coolhandgopher
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I don't know that I have the right to pen this screed-I've lived out of country for the last 15 years and have gradually then suddenly became disengaged from what was my sport of kings, finding it difficult to keep consistent tabs on college BB and even harder to find a reliable internet connection to keep up with the sport. Of course, my absence from nightly Big Monday through Sunday check-ins, if not full fledged days and nights given over to the slate of games has coincided with the continued muckery of mediocrity that has marked the 21st century of Golden Gopher basketball. I've checked out, pure and simple. Call me a coward, not being able to end the relationship, asking the kids how their mother's doing by lurking on the board when a hint of hope has presented itself.
Of course, a lot has changed in 15 years-I just glanced at the 2012 NCAA tournament and was reminded this was the year that Coach Cal delivered his only championship for Kentucky with Anthony Davis as the MOP in his dominating fashion as the primo hired gun for the boys from Lexington. It wasn't a time of innocence, not that there ever has been in the sport--the charade of amateurism created scandals going back to the '40s (if not earlier) for college basketball. But conferences were largely intact back then-the Big Ten was at 12 schools, the Pac-10 had swelled to 12 teams with a seemingly bright future, and the SEC had only Arkansas among its universities west of the Mississippi River. As I recollect from that time, the drumbeat for player compensation was gaining strength and teeth gnashing about the effect of 1 and done's was prevalent, but otherwise, the game was still a semblance to what I fell in love with during the '80s and early '90s. Some cracks in the fissure, yes-coming to peace with seeing NBA talent departing after a couple semesters of college was a necessary evil, but I had also grown to understand that what I was clinging to as a fan did not equate to what was fair for the talent who had a professional pathway ahead.
15 years later, those cracks have turned into a full blown dam bursting and while Payne's entrance into the portal may be where I am playing Taps, from my vantage point, the sport has been in the grave once NIL and unlimited transfers became reality. Sure, there could be a coach out there who has the right moxie to maneuver the Gophers through this brave new world, but for the better part of the last 35 years, the program has not found that coach and that was within the familiar confines of the traditional Big 10 with transfers having to sit out a year. And let's say that coach is found, the elusive Pied Piper who will bring in a bunch of one year mercenaries who somehow coalesce and fight their way to glory to emerge at the top of a bloated Big 10...is that going to feel. . .good? Particularly as the deck reshuffles the next year and the following and the following. College BB in its salad days was ethereal-four years could go by so quick and particularly for the likes of those who developed into contributors (Eric Harris and John Thomas come to mind) or joined us via the juco route (Bobby Jackson, of course) where we really only had them for a couple years--as I lurked from across the world at this squad's potential emergence into something sustainable, I almost let myself be convinced that Hawkins and Payne and Christie and Carrington, with perhaps a dash of another year of Fox and/or Garcia might, just might, provide a bit of stability to the program.
As it stands, as the college presidents and league commissioners and other lackeys choke themselves at the money trough of the best damn tournament format in sports, which they seem hellbent on fucking up by trying to add more teams, I hear/read the evergreen commentary from various directions stating that because a 14 seed beat a 3 or a thrilling matchup ended with a buzzer beater that somehow, someway it all works itself come March. And of course, that's all bullshit--yes your stereotypical office workers getting revved up for a pool where they see how far their favorite animal mascots will go in the tourney, the beauty behind the plastic surgery is brittle and shaky. It's all turning into cotton candy, a sugar rush that is forgotten as soon as its consumed.
There was a time, well before me, when boxing and horse racing shared the mantel with baseball as the preeminent sports in this country. I don't know if college basketball ever captured the country's attention in that way, but it certainly did for me and as Pewterschmidt stated in they Payne chain, I scoffed at the NBA in comparison. I feel like I'm that retiree on the park bench feeding pigeons muttering about how I wish you could have seen college BB in the '80s and '90s (especially the Gophers in that iteration). Those 35 years or so feel light years away from where the sport exists now. What a damn shame.
Of course, a lot has changed in 15 years-I just glanced at the 2012 NCAA tournament and was reminded this was the year that Coach Cal delivered his only championship for Kentucky with Anthony Davis as the MOP in his dominating fashion as the primo hired gun for the boys from Lexington. It wasn't a time of innocence, not that there ever has been in the sport--the charade of amateurism created scandals going back to the '40s (if not earlier) for college basketball. But conferences were largely intact back then-the Big Ten was at 12 schools, the Pac-10 had swelled to 12 teams with a seemingly bright future, and the SEC had only Arkansas among its universities west of the Mississippi River. As I recollect from that time, the drumbeat for player compensation was gaining strength and teeth gnashing about the effect of 1 and done's was prevalent, but otherwise, the game was still a semblance to what I fell in love with during the '80s and early '90s. Some cracks in the fissure, yes-coming to peace with seeing NBA talent departing after a couple semesters of college was a necessary evil, but I had also grown to understand that what I was clinging to as a fan did not equate to what was fair for the talent who had a professional pathway ahead.
15 years later, those cracks have turned into a full blown dam bursting and while Payne's entrance into the portal may be where I am playing Taps, from my vantage point, the sport has been in the grave once NIL and unlimited transfers became reality. Sure, there could be a coach out there who has the right moxie to maneuver the Gophers through this brave new world, but for the better part of the last 35 years, the program has not found that coach and that was within the familiar confines of the traditional Big 10 with transfers having to sit out a year. And let's say that coach is found, the elusive Pied Piper who will bring in a bunch of one year mercenaries who somehow coalesce and fight their way to glory to emerge at the top of a bloated Big 10...is that going to feel. . .good? Particularly as the deck reshuffles the next year and the following and the following. College BB in its salad days was ethereal-four years could go by so quick and particularly for the likes of those who developed into contributors (Eric Harris and John Thomas come to mind) or joined us via the juco route (Bobby Jackson, of course) where we really only had them for a couple years--as I lurked from across the world at this squad's potential emergence into something sustainable, I almost let myself be convinced that Hawkins and Payne and Christie and Carrington, with perhaps a dash of another year of Fox and/or Garcia might, just might, provide a bit of stability to the program.
As it stands, as the college presidents and league commissioners and other lackeys choke themselves at the money trough of the best damn tournament format in sports, which they seem hellbent on fucking up by trying to add more teams, I hear/read the evergreen commentary from various directions stating that because a 14 seed beat a 3 or a thrilling matchup ended with a buzzer beater that somehow, someway it all works itself come March. And of course, that's all bullshit--yes your stereotypical office workers getting revved up for a pool where they see how far their favorite animal mascots will go in the tourney, the beauty behind the plastic surgery is brittle and shaky. It's all turning into cotton candy, a sugar rush that is forgotten as soon as its consumed.
There was a time, well before me, when boxing and horse racing shared the mantel with baseball as the preeminent sports in this country. I don't know if college basketball ever captured the country's attention in that way, but it certainly did for me and as Pewterschmidt stated in they Payne chain, I scoffed at the NBA in comparison. I feel like I'm that retiree on the park bench feeding pigeons muttering about how I wish you could have seen college BB in the '80s and '90s (especially the Gophers in that iteration). Those 35 years or so feel light years away from where the sport exists now. What a damn shame.
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