Being that college basketball's 65-team NCAA tournament, "March Madness", is held during that month, I know that millions of fans share my sentiment.
With 64 games being played over three weeks and one loss equaling a one-way ticket home, small liberal arts colleges with maybe a few hundred students beating longtime powerhouses with last second shots, crowds upward of 50,000 watching a Final Four that rivals the BCS football championship and the Super Bowl, and young undergraduates playing with an extreme passion for their school, this is hoops at its best.
And did I mention the countless individuals spending millions of dollars on bracket pools, making their guesses as to who will cut down the nets? That has become as much a part of spring as new leaves budding on trees.
There is something that I must confess, however...
I'm not as pumped about the college game or March Madness as I used to be, and not just because my alma mater, UCLA, had a bad season this year.
The fact that the game seems to be full of tattooed prima donnas and thugs who only care about being "the man" and get angrily insulted when offered a contract worth only $50 million instead of $150 million at the pro level, has soured me on the sport for some time. On top of that, guys on college teams don't really want to be in school and can't wait to announce their entry into the NBA draft the moment their freshman season ends.
The National Basketball Association has been the main culprit in this attitude I have for the undergraduate hardwood game, namely in the area of their policy that requires high school players to wait one year after their graduation before they can apply for the draft.
This policy was enacted a few years ago to stem the avalanche of 18-year-olds skipping college to join the league, the reasoning...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
