The NCAA is nothing but a front for the NBA, providing the league free training and fodder. By all rights, the NBA should finance its own minor system, one and done prohibited, and college slots available ONLY to student athletes.
This is a criminal travesty.
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Go Green!
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@bro Go White!
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Duke losing was not as shocking as it seems. They were lucky to be in the sweet 16 after winning on unforced errors the last 2 games. Both teams that lost missed easy game winning shots.
The only downer is we don't get to see Zion Williamson, well, not at least until he gets to the pros which will be soon enough.
I haven't seen a college player this dominant in ages.
Knick fans, say your prayers. Let him be the second coming of their last #1 pick, Pat. Ewing. Still with Dolan around it might not be enough. He needs to go.
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Whatever people think of the current state of college basketball and the argument to pay or not to pay its players.....what a great weekend of watching the expertise of these athletes. They work just as hard or harder than the rest of us. It is great to celebrate them. They are excellent at their jobs. The effort on the floor that we get to see, that's fine role modeling for my kids. Hard work, effort, teamwork, elation, sadness and moving on.
Credit to Izzo & Krzyzewski, two very class acts.
GO GREEN!
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Very happy for the programs that keep and develop college athletes as prescribed by the tenets of academic pursuit; Virginia is a prime example. The likes of a Duke and Kentucky with their One-and-Dones has been a disheartening reality of the creep of the Pro game, and players should have to commit for two years minimum for NCAA play.
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From the first sentence: "The first games of last year's NCAA men's basketball tournament..."
All you commenters complaining about word choice in the headline, just stop it. We figure out the article is about men's basketball in the first sentence. Maybe focus on issues that matter, instead of pandering to "unfairness" and gendered dogma?
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This is not turning out to be a good year for North Carolina! Its' 9th Congressional District vote turned out to be a sham! Its' two college basketball power houses are not in the final four! Poor, Roy Williams, couldn't be happening to a more unworthy guy! Remember the way he treated that female sports announcer a few years back, after a previous loss in the NCAA's?! Chapel Hill is the biggest overrated farce of all!!!
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It was nice to see some real hustling team defenses in this round. That also reminded me why I'm not especially interested in the NBA anymore.
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This is a very exciting Final Four for me. I graduated from Michigan State and my children graduated from Auburn.
Go Green!
War Eagle!
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UVA ... so ... naysayers!
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I also protest the Times’ coverage of the wonen’s NCAA tournament. I would bet that many of your women subscribers , like me, are much more interested in what’s going on in women’s sports than in men’s. Yet, coverage of the Men’s NCAA always comes first, and always in more detail, like it’s more important or interesting. Enough! I have become a wonen’s Ducks basketball fan since moving to Eugene four years ago. Watching them become the fabulous TEAM that they are has been a thrilling ride. They just made it into the Final Four for the first time yesterday. Yay!
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This is not a "final four weekend preview." It is a preview only of the men's game. If you want to write only about the men's game, then at least so indicate in the headline. Yes, you ran an article yesterday about the results of Saturday's Elite Eight game, and you have run other articles about the women's tournament. But those usually include the word "women's" in the headline, while the headlines about the men's tournament just say "Final Four" or "NCAA championship" — thus sending the message that the men's tournament is the "real" competition. You can do better.
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@RRHExactly! I actually started reading the article ASSUMING it included both men and women because the headline did not say otherwise. So, the coverage of men’s games is the norm, but coverage of women’s games needs the qualifier “women.” This is so outlandish!
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I see, so it's the "N.C.A.A. Women's Tournament" in two March 30, 2019 article titles devoted to women's college basketball, but when we are writing subtitles about men's college basketball, its just the "N.C.A.A. tournament."
You managed to keep it gender-neutral in "UConn Tops Louisville and Reaches 12th Straight Final Four" and in the title of this article. Is it too much to ask for consistency?
Mr. Tracy specified "men's basketball tournament" in the article text. Is it too much effort for a copy editor to spend 30 seconds *affirmatively acting to counteract coverage bias* in favor of men's sports? Figure it out.
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It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Auburn’s wins vacated in a few years, so I’m pulling for Izzo.
Blue bloods would you trade a 16/1 upset for a natty? The Hoos might be on their way.
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It is rather ironic that several of those teams that abuse the student-athlete term the most and for all intensive purposes are professional won't be playing for a national championship this year. (I am not including Duke in their company because a lot of their athletes graduate) . Hopefully it becomes a trend and heady players that have spent a couple of years going to school and learning to be well rounded complete players, more consistently beat those who are using the campus as an AirBnb to train for the NBA pre-draft workouts.
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@Kevin,
"I am not including Duke in their company because a lot of their athletes graduate."
Sorry, but Duke players either leave after a semester or take most of their classes at neighboring NC Central University.
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@Michael True lately, but across a longer period of time a lot of their players did graduate or at least hang around a few years. UConn under Calhoun and Kentucky under Calipari turn the term student-athlete into the largest farce.
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Michael- I am no duke devotee, but what are you talking about ? This sounds like Chapel Hill trash talk.
The article is exclusively about men's college basketball. Fair enough. But it is filed under "On College Basketball". So why not call it "On Men's College Basketball" instead? Alternatively, why not stop pretending that women's college basketball doesn't exist?
This is not the first time that Times has done this sort of thing either. This is rather routine for the Times. To be fair, all other news outlets seem to do this too. But isn't it time that the vaunted New York Times distinguished itself from the New York Post on matters such as these?
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Only thing I can say, GO GREEN.
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You forgot the word MEN in the Title!
Wait!--
It is an article about the Men's BB.
So SAY so!
11
Never been a huge fan of NCAA basketball or March Madness. But I have to be honest, I was beaming all weekend with the Auburn surprise win and the Texas Tech victory.
I sincerely hope both schools play each other in the final game. What a breath of fresh air it would be for two underdog teams to battle it out for the title.
Finally, an NCAA championship worth watching and staying up for at night!
Good luck to all four teams, but I'll be rooting for Auburn and Texas Tech!!!
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War Eagle, Marge!
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