The title says it all for this Ryan column.
He cannot stand how men’s college basketball’s scoring has fallen off. His
reasoning for this huge drop-off is the over-coaching done at almost every
school in the nation. This column is a feature because it deals with the issue
of the lack of scoring in this sport.
Ryan is extremely frustrated by this
phenomenon in college basketball and has a negative outlook regarding the
future of the sport. He starts with a strong, emotional rant towards the
subject: “It’s appalling. It’s depressing. It is certainly painful to watch.
Did someone legislate offense out of basketball when we weren’t looking?
Offensively speaking, things were better not just 10, not just 20, not just 30
(actually, that was a deviant year), not just 40, not just 50, but, yes, 60
years ago. How can that be?” His anger continues for a page and then he gets to
his main point with a quote from Bill Walton: ““The game,” [Walton] thunders,
“is over-coached and under-taught. It is over-thought and under-played.” Walton
is totally in agreement that the athletes are better than ever. He just wishes
the coaches would let them play.” Just by using the word “thunders,” Ryan is
expressing the rage that he and Walton feel when watching college basketball.
Ryan is successful in making his point
because he compares the sport today to the best teams and coaches of all-time.
They had a completely different style of coaching. John Wooden did not
over-coach anyone: ““Here is what John Wooden said to us before every game we
ever played at UCLA,” Walton recalls. “He would say, ‘I’ve done my job. Now you
have to do yours. Once the game starts, I can’t help you.’”” In addition,
neither Wooden’s Bruins nor Bob Knight’s Hoosiers lacked offense. Ryan recalls
Wooden’s championship game history: “Has anyone ever accused John Wooden of not
caring about defense? Don’t be ridiculous. But in the 10 championship games his
UCLA teams won, they averaged 84.6 points.” Then, Ryan details Knight’s
championship teams: “In 1987, the
occasion of his third NCAA title, the Hoosiers averaged 89.2 ppg in the
tournament. In 1981, his championship team had tournament games of 99 and 87.
Holding the ball does not constitute good defense.”
I agree with Ryan because I am just as
frustrated with problems with scoring and over-coaching in college basketball.
The reason why I watch the NBA much more than college is because the league has
more talented players playing for more talented coaches in a higher-scoring and
more entertaining game. The coaches understand not to have to over-coach like
college coaches do.
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