Old friend's return brings holiday cheer

I turn away in disgust, leaving the two peons sitting in my lecture hall to continue this BCS-induced drivel. For the time being, such crystal ball gazing is useless.

Here's what we know: It's impossible for Michigan to play in the Sugar or Rose Bowl. It's equally impossible for the Wolverines to get dragged to the Sun Bowl. But that's all that is set in stone until we see who's left standing when the dust clears

Andy

on the college football regular season.

So forget about the BCS standings for a minute. While placing your football frenzy at the forefront of your collective sports consciousness, you are neglecting one of your dearest friends.

He arrives every year about this time, only to be ignored as you devote yourself entirely to the Valvoline Halftime Report. He sits on the couch, anxiously waiting for the Michigan-Ohio States and Florida-Florida States that overshadow him to come to an end so you will acknowledge his existence. He waits patiently, partly because he understands what is riding on those games and partly because he is such a good friend.

But the least you could do is offer your new visitor some pork rinds as you watch the end of college football's regular season. Because, believe me, in about a week, college basketball will be the best friend you've ever had.

Unnoticed by most because of the action on the gridiron, the college basketball season began in earnest exactly a week ago. And in those seven days - while you were busy trying to figure out whether Michigan needed Penn State or Michigan State to win in this weekend's game - many of the things that make college basketball great took place.

Two top-five teams - Connecticut and Ohio State - were upset in their first game of the season.

The Preseason NIT is currently throwing a host of highly-ranked teams together for a tournament, as are other early-season events like the Maui Invitational and the DirecTV Great Eight. As always, there will be some fabulous games in November and December.

So while the football season finishes up its conference championship games and then takes a siesta until bowl time, college basketball is building up a full head of steam.

And when college hoops gets going, there's no stopping it. There are multiple games televised on virtually every day of the week, maximizing game-watching potential at any time.

Got some time in between classes? Purdue and Chaminade play in Maui at 2 p.m. next Monday.

Insomniac? A first-round game from the Great Alaska Shootout begins at midnight on Thanksgiving Day. Now that's something to be thankful for.

Once the season starts, college basketball is on TV more than Carson Daly.

It's this frequency that makes the sport so appealing. With games being played just days apart, there's no week-long, post-loss mourning period as there is in football. Your team is going to lose; it's their ability to recover from this loss 72 hours later that will determine the success of their season.

College basketball also deftly straddles the fence between two schools of thought on scheduling. It doesn't have an overly short season that places excessive emphasis on every game. This approach works for football - a sport so rough that adding more games to the season would be grounds for a lawsuit.

College hoops also avoids agonizingly long seasons that render most regular season contests useless. Welcome back to the NBA on NBC, sponsored in part by No-Doz...

The not-too-short, not-too-long schedule is essential to the excitement of the sport. There are few enough games that they all matter, but enough so that one bad day doesn't send fans out on the ledge of their apartments.

It's one of the many things that makes the sport great - I can't even start talking about the NCAA Tournament without needing my medication - and has me excited as hell that it's starting up again.

So welcome back your old friend college basketball with open arms. He's been away for a while, but in the coming months you guys are going to spend some quality time.

And please don't bore him by talking about the BCS.

- Andy Latack is intentionally scheduling his winter semester classes around the NCAA Tournament. E-mail him at latack@umich.edu

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Latack

Latack

11-18-99