The NCAA tournament is one of the more unusal events in sports. Every games is like an NBA seventh game - win or go home. There are wildly improbable upsets, huge swings, and an intensity that compares with anything the NBA can offer.
It is also a poor way wto prepare players for the NBA. The game is almost as different as the FIBA rules and it is very deceiving.
1. Very short three point arc. Many great college shooters turn very ordinary in the NBA with the extra distance. Teams with limited size are able to upset big name team if they get hot from the outside.
2. Real zones. Most college bigs are given minimal prepartion at man defense.
3. Poor preparation for pure point guards. The typical college point guard is mostly a shooter or slasher and on the ball defender. Distribution seems to be low on the priority list.
4. Ticky tack fouls are very often called. It is very hard to get an NBA opponent to foul out, but this is primary strategy in the college.
College basketball is an exciting sport, but comparing it to the NBA is like comparing it to football. They are different sports.
All true but the counter is.
1) They made it short for a reason, to try and counter size so that there would be more parity. I think it's TOO short, but they did that on purpose.
2) Most good college teams don't play a lot of zone, Syracuse was the last "zone" team to win an NC. Florida and TOSU played it some but not much.
3) I think you're looking at assists and not actual play. the college game is different, and they award assists differently. In the NBA I pass to Dirk, he headfakes, holds the ball, spins and makes a 15 footer, and I get an assist, in college that's not the case. And remember the good bigs go pro early so you don't get a lot of cheap assists feeding the bigman.
4) I half agree with 4 but in the NBA what they do is overlook fouls on stars, and then baby guys like D Wade by letting him parade to the freethrow line on phantom calls. College can be infuriating like the TOSU/Georgetown game
where they put the best players in foul trouble early, but they're consistent. A foul on Russell Westbrook is also a foul on Arron Afflalo, they don't say well he's a star so we won't call that on Afflalo.
What makes the NCAA's so great is the single elimination aspect, teams play harder because it's one and done.
