College Basketball: A Reflection on the End of the Season
Sadly for me, my favorite sports season has ended but lets take a look back at this season. The season started off with North Carolina back in the top 10 after a disastrous season in 09-10 all because of heralded freshman Harrison Barnes, who made the all AP pre-season team, a first for a freshman. Within the first two weeks Carolina was out of the rankings completely and everyone believed that this season was going to be a repeat of last season and that Barnes was a bust. Yet once Carolina shook off some of their issues they showed the world that they were back and while they still had a lot to learn they were quickly proving to be a team that was worthy of making it back to the NCAA tournament after missing out completely in the prior season.
This season also provided fans with a lot of drama off the court with players being suspended for having inappropriate relationships with NBA managers in Josh Selby who served a 9 game suspension in the beginning of the season to Enes Kanter who was ruled ineligible to play for Kentucky by the NCAA all because he had played abroad professionally and may have taken more money then necessary, if the NCAA wanted to be fair they would have suspended him for a few games and made him pay back what he got extra, that is exactly what they did to Josh Selby. Also this season showed how many violations coaches can commit to get a player that they want; Bruce Pearl showed the world just how scummy some coaches are and how they would do anything, such as screw over their program in the long run to get that one player that can change everything for one maybe two seasons. This part of the season drove me mad and caused me to rant about the coaches and the NCAA. It also made me wonder if all coaches do this because if Roy Williams and Bill Self were to ever be caught committing NCAA violations, I in all honesty would lose all respect for college basketball as these two coaches in my mind are among the two most stand up coaches in the NCAA.
Now after that side tangent ranting about the NCAA back to the actual play. You had 5 teams that all at one point held the #1 spot in the rankings, Ohio St, Kansas, Texas, SDSU, and Duke. All teams that were undefeated for quite a while before losing to some random teams. All five of these teams were seen as being contenders to cut down the nets last night. Unfortunately for me Kansas was not the team there and neither were any of the other teams on this list. This year there wasn't one clear cut team that dominated college basketball but this season was a year for many different teams to have the spot light and to show the national stage just what they are made of. I enjoyed the fact that there were so many different players highlighted through out the season and that it just wasn't one school who had all of the top talent.
My biggest hope for next year is that the Morris twins come back to Kansas as I believe that would almost guarantee Kansas the title next March. Also I am very happy that Harrison Barnes has decided to come back to UNC for his sophomore season as I believe that he still has a lot to learn and to improve before he becomes and NBA ready player. I hope you all enjoyed this post and keep following my love affair with sports.
This season also provided fans with a lot of drama off the court with players being suspended for having inappropriate relationships with NBA managers in Josh Selby who served a 9 game suspension in the beginning of the season to Enes Kanter who was ruled ineligible to play for Kentucky by the NCAA all because he had played abroad professionally and may have taken more money then necessary, if the NCAA wanted to be fair they would have suspended him for a few games and made him pay back what he got extra, that is exactly what they did to Josh Selby. Also this season showed how many violations coaches can commit to get a player that they want; Bruce Pearl showed the world just how scummy some coaches are and how they would do anything, such as screw over their program in the long run to get that one player that can change everything for one maybe two seasons. This part of the season drove me mad and caused me to rant about the coaches and the NCAA. It also made me wonder if all coaches do this because if Roy Williams and Bill Self were to ever be caught committing NCAA violations, I in all honesty would lose all respect for college basketball as these two coaches in my mind are among the two most stand up coaches in the NCAA.
Now after that side tangent ranting about the NCAA back to the actual play. You had 5 teams that all at one point held the #1 spot in the rankings, Ohio St, Kansas, Texas, SDSU, and Duke. All teams that were undefeated for quite a while before losing to some random teams. All five of these teams were seen as being contenders to cut down the nets last night. Unfortunately for me Kansas was not the team there and neither were any of the other teams on this list. This year there wasn't one clear cut team that dominated college basketball but this season was a year for many different teams to have the spot light and to show the national stage just what they are made of. I enjoyed the fact that there were so many different players highlighted through out the season and that it just wasn't one school who had all of the top talent.
My biggest hope for next year is that the Morris twins come back to Kansas as I believe that would almost guarantee Kansas the title next March. Also I am very happy that Harrison Barnes has decided to come back to UNC for his sophomore season as I believe that he still has a lot to learn and to improve before he becomes and NBA ready player. I hope you all enjoyed this post and keep following my love affair with sports.
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