Final Game Thoughts

The title game between North Carolina and Gonzaga was not an aesthetically pleasing affair. While close, it wasn't a well-played game.

That doesn't diminish North Carolina's championship. They were and are a deserving champ. They've been one of the best teams all year long. The Zags were deserving title game participants as well. The game itself simply mirrored what was a largely uninspiring tournament full of mediocre basketball.

A lot of people are trying to pin this on the officials and they deserve some of the blame but the college basketball game is in transition at the moment. The move to allow players freedom of movement comes at a price and that price is teams and coaches adapting to a tighter called game.

Something similar happened in the NBA about 20 years ago. Rick Pitino discussed this on the radio yesterday about when he was in the NBA and David Stern wanted more offense. The league pushed for less physical play to open the game up. Not everyone I know agrees with me, but today's NBA is the best it's been in my lifetime since the heyday of Bird and Magic.

That's the goal of college hoops. Am I certain coaches can adapt? Not necessarily but I think we'll see more offensive innovation. When thinking about this, I tried to recall the last major program to adopt any type of offensive first mentality. It's been at least 25 years. The Runnin' Rebels have been long gone.

Coaches don't get fired for preaching defense. It's the easiest coaching cliche there is. But, if we allow the game to adapt to the officials calling it tighter, we may see more offensive innovation and better basketball, basketball where the best players aren't being grinded down by Johnny Try Hard and allowed to play freely.  Hopefully, anyway.

Now, that doesn't excuse missing out-of-bounds calls or continually butchering charge calls. Or missing obvious goaltends or travels after an offensive player bounces off a stationery dude. That is just painful to watch and happens way too often.

We're now into the off-season. It's only 200 days until next season begins where someone from the ACC will probably win the National Title and where Arizona finally makes a Final 4.