Interminable ads relegate games to mere filler
Basketball fans might as well quit crying about how bad the college game is right now.
The NCAA Tournament and even the regular season are good enough.
Annoying, though, is that they would be even better if the grown-ups let the youngsters play instead of stopping the game every other dribble for TV commercials.
Yes, this comes from someone who watched many of the 33,594 televised games the past few days.
Some were on three or four at a time on different channels. Or maybe they all were on the same channel at once.
It's difficult to recall because they all ran together.
Let's say for discussion purposes that they were on one channel at a time, which raises a question.
Did any of you ever switch from one game to another without landing on a commercial?
Seriously, so much advertising time has been sold that it's like the game is mere filler between sales pitches.
Bounce ... how about a luxury automobile? ... bounce ... how about a mobile phone plan? ... bounce ... how about a lawn mower? ... bounce ...
Not to mention fast food, motorcycle insurance, lite beer, low-fare flights, credit cards and this week's TV lineup.
Somebody has to ante up the cash that goes to everybody in college sports but the stars of the show themselves.
Wait, stop me right there because paying players is a story for another day.
The story for today is this notion that college basketball is as bad it has been since games in which neither players nor pictures were of color.
Whichever team wins the NCAA title - presumably Kentucky - certainly couldn't beat the champions of the 1980s even if allowed to play 5-on-3.
That's OK because the low supply of excellence doesn't mean college basketball is unwatchable.
The quality of the performances never have mattered any more than it does in any episode of "2 Broke Girls."
What matters is - as college administrators love to point out - the university name on the front of the jersey.
Do you think Kentucky fans would mind if the Wildcats win the championship game 22-10 instead of 52-40?
Serve up an office pool, a close game and features on players who were homeless in high school and ... bingo! ... the formula is a winner.
Sunday's menu of eight NCAA Tournament games began with Michigan State-Virginia, two teams that had legitimate chances to advance to the Final Four.
The caliber of play in this titanic tussle was predictably about one-third of a notch above Stevenson's victory over Normal for the Class 4A IHSA championship Saturday night.
Still, the Spartans' victory was entertaining and somewhat compelling at the end.
With no Illinois entries in the NCAAs, having a Michigan State and other Big Ten schools involved was the best we could hope for.
Well, actually, the best we could hope for would have been for paid adults to stay out of the way and let the unpaid athletes play.
But no, all that commercial space had to be sold and all those timeouts had to be whistled to promote, say, the next "Mission: Impossible" movie still four months away.
Teams and TV are allowed so many timeouts per game that there's no flow to whatever action the players can muster.
So, cut out half the "TO's, baby!" and college basketball would be better.
As is, the games are OK even if the sport is messed up.
mimrem@dailyherald.com