Connecticut women's basketball Coach Geno Auriemma was asked his thoughts on the state of men's basketball in 2015 on Wednesday by SI.com.
Auriemma pulled no punches during a conference call.
"I think the game is a joke. It really is," Auriemma said. "I don't coach it. I don't play it, so I don't understand all the ins and outs of it. But as a spectator, forget that I'm a coach, as a spectator, watching it, it's a joke. There's only like 10 teams, you know, out of 25, that actually play the kind of game of basketball that you'd like to watch. Every coach will tell you that there's 90 million reasons for it.
"The bottom line is that nobody can score, and they'll tell you it's because of great defense, great scouting, a lot of teamwork. Nonsense, nonsense. College men's basketball is so far behind the times, it's unbelievable. I mean women's basketball is behind the times. Men's basketball is even further behind the times. Every other major sport in the world has taken steps to help people be better on the offensive end of the floor. They've moved in the fences in baseball, they lowered the mound. They made the strike zone so you need a straw to put through it. And in the NFL, you touch a guy it's a penalty. You hit the quarterback, you're out for life. You know, in the NBA, you touch somebody in the perimeter, you whack guys like they used to do when scores were 90 to 75, they changed the rules.
"This is entertainment we're talking about. People have to decide, do I want to pay 25 bucks, 30 bucks to go see a college scrum where everybody misses six out of every 10 shots they take, or do I want to go to a movie? We're fighting for the entertainment dollar here, and I have to tell you it's not entertainment from a fan's standpoint. That's just, I'm talking as a fan, not as Geno Auriemma, the basketball coach."
Auriemma's Connecticut women will play Maryland in the Final Four on Sunday. The Huskies have an opportunity to win their third consecutive national championship.
Playing games
What Green Bay Packers quarterback will appear on a celebrity edition of Jeopardy! in May?
Who is Aaron Rodgers?
Rodgers will appear on the long-running game show May 12 with retired astronaut Mark Kelly and TV personality Kevin O'Leary. It's his first appearance on Jeopardy!, which he taped this week.
We'll see if Rodgers has better luck on Jeopardy! than he did in the NFC Championship Game against the Seattle Seahawks in January, in which the Packers blew a 19-7 fourth-quarter lead and lost 28-22 in overtime.
April Fool
Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin might not want to make another April Fool's Day joke for a while.
Irvin tweeted out an apology on Wednesday morning for a DUI arrest.
"Before this hits the media I just wanna apologize to my fans and the Seahawks organization once again. I made a terrible decision b [by] driving after I had a few drinks," Irvin tweeted. "I will do everything to get ur [your] trust back and will become a better person after this."
Fifteen minutes after he posted his "apology," Irvin finally said it was an April Fool's Day joke.
"How many of yall thought I was serious?! Haha April fools!!!," Irvin added. "Ok it was a joke. Didn't mean to disrespect anybody. D*** relax."
Stick to football, Bruce.
SPORTS QUIZ
How many undefeated seasons has women's basketball Coach Geno Auriemma recorded at Connecticut?
ANSWER
Five (1994-1995, 2001-2002, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2013-2014)
Sports on 04/02/2015