In the words of Rogers Hornsby...

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball.  I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring."

One of my students a few years ago gave me The Gigantic Book of Baseball Quotations (possibly the best gift I've gotten from a student) and that's my favorite baseball quote ever, which is saying something.  There are so many good ones.  It pretty much perfectly describes how I feel about the baseball offseason.  I already had a post about how this is my least favorite time of the year.

With the Dodgers playing their first spring training game today, there's light at the end of the tunnel, but there are certain things that make that wait for spring more bearable.  If the Jets would ever win a Super Bowl, that would help.  If I was a Ravens fan right now, I wouldn't care that football is over because I'd still be basking in their glory.  There's the NBA.  The 2007-2008 Celtics were a pleasure to watch all season.  This year's Celtics team has actually been fairly entertaining since Rajon Rondo got hurt, but I know they're not going anywhere in the playoffs.

But what has really helped me over the last few years has been college basketball.  I wish Notre Dame had been good in basketball when I was there (but I had two pretty good football seasons, so I guess I can't complain).  Mike Brey has been Notre Dame's coach for 13 years now.  The two years I was there were his two worst years (17 and 16 wins).  I wanted Brey fired (the lesson as always, I'm an idiot).  Since then, Brey has done a great job.  Sure, I'd like more tournament wins, but he's getting us there just about every year these days (this year will be be 6 out of 7 years).  There are a lot of Big East schools that would love to be able to say that (St. John's for example).

There are two reasons why I really enjoy being a Notre Dame basketball fan.  The first is that Notre Dame has a legitimate team and not just a collection of mercenaries (you know, like Kentucky).  People like to talk about how our academic standards are a disadvantage in football.  That's much more true in men's basketball than it is in football.  We can get elite players in football.  The Anthony Davis types are never going to Notre Dame to play basketball because they're going to be college "students" for one year and then they're going to the NBA.  Last year's Kentucky team was a bunch of hired guns.  Sure they won, but they were like the 1997 Florida Marlins of college basketball.  How could you develop any attachment to that team?  At Notre Dame, you get players that will be there for four years.  The players on the team aren't just looking out for themselves and they have given a lot to the university.  This isn't just true of Notre Dame.  It's true of most schools, but for the elite programs, it is often not the case.  Kentucky is the most obvious example.  Duke does a good job of getting players that actually have an interest in sticking around and being students also, but even they had Kyrie Irving and his 11-game college career.

The second reason is that the regular season actually matters for Notre Dame. For so many teams in college basketball, the regular season is meaningless.  Georgetown and Syracuse is a good basketball rivalry (which is coming to an end unfortunately), but their game today means ... nothing.  If Syracuse wins today and then they go out in the second round of the tournament and Georgetown makes a run to the Final Four, I know my brother Sean won't care too much about losing to Syracuse.  Compare that to football.  If Notre Dame had lost to USC in the last game of the regular season and then won the Fiesta Bowl or something, I would still be really disappointed (it took me seven years to get over our loss to USC in 2005).  But for Notre Dame basketball, the regular season does matter.   Actually, if Notre Dame was consistently better, then the regular season wouldn't be as meaningful.  Unfortunately, we've never won the Big East Tournament (two more chances, it would be awesome if we did before we left).  That means that we need to be good enough during the regular season to earn a spot in the tournament.  Going back to Georgetown and Syracuse, obviously they can't both win the Big East tournament, but they are consistently good enough that they don't have to worry about getting into the tournament.  For Notre Dame, we're not usually a lock for the tournament.  Two years ago was an exception.  This year, a lot of us were worried that not making the tournament was a real possibility until we beat Louisville and Pittsburgh.  Right here on Long Island, Stony Brook has become a power in the America East Conference. However, they haven't been able to win their conference tournament, so finishing in first in the regular season has meant nothing for them (except for a spot in the NIT).

So all this one and done nonsense and the meaninglessness of the regular season are the two biggest problems in college basketball.  I can live with the meaninglessness of the regular season because the payoff of the tournament is so amazing (the first weekend of the tournament is probably my favorite four-day stretch of the year).  I've tried to fix some problems on this blog.  Major League Baseball should really start paying attention because I solved their Opening Day and All Star Game problems.  I also have a solution for this ridiculous interleague play every day nonsense that starts this year (I'll try to get to that before the season starts).  I've solved some holiday problems.  Unfortunately, I can't solve this problem for college basketball.

There are solutions that would work for college basketball, but unfortunately they depend on the NBA.  If I were running the NBA, I'd want players to be eligible for the draft two years after their high school graduation.  That would be better for the NBA and having kids in college for two years instead of just being there and being "students" for one year would be better for college basketball.  The best solution for college basketball, however, would probably be going to baseball draft rules.  In baseball, you can play professionally right out of high school, but if you go to college, you have to stay for three years before you are eligible for the draft again.  That would be great for college basketball, but I'd be scared to death of what would happen to the NBA if 18-year-olds had to decide between going straight to the NBA out of high school or waiting three years.

College basketball is a great sport, but unless the NBA does something, it will never be as great as it once was.  Lew Alcindor stayed at UCLA for four years.  Michael Jordan stayed at North Carolina for three years.  Patrick Ewing stayed at Georgetown for four years.  That would never happen today.  Imagine what college basketball would be like today if Carmelo Anthony stayed at Syracuse for four years and Kevin Durant stayed at Texas for four years and Anthony Davis stayed at Kentucky for four years (or even three).  It would be amazing.  We'll probably never get back to the days of Alcindor, Jordan, and Ewing in college basketball, but this one and done nonsense is terrible and it's not good for the NBA either.  Something needs to change.

Anyway, four more regular season games for Notre Dame.  Then the Big East Tournament.  I'm hoping to go at least Wednesday and Thursday nights.  I think there's a slight chance that I could be able to go Thursday afternoon also, which would be amazing.  I know my brother Tom is in for one day of the tournament, but if anybody else wants to join, let me know.

Spring is almost here.