Basketball & NBA 17 Feb 2010 04:30 pm
NCAA or NBA?
Personally, I would much rather watch a high-profile college basketball game than a high-profile NBA game. If I was given a choice to watch, during the regular season, a Duke-North Carolina rivalry game as opposed to a Boston-Los Angeles matchup, I would go with the college game, and for several reasons.
At the college level, players have more to prove than their counterparts in the pros. These college players, especially highly-rated prospects attending schools with strong basketball traditions, like Kentucky and Kansas, want to show NBA scouts that they are ready for and able to contribute at the next level. What makes them different from the pros is that there is still something else to achieve in their basketball careers. These prospects are not paid in college, so they have not accomplished anything with basketball yet, in terms of financial success and stability. NBA players, with a few exceptions, already have firm contracts, so they are financially secured. The result is that college players play more motivated and hungrier than professionals, which makes them more enjoyable to watch. This applies to the rest of the field, or those with no future in the NBA, who just want to prove themselves to their fellow students and school coaches. It just seems that college players, no matter their situation, try harder and put more effort into every single possession in the game. They leave it all on the floor.
Because players have more to prove and their motivation levels are higher than those of NBA players, college basketball games are more intense across the board than NBA games. From color commentators, such as Dick Vitale, Bobby Knight, and Digger Phelps, to coaches, like Bruce Pearl and John Calipari, the sphere of NCAA basketball is filled with passion and fire. More importantly, this intensity is felt on the court by the players themselves, who have everything to prove to scouts, coaches, and fans. Generated from the student bodies at most college games and the intensity on the court, excitement touches the players and propels them to perform at their best. Even star players, who are expected to succeed in the NBA, play as passionately as any other collegians. When you see John Wall of Kentucky and Xavier Henry of Kansas, two freshmen who will likely leave for the NBA after only one year in college, fired up on the court after an electrifying block or powerful dunk, you know you are witnessing something special. No matter their future, ranking, profile, or ability, all college players are touched by and create the excitement of NCAA basketball.
The presence of student bodies at college games, lacking in the NBA, adds a new dimension to an already intense atmosphere. Whether it is to cheer on their friends on the court, support their schools’ colors, compete with opposing fans, or for all of these reasons combined, students are always present at games in numbers. Their cheers and chants bring passion, intensity, and motivation. Whether it is Duke students at Cameron Indoor Stadium or Kentucky fans at Rupp Arena, the power of the student body is the same. It completes the sphere of college basketball, from players to coaches to parents and outside fans.
So, if you were to ask me how I would spend an evening watching basketball, I would choose, even though I love both levels of the sport, a broadcast from Chapel Hill showing the Duke-UNC rivalry game over an airing of a Celtics-Lakers game from the TD Banknorth Garden.