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#pounditFriday, March 29, 2024

Mark Cuban blasts ‘horrible’ college basketball

Mark-Cuban

Mark Cuban and Geno Auriemma should get together for dinner sometime to discuss the state of men’s college basketball. If they did, they would find that they share almost an identical opinion on the topic.

Last week, Auriemma called men’s college basketball a “joke” because of the lack of offensive production. Cuban expressed similar thoughts on Wednesday, calling the game “horrible” and criticizing NCAA basketball for not preparing players for the NBA.

“If they want to keep kids in school and keep them from being pro players, they’re doing it the exact right way by having the 35-second shot clock and having the game look and officiated the way it is,” Cuban said, per Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. “Just because kids don’t know how to play a full game of basketball.”

More specifically, Cuban took aim at the 35-second shot clock and said college players simply pass the ball around for 25 seconds before forcing up a bad shot.

“It’s horrible. It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It’s worse than high school. You’ve got 20 to 25 seconds of passing on the perimeter and then somebody goes and tries to make a play and do something stupid, and scoring’s gone down.

“It’s uglier than ugly, and it’s evidenced by the scoring going down. When the NBA went through that, we changed things.”

In addition to a lack of offensive fluidity, Cuban also feels that the officials in college basketball are incompetent.

“The referees couldn’t manage a White Castle,” he added. “Seriously, the college game is more physical than the NBA game, and the variation in how it’s called from game to game [is a problem]. Hell, they don’t even have standards on balls. They use different balls. One team’s got one ball, the other team’s got another ball. There are so many things that are ridiculous.”

Does Mark Cuban love sharing controversial takes? Of course, as evidence by these comments he made about the NFL a year ago. But, like Auriemma, he’s right. The NCAA Tournament will always be one of the most exciting events in sports, but offensive production is lacking. Too many teams are incapable of beating zone defenses and are content to toss up poor outside shots. Cutting down on the shot clock might be one change that could help.

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