[Leftcoast]

I watch a lot of college ball and a fair amount of NBA and I see games that took different trajectories in the new millennium.

The NBA game is more enjoyable of late than it was in the 90s, an era when I shared the opinions of the detractors above.  The "maul ball" of Pat Riley's Miami and the Knicks is gone, the balance between front court and back court play is back (or even swung to the guards) and the clutching/holding/arm bars reduced by recent rule changes.  In my opinion the NBAs worst flaw is the overly long regular season that encourages players to take games off and robs urgency from many regular season match-ups.

I like the fluid, organic play of teams like the Warriors and hope that their style of play becomes the new norm but even if Warrior-ball doesn't prevail the NBA provides a much more watchable game than it did 10-15 years ago. 

College ball .... less so.  It's still my first love but the One-and-Done crowd that have laid claim to the games new apex don't have enough time to develop fundamentals and their coaches don't even try.  Other coaches try to exert control over every facet of the game at the cost of pace and play.  Spacing is a problem and pure shooting is in short supply.

I recently looked back at some of the classic tournament games of the 90s, specifically the Duke games against UNLV and Kentucky, and was forced to acknowledge how much the college game has lost since then.  Will we ever see an NC between skilled three and four year players that developed together and built a team identity like so many of those classic 80s/90s teams did?  Think about senior laden squads led by players such as Drexler and Olajuwon, Laetner, Hurley and Hill, Jordan and Worthy and on and on.

It isn't hard to make the case that college ball has regressed in the last 15 years while the pro game has improved.  I love the college game but folks who feel differently are not making unsupportable claims.

Of course your results may vary ...

[Leftcoast]

I watch a lot of college ball and a fair amount of NBA and I see games that took different trajectories in the new millennium.

The NBA game is more enjoyable of late than it was in the 90s, an era when I shared the opinions of the detractors above.  The "maul ball" of Pat Riley's Miami and the Knicks is gone, the balance between front court and back court play is back (or even swung to the guards) and the clutching/holding/arm bars reduced by recent rule changes.  In my opinion the NBAs worst flaw is the overly long regular season that encourages players to take games off and robs urgency from many regular season match-ups.

I like the fluid, organic play of teams like the Warriors and hope that their style of play becomes the new norm but even if Warrior-ball doesn't prevail the NBA provides a much more watchable game than it did 10-15 years ago. 

College ball .... less so.  It's still my first love but the One-and-Done crowd that have laid claim to the games new apex don't have enough time to develop fundamentals and their coaches don't even try.  Other coaches try to exert control over every facet of the game at the cost of pace and play.  Spacing is a problem and pure shooting is in short supply.

I recently looked back at some of the classic tournament games of the 90s, specifically the Duke games against UNLV and Kentucky, and was forced to acknowledge how much the college game has lost since then.  Will we ever see an NC between skilled three and four year players that developed together and built a team identity like so many of those classic 80s/90s teams did?  Think about senior laden squads led by players such as Drexler and Olajuwon, Laetner, Hurley and Hill, Jordan and Worthy and on and on.

It isn't hard to make the case that college ball has regressed in the last 15 years while the pro game has improved.  I love the college game but folks who feel differently are not making unsupportable claims.

Of course your results may vary ...