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 What follows is part 2 of a two-part series saluting basketball in all its forms
College Ball is Cool, Too College basketball has three things going for it that will never be topped by any other sport, professional or collegiate. The first is the sense of oneness fostered in the school’s community by a long season of thirty-some games capped with the possibility of a deep tournament run. The second is the chance to find and watch a rising star as he ascends to national prominence. The third is the controlled insanity of the NCAA tournament.
Three years ago, my friends and I at Marquette University had the pleasure of watching one man take us through all of the above. His name is Dwyane Wade, and his (and vicariously our) experience at MU highlights everything that is great about college basketball.
No one beyond Marquette’s campus had any idea who this Wade kid was at the start of the 01-02 basketball season. Even most of us watching him at first didn’t know what to expect. We heard he was nasty, we heard he played on the scout team and destroyed the regulars in practice the year he sat out while ineligible, but we honestly didn’t have any clue the player he would become.
Not until the first two months of the season, anyway, when we saw him routinely take guys off the dribble and either dunk on their heads or pull up for a fade off-glass. Then we knew something was up. He used the backboard! Regularly! He went baseline all day! A smooth first step and deft touch around the rim clued us in that, soon enough, everyone would know D-Wade. In the 02-03 season, that time came, and he almost won National Player of the Year (and, in hindsight, probably should have).
Marquette’s ’03 tourney run took us on a ride that showcased almost every possible March Madness scenario: in the first round, MU survived a scare from 14th-ranked Holy Cross; in the second round, they pulled out an OT thriller against Mizzou thanks to a freshman (Steve Novak) going unconscious from deep; Pitt missed a half-court three at the end in our sweet 16 W; Wade dropped one of the greatest games in NCAA tournament history with his triple-double in the Elite 8 during a road-housing of the best team in the nation that year, Kentucky; then we got demolished in the Final Four by a traditional power, Kansas, in what would become Roy Williams’ last stand at KU.
Even though we got waxed in New Orleans, we still went to New Orleans! And the Blue and Gold were everywhere in the Big Easy, giving the best per capita showing of any school (Marquette was far and away the smallest school involved that year, at just over 12,000 students). Our collective sense of accomplishment was invigorating, and Dwyane and the boys did all the heavy lifting. It was almost magical, and, no matter how much one loves their favorite NBA players, the feeling of following professionals will never equal that of following collegians in March.
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With all the money pro ballers make, they will never feel like your guy. They are your town’s guy, or the owner’s guy, or Nike’s guy, but never yours personally. Every one of my fantasy sports leagues with friends from school has "D-Wade" in the title. We partied our asses off celebrating when the Heat won the NBA title two years ago; we all lived in Milwaukee, and none of us are from south Florida. We all fell hard because he did things for our school we didn’t think were seriously possible (look up Marquette’s pre-Wade history to see what I mean). College players can do that.
I’m not writing this article just to jock my man D-Wade, though (make no mistake, however: I do love him very, very much). There’s so much else to love about NCAA basketball, first and foremost the NCAA Division 1 basketball tournament.
The college champion is undisputed, having to win six do-or-die games to rightfully call itself the best. The first four months of the season are fun, but the tournament renders analysis and conversation moot: did the team step up in the end? Did they win when they had to? Did they rise above on the biggest stage, taking their fans with them? These last two Florida teams will go down in history because they answered all of those questions with a resounding Yes, two years in a row.
Passion and intensity are the name of the game in college ball: guys won’t play if they don’t give a crap, as coaches have to maximize their team’s potential every year or they are gone. Hello, Bob Knight’s career (and that of his apprentice, Coach K, sponsored by American Express). That’s also why Rick Pitino came back to college and revived his career after bottoming out in the pros. There is no guarantee a twenty-four year old making ten times as much as his coach will listen, but that scrawny nineteen year old will bust his ass or lose his free education. The effort can’t waver.
They’re just kids playing a game. But they’re our kids, and the games are freaking intense. In the end, it’s really as simple as that. On that note, best of luck on a good season, everybody.
On another note, every two weeks, starting this coming Friday, I’ll be providing hoopswriters.com with regular rankings of the top twenty teams in college basketball. Keep your eyes peeled and get your comments ready; this can be interactive, but only if you make a persuasive case.
‘Til then, may you always make it rain. |
