Last Monday night’s NCAA national championship victory by Louisville over a game Michigan squad was a fitting conclusion to a great collegiate basketball season.
Through it all we’ve heard a lot of yapping about what’s wrong with college basketball. Truth be told, not much. Yes, scoring is down, with teams averaging just 67.5 points per game, the lowest since 1951-52, but come on, did any of you really think about that when your favorite team was in a defensive struggle with your hated rival?
Enjoyment of games is about competitiveness, not necessarily a ton of points. Some of us, like coaches, do appreciate good defensive play.
The Wichita State Shockers made a great run. They demonstrated there are a lot of really good basketball teams out there that the national media does not tell the folks about and, yes, the Shockers accomplished most of that with tremendous defense, tough gritty defense.
Can WSU keep coach Greg Marshall? That will be the topic of discussion in Wichita while the Shockers' baseball team struggles to regain national prominence. Marshall has already turned down a number of jobs and some of them at so-called BCS schools.
I don’t look for Marshall to be easily lured away from Shockerland. His salary is in seven figures, he lives on a golf course and his wife and kids love Wichita. Plus, Marshall loves winning. He’s not going to take a job just because it pays a lot of money. He’s not going to some school that has not been a winner just because they’ve got a bushel basket of dollar bills. Think Nebraska, Colorado, Texas Tech, Northwestern, Rutgers, and yes, even Alabama. Great schools all. Basketball? Not so much!
Marshall got Wichita to the Final Four and has a lot of that ball club returning, plus a great recruiting class coming in. Cleanthony Early has shown he can be a big-time scorer. He was one of the best players in the Final Four and, deservedly, was included on the All-Final Four team.
I still don’t like the way CBS presents the tournament. They’ve chosen to go with announcers that have made their mark in the NBA. They don’t know the college game well, haven’t watched most of the teams play during the season and have to take cram courses in statistics and human interest stories. Thus, we have to hear for the millionth time that Kansas' Jeff Withey was originally a volleyball player. Responses often sound canned and scripted.
Charles Barkley’s humor and candor is great — a savior for CBS — but he can’t carry the whole show because the rest of them don’t know much about college basketball. Though Barkley was usually wrong in his picks of winners, he delivered his information without regard for what the politically correct might think. He’s a charmer as all of the advertisers showed us .
How about  CBS considering using a few more college announcers next year, like Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and, yes, even Dick Vitale. These guys know college basketball!
Speaking of basketball, we need to support all of our athletes at Barton County Community College.
You golfing addicts can do your part and come up with a few bucks to enter the Barton Booster Club Golf Tournament on April 19 at StoneRidge Country Club. Proceeds support the athletic programs at the college.
Sign up forms available at www.BartonSports.com. So tee it up folks!
Charles Tabler is a contributing writer from Larned.