Jeff Shelman: Why does college basketball give away its best games?

"Tonight, Minnesota will kick of its men’s basketball season with a game against the University of Louisville. It will be played on a military base in Puerto Rico.

It is certainly the most interesting game on the Gophers’ non-conference schedule. Minnesota coach Richard Pitino will coach against his father, Cardinals coach Rick Pitino. Pitino vs. Pitino, father vs. son, established program vs. a program potentially on the rise.

It should be a good game. But it is one that is part of a trend in college basketball that I simply don’t understand: Why does college basketball give away its best games? Why does the sport increasingly treat its best customers with such disdain? And what is wrong with playing an actual road game?"

http://jeffshelman.com/2014/11/14/why-does-college-basketball-give-away-its-best-games/

If you hadn't told me otherwise, I would have guessed this piece was written by SelectionSunday. Sounds like this guy was a beat writer for the Gophers during the Monson years. I've seen him mentioned fondly on here a few times in the past, but I only started following Gopher sports in 2007, the year Brewster and Tubby were hired. The piece laments the trend away from home-and-homes and toward most of the good non-conference matchups being played on neutral courts, with specific references to the Gophers.

By a landslide Shelman is the best beat writer Gopher basketball has had in a long time. Going from Shelman to Myron was like going from the New York Yankees to the Chicago Cubs. Or in college basketball parlance, the UCLA Bruins to the Northwestern Wildcats.

Still miss his work.

I don't think it's coincidence that marquee nonconference games on campus pretty much vanished when teams were allowed to play in an exempt tourney annually instead of every four years. They are great for the few fans who are lucky to go (I had a blast in Anaheim in 2009), but coaches use it as a crutch for going cupcake city the rest of the schedule.

Had me at first but then lost me when he tosses out the challenge and stresses on that percentage. You can't conveniently say that the schools don't want to play those games and so they don't count. the schools build schedules knowing that those games are coming.


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No good writer concludes with "In Conclusion", but this guy might be an exception.

This should be required reading for every major college basketball coach

Unfortunately, mostly it falls on deaf ears. Save for a few select coaches, they don't have the balls to beef up their schedule even a little bit, but mostly it's just that most schools simply don't give a rat's ass about their season-ticket holders.

Thank you, Jeff.

SelectionSunday said:

Unfortunately, mostly it falls on deaf ears. Save for a few select coaches, they don't have the balls to do this, and they don't give a rat's ass about their season-tciekt holders.

Thank you, Jeff.

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I think Ope3 had a good point regarding the annual preseason tournaments.

I go back and forth on this topic. I happen to really enjoy the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and the preseason events every year. Would I trade those for one or two more home games (and one or two more away games) against middle of the road other Power Six conference teams? I don't know. There are only so many Louisville/Duke/North Carolina/Kentucky teams out there and we tend to run into those on occasion in these special events. But it is highly unlikely Duke (insert elite team here) is doing a home and home with the Gophers. So then we would be looking at the NC State/Kansas States of the world. Certainly better than Furman but that wouldn't fundamentally change my appreciation of the product if we lost the other events. I recognize you probably want to replace some of the other games on the schedule but keep the "special" events like they are today. To have seven or eight games like that out of conference would be virtually unprecedented lately. (a few exceptions) Unless we see a complete shift across the board, I don't see it happening in the near term?

golfing18now said:

I think Ope3 had a good point regarding the annual preseason tournaments.

I go back and forth on this topic. I happen to really enjoy the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and the preseason events every year. Would I trade those for one or two more home games (and one or two more away games) against middle of the road other Power Six conference teams? I don't know. There are only so many Louisville/Duke/North Carolina/Kentucky teams out there and we tend to run into those on occasion in these special events. But it is highly unlikely Duke (insert elite team here) is doing a home and home with the Gophers. So then we would be looking at the NC State/Kansas States of the world. Certainly better than Furman but that wouldn't fundamentally change my appreciation of the product if we lost the other events. I recognize you probably want to replace some of the other games on the schedule but keep the "special" events like they are today. To have seven or eight games like that out of conference would be virtually unprecedented lately. (a few exceptions) Unless we see a complete shift across the board, I don't see it happening in the near term?

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I know I wouldn't. Good post.