We are at college basketball tournament time and there's been a lot said, and written, about the state of the sport as of late.

Games are bad, parity is everywhere, attendance is down.

There are many theories as to why the games are bad.  Most cling to the fact that the good players do a one-and-done in college.  But I dismiss that theory.  To me, the best players do not always make for the best games.  Most consider the best players the ones who can score and dunk, ignoring the ones who can play, really play, defense.

Take the game this past Saturday for instance, Alabama beat Georgia 61-58 on a last second, pull-it-out-of-your-rear-end half court shot by Trevor Releford.  It was exciting; heartbreaking for Dawg fans, but exciting.  However, prior to that, both teams, Alabama most notably in the first half, put on a clinic in how to play defense.  The Dawgs, especially Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, had to work hard for most every shot they got.  I enjoy seeing good defense because it takes one thing to play it well:  effort.  I've seen high scoring, highlight film games where neither team would play defense, even if their lives depended on it.

As far as attendance being down, March Madness, or the NCAA Tournament has made most everything else irrelevant.  I grew up in Virginia where the ACC tournament was everything.  In 1976, my beloved Virginia Cavaliers led by Wally Walker upset its way to the ACC crown.  The tourney was held at the Cap Center in Landover, Maryland.  It was the first time the ACC had been played out of the state of North Carolina.  The Wahoos proved not only can you take the tournament out of North Carolina, but you can also take North Carolina out of the tournament.  They beat Dean Smith's Tar Heels in the title game and took out NC State and Maryland as well on the way to the crown.

The significance?  Virginia knocked out Norm Sloan's NC State team and Lefty Driesell's Maryland team on the way to the title.  Both those teams failed to make the NCAA Tournament that season and both would have today.

The expanded tournament has watered down what the regular season and conference tournaments mean.  It is the thin ice on which college football is now treading.

Additionally, it seems EVERY game is on television now.  TV rights fees are too lucrative for conferences to avoid.  But unless they scale back, the sport is going to suffer from severe overexposure.  And I know, first hand...personally, how over exposure can knock one down.

All this said, the parity we have seen this season, all the bad basketball if you will, makes for some interesting tournaments this spring.  Even though Florida is the clear-cut best team in the SEC, there are many teams, including Georgia, that can win the conference tournament in Nashville.  And by the time the "big dance" reaches Atlanta on April 6th, we may have more than one bracket buster in the Final Four.  Maybe a return trip for VCU?  Or even Temple.

And in the midst of all this so-called "bad basketball," that would be fun.