and 7th in offensive efficiency . . . maybe we'd rather be in UConn's shoes?

 

[Marsh01]

I blame the refs for a lot of this. It is getting to the point where if it doesn't leave a week-long bruise, it's not a foul. If I want to watch football, I'll watch football.

This is the biggest problem IMO. Its not the game but the way its being officiated.

 

[TinyManInside]

Conference USA is 4th in tempo, 7th in EFG% and 7th in offensive efficiency . . . maybe we'd rather be in UConn's shoes?

Where does the ACC rank?

 

[jncuse]

Driving to the basket is over -- you get hacked and no-call.. or they give the charge call out to easily. Double hammer.

 

[sabach]

This is the biggest problem IMO. Its not the game but the way its being officiated.

Exactly. Then we grow accustomed to this and then draw a crew like the OSU Elite 8 game last year.

 

[moqui]

Where does the ACC rank?

13th in tempo, 15th in EFG% and 17th in efficiency

of course, if your conference is ranked very high in offensive efficiency, that means that nobody is playing good defense, so it is probably best to be somewhere in the middle.

Average tempo national was 65.9 possessions this year . . . the only major conference to play above the average was the Pac 12 (66.1, 9th)

In the Big East, only Depaul (70.2) St.John's (66.9) and Providence (66.1) played above the national average. ACC had 6 teams above the national average.

 

[TinyManInside]

This is the biggest problem IMO. Its not the game but the way its being officiated.

There was a long discussion recently about erosion of skills. I actually think that this is a reflection of how the game is officiated more than anything. I think there are guys who are plenty skilled now, I just think that the game has become so physical and strength-oriented and the refs are willing to let more and more contact go each year.

It becomes harder to showcase skills when an on-ball defender can ride a point guard up and down the court like freakin' Secretariat, or a center can throw a cross-body block on a guy shooting a layup as long as he doesn't make contact 'up top' where the ball is being shot, or a wing can slide underneath an airborn player and get rewarded by drawing an offensive foul.

 

[Marsh01]

There was a long discussion recently about erosion of skills. I actually think that this is a reflection of how the game is officiated more than anything. I think there are guys who are plenty skilled now, I just think that the game has become so physical and strength-oriented and the refs are willing to let more and more contact go each year.

It becomes harder to showcase skills when an on-ball defender can ride a point guard up and down the court like freakin' Secretariat, or a center can throw a cross-body block on a guy shooting a layup as long as he doesn't make contact 'up top' where the ball is being shot, or a wing can slide underneath an airborn player and get rewarded by drawing an offensive foul.

Spot on Mase. It really has deteriorated the past 5 years or so. I long for the days when we watched 83-81 games on a nightly basis.

 

[Flora'cuse]

Driving to the basket is over -- you get hacked and no-call.. or they give the charge call out to easily. Double hammer.

Agree - It's unbelievable what the Ref's allow.

It's only a matter of time before the players start wearing Lacrosse equipment minus the helmet.

 

[Millhouse]

I blame the refs for a lot of this. It is getting to the point where if it doesn't leave a week-long bruise, it's not a foul. If I want to watch football, I'll watch football.

and the big east has the worst refs

 

[TinyManInside]

Driving to the basket is over -- you get hacked and no-call.. or they give the charge call out to easily. Double hammer.

I cringe every time I hear an announcer describe a charge/block call as a 50/50 call.

It's not.

If you call it by the rules, then it should be more like an 85/15 call, with blocks being called 85% of time. The defender is almost never set when you see replays.

Baseball has a de facto rule "tie goes to the runner". Basketball should have a de facto rule of "if there is doubt, it is a block". The rulebook is pretty clear cut, so only clear cut instances should be charges.

 

[Marsh01]

I cringe every time I hear an announcer describe a charge/block call as a 50/50 call.

It's not.

If you call it by the rules, then it should be more like an 85/15 call, with blocks being called 85% of time. The defender is almost never set when you see replays.

Baseball has a de facto rule "tie goes to the runner". Basketball should have a de facto rule of "if there is doubt, it is a block". The rulebook is pretty clear cut, so only clear cut instances should be charges.

Ive always said that if a player makes a move and leaves his feet, you cant slide in and take a charge. I've watched so many games this year where a player will jump or slide in after a player has committed to leaving his feet and they almost always call a charge.

 

[TinyManInside]

Ive always said that if a player makes a move and leaves his feet, you cant slide in and take a charge. I've watched so many games this year where a player will jump or slide in after a player has committed to leaving his feet and they almost always call a charge.

Yup.
I hate the undercutting.

I think you still need the offensive foul rule in place to keep every game from turning into 'strongest team wins', but it needs to be administered better.

Fortunately, the NCAA has a strong governing body that can easily affect real officiating change [/end sarcasm]

 

[kingtidge]

Agree - It's unbelievable what the Ref's allow.

It's only a matter of time before the players start wearing Lacrosse equipment minus the helmet.

Or allow then don't allow...

Like calling the whole game loose all game allowing bruiser-ball... then shifting to ticky-tack, call-everything mode in final 5 minutes...

 

[rstone7727]

The NBA deserves some of the blame. We're seeing a lot of underclassmen playing now. Today's Seniors are not talented or they'd be in the league.

 

[swish7]

Or allow then don't allow...

Like calling the whole game loose all game allowing bruiser-ball... then shifting to ticky-tack, call-everything mode in final 5 minutes...

I love it when moving picks don't get called on one end, but do on the other. Unlike some other calls, a moving pick should be straight forward.

I saw a horrible example of this in a non-cusr game a couple weeks ago. Some kid named Zubick being the offender.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I blame the refs for a lot of this. It is getting to the point where if it doesn't leave a week-long bruise, it's not a foul. If I want to watch football, I'll watch football.

In football they actually call fouls on dudes when they mug people.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I love it when moving picks don't get called on one end, but do on the other. Unlike some other calls, a moving pick should be straight forward.

I saw a horrible example of this in a non-cusr game a couple weeks ago. Some kid named Zubick being the offender.

LOL. Did you see that golden moving pick Zubick laid on one of our guys last saturday? he literally was zig zagging back and forth, directly resulting in an open three. the entire syracuse bench went nutz. this is when it was still actually close.