Unpredictability. If you had to boil the sports' world's universal appreciation for the NCAA tournament down to one characteristic, it would be unpredictability. It's called March Madness for a reason, and that reason is exemplified by the fact that you statistically have almost as good a chance of defending the rim of Zion Williamson as you do of picking the entire first round right. However, what's often lost in that unpredictability is the aspects of the game that are often responsible for it, with those primarily being unreliable/borderline incompetent officiating and the preposterous decision making of young players whose developing minds have a tendency to betray them during the most pressure-packed moments of their careers to date. The combination of those two things allowed for an ending so unsatisfying that it had some people putting aside the evidence of their eyeballs in proposing that one of the most obvious fouls you'll ever see should have been intentionally overlooked as a makeup non-call of sorts. The way I see it, however, is that putting forth a product whose amateurism is far more obvious competitively than it is fiscally is both a gift and a curse. I'd love to sit here and chastise the officials for having but a single eye open in missing a clear double dribble, just as I'd like to have reached through my TV and tugged the back of the jersey of Auburn's Samir Doughty as he performed a flying hump of Virginia's Kyle Guy before the ball had even left his hands. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that we've seen similar situations arise annually so to consider those wrongs anything other than part of the unprofessional package at this point would be a fool's errand. The fate of the Final Four being decided on the free throw line after a shooting foul on a shot that should have never been taken is clearly the worst case scenario. That said, it's those same moving parts that often make for the best case scenarios of unimaginable comebacks and buzzer-beating half court heaves. College basketball is flawed, in both supervision and sport. It would be disingenuous to only acknowledge that when we're left longing for a better ending, since we are so quick to ignore it when it gives us the most entertaining of endings. In theory, the amount of revenue generated should result in it being called correctly, but as it pertains to the oft-immature gameplay...well...you can't say the NCAA doesn't get what it pays for.
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