Duke/Carolina tonight…does anybody care?

I don’t think CBB is boring in regards to gameplay. It’s certainly changed, but it’s not like the NBA.

Since Duke went to the 1 year player model, that rivalry went to shite

I disagree that this is a more generalized "basketball" problem. I watch more college basketball than probably everyone's who's commented on this post combined.

NBA has somewhat declined in quality due to lack of effort from players and some players getting too in love with jacking up threes instead of playing smart basketball, but that's not the case in the college game at all.

With college ball, they're still running sets/plays. You have fast-paced teams, medium-paced teams, slow-paced teams, teams who like to feed the ball inside, teams who like to shoot threes, teams that prefer to work in the mid-range.

It has nothing to do with the quality of basketball at the college level and to say it does have to do with the quality is disingenuous.

There's two main factors in play:
1. We could have this same conversation about the Super Bowl. I've seen basically no hype and very little talk about the game. The issue for sports in general right now is there are so many different streaming platforms and things to watch nowadays, it's not like it was 20 years ago where a game like the Duke-North Carolina was THE thing to watch on a Saturday like this. Now, there's 1000 different things to stream, which hurts sports in general.

2. College sports in general has an NIL problem. Back 20 years ago, you put on the Iron Bowl or Duke-North Carolina and watched players who were taking school at least somewhat seriously and weren't at least blatantly there for the paycheck. Nowadays, the fire and passion of college sports at the P5/G5 level is largely gone, as players are essentially shopping around schools, willing to go wherever for the highest price.

I don't think the idea of paying players is necessarily a bad thing in terms of sponsorships. For instance, if a Tulane football player wants to get paid by Camelia Grill to do an ad for them, I don't see a problem with that. But things are completely out of hand with NIL nowadays and it takes away some of the fun of college sports.

You hit on a lot of things. I tend to agree. CBB gameplay is close to what it’s always been. The one and done model used to be restricted to lottery picks. Now it’s available for anybody who might transfer.

I’m sure Dickie V still likes jerking off to this rivalry. This is the same clown who thought Coach K was playing by the rules and nevermind the fact that Zion’s parents got a house out of the deal.

I have a sibling who graduated from Duke undergrad, so my immediate family and I root for Duke sports by extension.

Can't stand either team.

You don’t know the Boozer twins? Shows how uneducated you are.

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Duke/Carolina tonight…does anybody care?

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No, especially not about those 2 teams.