excerpt from a long interview with uconn women's basketball coach:
...Q. You've read a lot about the state of the men's college game this
year, that the game is not as fluid, efficient, exciting, well played as
it has been in years past. There's many reasons people would surmise
that from more freshman, sophomores playing than juniors and seniors. I
know you are obviously an authority on the women's game and your team.
But you're a basketball coach and a basketball fan, so you see a lot of
men's college basketball. What has been your thought about where you
see the state of the men's game is right now?
HEAD COACH GENO AURIEMMA: It's funny, you asked me that, I just had a
conversation with Phil Martelli yesterday and I think he's the president
on the ABC board of directors or whatever.
And we had this conversation and we talked a lot about where the game is
and what the future of the game is. And obviously it's immensely
popular. You look at the interest paid on the NCAA tournament. I don't
know that it's as immensely popular during the regular season as it
used to be, but obviously the tournament is just at another world when
it comes to that.
Having said that, I think the game is a joke. It really is. I don't
coach it. I don't play it, so I don't understand all the ins and outs
of it. But as a spectator, forget that I'm a coach, as a spectator,
watching it, it's a joke. There's only like ten teams, you know, out of
25, that actually play the kind of game of basketball that you'd like
to watch. Every coach will tell you that there's 90 million reasons for
it.
And the bottom line is that nobody can score, and they'll tell you it's
because of great defense, great scouting, a lot of team work, nonsense,
nonsense. College men's basketball is so far behind the times it's
unbelievable. I mean women's basketball is behind the times. Men's
basketball is even further behind the times. Every other major sport in
the world has taken steps to help people be better on the offensive end
of the floor. They've moved in the fences in baseball, they lowered
the mound. They made the strike zone so you need a straw to put through
it. And in the NFL you touch a guy it's a penalty. You hit the
quarterback, you're out for life. You know, in the NBA, you touch
somebody in the perimeter, you whack guys like they used to do when
scores were 90 to 75, they changed the rules.
This is entertainment we're talking about. People have to decide, do I
want to play 25 bucks, 30 bucks to go see a college scrum where
everybody misses six out of every ten shots they take, or do I want to
go to a movie? We're fighting for the entertainment dollar, here, and I
have to tell you it's not entertainment from a fan's standpoint.
So that's just‑‑ I'm talking as a fan, not as Geno, Auriemma, the basketball coach.
...Q. You've read a lot about the state of the men's college game this
year, that the game is not as fluid, efficient, exciting, well played as
it has been in years past. There's many reasons people would surmise
that from more freshman, sophomores playing than juniors and seniors. I
know you are obviously an authority on the women's game and your team.
But you're a basketball coach and a basketball fan, so you see a lot of
men's college basketball. What has been your thought about where you
see the state of the men's game is right now?
HEAD COACH GENO AURIEMMA: It's funny, you asked me that, I just had a
conversation with Phil Martelli yesterday and I think he's the president
on the ABC board of directors or whatever.
And we had this conversation and we talked a lot about where the game is
and what the future of the game is. And obviously it's immensely
popular. You look at the interest paid on the NCAA tournament. I don't
know that it's as immensely popular during the regular season as it
used to be, but obviously the tournament is just at another world when
it comes to that.
Having said that, I think the game is a joke. It really is. I don't
coach it. I don't play it, so I don't understand all the ins and outs
of it. But as a spectator, forget that I'm a coach, as a spectator,
watching it, it's a joke. There's only like ten teams, you know, out of
25, that actually play the kind of game of basketball that you'd like
to watch. Every coach will tell you that there's 90 million reasons for
it.
And the bottom line is that nobody can score, and they'll tell you it's
because of great defense, great scouting, a lot of team work, nonsense,
nonsense. College men's basketball is so far behind the times it's
unbelievable. I mean women's basketball is behind the times. Men's
basketball is even further behind the times. Every other major sport in
the world has taken steps to help people be better on the offensive end
of the floor. They've moved in the fences in baseball, they lowered
the mound. They made the strike zone so you need a straw to put through
it. And in the NFL you touch a guy it's a penalty. You hit the
quarterback, you're out for life. You know, in the NBA, you touch
somebody in the perimeter, you whack guys like they used to do when
scores were 90 to 75, they changed the rules.
This is entertainment we're talking about. People have to decide, do I
want to play 25 bucks, 30 bucks to go see a college scrum where
everybody misses six out of every ten shots they take, or do I want to
go to a movie? We're fighting for the entertainment dollar, here, and I
have to tell you it's not entertainment from a fan's standpoint.
So that's just‑‑ I'm talking as a fan, not as Geno, Auriemma, the basketball coach.
