Five Reasons To Be Glad The NCAA Tournament Is Over

Five Reasons To Be Glad The NCAA Tournament Is Over

Not quite the title you expected to see, huh? We wait all year long for these three wonderful and magical weeks, and now we’re supposed to be glad that it’s over? No, not exactly. But whenever there is bad news, there’s always a silver lining, and the end of the NCAA Tournament is no different.

No matter how far all of our favorite teams did or didn’t go in the tournament, we’re all sad to see the tournament come to an end. It’s one of the great events in all of sports; it never disappoints, and this year was no different. The upsets were as good as ever, the conclusions of games were exciting, and the Final Four in Atlanta was as great a collection of three games as we’ve had in the Final Four in quite some time.

But that doesn’t mean we love every aspect of the tournament. There are still games that are blowouts and not all that fun to watch. There are still horrible calls by refs that frustrate us and take star players that we want to watch off the court. There are also absurdly late tipoff times (like 9:23 for the national championship game) that force us to either stay up way past our bed times or miss games we wish we didn't have to.

You see, as great as the tournament is, there are still aspects to it that we wish were different and won’t be sad to be without. So, here’s a list of five things we’ll be glad we won’t be seeing anymore now that the NCAA Tournament is over.

A Break From Commercials

Without multiple games going on at the same time during the later rounds of the tournament, us fans have had no choice but to sit through long commercial breaks during games, and at times, even pay attention to those commercials. By now, I’m sure we all have at least one or two commercials that we’re sick of having to watch time and time again, and now that the tournament is over it’ll be nice to get a break from those insufferable commercials.

We Can Finally Forget Our Brackets

Yes, every office in America has one person bragging about their win today. Just let him or her have their moment in the sun and then forget about it. This year was as bad as it gets for most peoples brackets. If your bracket wasn’t completely destroyed by the end of the first weekend (especially in the West Region) you should be commended. If you haven’t already, feel free to burn your bracket and hope to do better next year.

No More Puns From Clark Kellogg

Look, no one is a bigger fan of puns than I am. But just because you can make a pun, doesn’t mean you should. Apparently, CBS color analyst Clark Kellogg hasn’t received that memo yet. His puns are bad, forced, and just plain unnecessary. He also has a tendency to make over-excited mini speeches heading into commercial breaks that are painfully reminiscent of Dick Vitale. College basketball already has one Dick Vitale, and frankly, that’s more than enough. Kellogg doesn’t need to resort to bad puns and over-the-top theatrics to be a good analyst, and until he understands that, he won’t be missed during the offseason.

No More Shots of Kevin Ware

I think we’ve all been moved by the way Kevin Ware has handled himself in the wake of his horrifying injury and the way his teammates supported him and were inspired by his courage. That being said, while the game is being played, we don’t need to constantly be shown shots of Ware’s reaction to every play. It’s great that he was able to attend the Final Four in his hometown and be there with his team when they cut down the nets, but since he wasn’t playing in the game, his camera time between tipoff and the end of the game should have been limited. Quite frankly, every shot of him conjures up memories of the play he was injured, and that’s an image no one should be reminded of quite so frequently.

No More Charles Barkley

As a college basketball “analyst” Charles Barkley is terrible. Greg Anthony and Kenny Smith aren’t much better (anytime Doug Gottlieb is the smartest and most sensible guy on a panel you have a problem), but no one is worse than Barkley. For all the money CBS makes from broadcasting the tournament, one would think they could hire some analysts that actually know something about college basketball, instead of making their NBA guys pull double duty. Syracuse played five games in this tournament, and Smith still doesn’t understand that they don’t play any kind of defense other than zone, ever. As for Barkley, he clearly didn’t watch any college basketball this season until the tournament started, as he knew nothing about the teams, players, or coaches involved, and was the king of backing up his points with irrelevant information. Maybe next year CBS can wise up and put Seth Davis in studio; he actually covers college basketball all year long. Until then, we’re just glad we no longer have to listen to Barkley and company talk about things they know nothing about.