Ah, March Madness, the best three weeks of a sports fan’s (or degenerate gambler’s) year.
A time when a nation gathers to root for brackets, a chance to win the office pool and Cinderellas everywhere (but only to a certain degree. Let’s be honest, watching Cinderella is fun until two of them get together at the dance. At that point, it’s just a mid-major matchup that draws more yawns than ardent cheers.)
It’s an addicting event that enslaves my attention with both its unpredictability and one-loss format. The drama of a good tournament game cannot be replicated.
But March Madness isn’t perfect. I’ve got a few suggestions for what should be fixed and since it’s Wednesday, I ranked them by importance.
Without further ado.
1. We have to fix the block-charge call in basketball.
OK, admittedly, this first suggestion doesn’t actually have anything to do with the event, March Madness. But changing the way the block-charge call is handled is crucial to the game.
I’m not here to criticize officials, because, unquestionably, they’re doing the best they can. This isn’t about fixing what the referees are doing but instead modifying how the game is officiated.
Right now, too many times, when a player attacks the basket and rises in the air for a layup or dunk, and then slams into a defender, the default call is a charge.
By blowing the whistle in favor of the defense, we’ve encouraged defenders to slide underneath airborne offensive players.
The NCAA installed a restricted-area arc three feet from the center of the basket for the 2012 season — and that’s helped — but now it’s about educating referees.
By calling more blocks (or not blowing their whistle at all) officials can encourage players to drive the lane with greater regularity, creating a better, more fluid game. I want players to feel free to unleash their athleticism to the fullest degree on the offensive end.
2. They’ll never quit now, but stop playing in football stadiums.
In the women’s NCAA tourney — a worthy event any basketball should tune into (I see you Louisville!) — one thing that’s always stuck out for me is how you can hear cheerleaders chanting.
In guy’s games, you never hear them because the crowds — generally — are so much larger and louder. Really, for me, the atmosphere in the men’s game is the only reason why watching the boys is better experience. Are you really telling me that watching Montana and Marquette miss a combined 23-of-107 attempts against Syracuse’s zone is better than the Lousiville women pulling off a shocking upset of Baylor?
Many times it’s because the big-game atmosphere in a basketball gym with rowdy fans translates through the television.
But — and this is a big BUT — games in Lucas Oil Stadium, Cowboys Stadium or the Final Four at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta Saturday neutralizes that effect.
All of a sudden, I can hear cheerleaders and those guys with their gigantic megaphone things yelling incessantly.
When playing a basketball game in a football facility it’s impossible to copy that feeling of a cramped, claustrophobic, intimate atmosphere that can make basketball special.
Granted, when Trey Burke bombed in that 30-footer against Kansas in the South Regional semifinal it was a remarkable, must-see moment regardless of where they played.
And the Final Four, with all its pizzazz, pomp and circumstance, will sound and look fine in Atlanta. But the fact they sell more tickets to the event doesn’t do me — or television viewers — a lot of good.
3. It’s time we take a stand for something, so let’s outlaw anymore Capital One commercials.
In particular, we must cease all commercials with Alec Baldwin, Charles Barkley and Greg Anthony. They’re “turrible” as Sir Charles would likely say if he wasn’t silenced by Capital One’s muzzle money.
Capital One’s ads are so bad I have to avoid every commercial break like Ole Miss’s Marshall Henderson avoids passing.
The problem with Capital One and its commercials is that — and I’m making an assumption here — they hired the writers of all those Saw movies. The jokes — referring to Barkley’s underwear, for example — are so amateurish and out of taste, it’s incomprehensible they’re on television.
4. Can we all stop decreeing a team or a conference as overrated or underrated based on the NCAA tournament?
The Big East is overrated (Georgetown goes down to Florida Gulf Coast) and underrated (Louisville coasts to the Final Four). Gonzaga is overrated (Wichita State knocks off the Zags in the round of 32) and Gonzaga isn’t so overrated (after that same Wichita State squad blasts La Salle and Ohio State to make the Final Four).
On and on we could go. The tournament does not validate or invalidate an entire season’s worth of games. Gonzaga earned that No. 1 seed because the Bulldogs were 31-2 during the season and beat teams like Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Davidson and Oklahoma.
Losing to the Shockers — who had to hit 14 3-pointers while shooting 50 percent from the perimeter — doesn’t erase Gonzaga’s feats during a memorable 2013-13 season. Teams don’t earn their seeds retroactively.
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