Wetzel: In the NIL era, great hoops coaches still finding a way

[EagerFan]

Wetzel: Why the sky has not fallen in NCAA hoops ​

From courtrooms to Congress, college athletics has spent the past half decade decrying how name, image and likeness rights for players and the transfer portal have adversely affected competition, if not supposedly destroyed the soul of collegiate competition.

...

The new era is by no means without its flaws and frustrations. It has its benefits as well. Whereas the game was once dominated by so-called blue-blood programs, the power of Nike and Adidas to stock preferred rosters has been mitigated as once under-the-table money is out in the open. The playing field has leveled. New teams are winning.

Meanwhile, the transfer portal allowed Pitino to quickly rebuild St. John's with veteran talent. Pearl and Barnes brought their leading scorers in from Morehead State and North Florida, respectively.

...

And who does the author name check?

There's St. John's...There's Tennessee...There's Houston...there is Auburn-- Duke, Florida and Alabama --

And he closes with?

And so here comes another March. Izzo. Pitino. Barnes. Sampson. Pearl.

Same old coaches, same old tricks.

How self-aware is this author? Is this satire or tongue in cheek stuff? Or is he writing on spec and forced to pretend the body matches his argument about level playing fields and new teams winning?

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Articles written in this fashion - tiny graphs, no analysis whatsoever, literal one word sentences and strings of names pressed together - are old fashioned useless newspaper style writers who are just hitting a word count and nobody who isn't a boomer gives a shit.

 

[hdhntr1]

Articles written in this fashion - tiny graphs, no analysis whatsoever, literal one word sentences and strings of names pressed together - are old fashioned useless newspaper style writers who are just hitting a word count and nobody who isn't a boomer gives a shit.

Even us boomers don't

 

[Catreporter]

Hmmmm...interesting that all the teams in the final 16 are from the big conferences. Even playing field? Hardly. Free transfer and NIL money are tilting the playing field. Duke has a loaded roster. Their two games this weekend were BORING unless you are a Duke fan.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Hmmmm...interesting that all the teams in the final 16 are from the big conferences. Even playing field? Hardly. Free transfer and NIL money are tilting the playing field. Duke has a loaded roster. Their two games this weekend were BORING unless you are a Duke fan.

You understand the situation.
Everything they're doing is to benefit the power conferences at the expense of the mid-majors.
Because the power conferences set the rules. And greed trumps competition.

 

[PURPLECAT88]

No, the courts have set the rules. And we're using a very loose definition of "rules".

 

[EagerFan]

Hmmmm...interesting that all the teams in the final 16 are from the big conferences. Even playing field? Hardly. Free transfer and NIL money are tilting the playing field. Duke has a loaded roster. Their two games this weekend were BORING unless you are a Duke fan.

The highest seed in the second weekend this year is 10 seeded Arkansas, the next is 6 seeded BYU/Ole Miss. When was the last time the Sweet 16 was comprised of four 1 seeds, three 2 seeds, two 3 seeds, three 4 seeds, one 5 seed, two 6 seeds, and a 10 seed?

St John's really dropped the ball for the elites.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

The highest seed in the second weekend this year is 10 seeded Arkansas, the next is 6 seeded BYU/Ole Miss. When was the last time the Sweet 16 was comprised of four 1 seeds, three 2 seeds, two 3 seeds, three 4 seeds, one 5 seed, two 6 seeds, and a 10 seed?

St John's really dropped the ball for the elites.

Well there have never been only 4 conferences represented before, with the ACC having only Duke. Mid majors have been exterminated, as has the Big East. ACC has one relevant property and otherwise got absolutely blasted.