How can you not love this time of the year? The weather is getting nice, school’s almost over, birds are chirping, and the best basketball players in the world are competing for a chance to win the very coveted intramural t-shirt.
Okay, sorry, I accidentally got caught up in the intensity of SXU intramural basketball, but two big time basketball tournaments do make this an incredible time of the year for basketball fans.
NCAA Division I Basketball is about to finish up its highly entertaining tournament, which people just refer to nowadays as “March Madness.”
Shortly after the “madness” is over, the pros take over as they begin the NBA Playoffs.
Both of these tournaments provide unbelievable excitement as players show off their amazing talent and skills while trying to ultimately become a champion.
But which one is the better basketball tournament? Well I’m about to explore this intriguing argument.
Better Entertainment.
I’m a huge basketball fan and enjoy watching both these tournament because the level of competition is extraordinary.
It really makes both these tournaments entertaining, but college basketball’s tournament is just flat out more entertaining than the NBA Playoffs.
They call it “March Madness” for a reason because this tournament is truly chaos and madness.
It is 68 of the best teams in Division I basketball competing in a single game elimination tournament against teams they’ve never played in arenas they never stepped foot on.
Anybody that plays and watches basketball knows that anything and everything can happen during one game.
In the NBA Playoffs a team has to win four out of seven games in a series to advance, and that can be to tedious for some people to watch at times.
There are also the millions of people, including the Commander-and-Chief, that try frantically to fill out brackets predicting the winner of college basketball’s tournament.
After the tournament is over and one team is left standing than that team can truly say they survived the “madness”.
Winner: March Madness.
Better Players.
There are college basketball players that go on to play in the NBA but they are not at the same level as NBA players.
I firmly believe that “March Madness” ends up being more entertaining than the NBA Playoffs, but the individual players are not better than the superstars of the NBA. They cannot jump higher, run faster, shoot farther, or dunk harder than NBA players.
“March Madness” is entertaining because it’s a bunch of college kids around the same age competing in a do or die, single game elimination tournament.
The NBA Playoffs shows off players with skills and talent of the highest caliber. The speed, power, and tenacity NBA players bring to the playoffs cannot be matched by college kids that are only about 19 or 20 years old.
It’s no disrespect towards them because there are plenty of college kids that gone on to have wonderful NBA careers but a college basketball player is usually not better than an NBA star.
Winner: NBA Playoffs.
Better Champion.
This argument is why in my opinion the NBA has a better postseason tournament because its format determines a true champion better than college basketball’s does.
Even though it can get annoying and boring to watch multiple seven game series over the course of a month and half, it truly does decide who the best team is that season.
The better team doesn’t always win in a single game elimination tournament because you never know what’s going to happen as far as injuries, players fouling out or great players just having an off night.
But if a team wins four out of seven games against its opponent, then there usually is no doubt who the better team was.
It takes great strategy, great coaching, incredible hustle, and strong mental toughness to beat a team four times in the course of about a week.
Can people honestly say that Wichita State would have beat Ohio State or Gonzaga four times to advance in the tournament?
Could Louisville have beaten Duke three more times without Kevin Ware after his visually disturbing injury?
College basketball doesn’t answer these questions but the NBA does because it proves what teams have the mental and physical resolve to be champions and what teams just aren’t good enough to be champions.
Winner: NBA Playoffs.
Overall winner: NBA Playoffs.
Damone Griffin
Features Contributor