Mitch Albom: March Madness games have become timeouts interrupted by basketball

• College basketball games, especially during March Madness, are plagued by excessive timeouts and commercial breaks.
• The constant interruptions disrupt the flow and excitement of the game, making it less enjoyable for viewers.
• The overabundance of timeouts and advertising has transformed the game from a display of skill and athleticism into a disjointed and commercialized spectacle.

Anyone who witnessed college basketball in the ’70s and ’80s knows the manic hysteria the sport can achieve. There was nothing like those sweaty gyms in the final minutes, with students screaming and coaches hollering and teams racing up and down the court, every made basket ripping a hole in your eardrums.

No college sport — not football, baseball, swimming, lacrosse, or track and field — ever came close to the closing minutes of a tight hoops contest, the back and forth, the double-teams, the full-court presses, the squeezed shots and muscled rebounds. There was hysterical rhythm to it all, like a hard-bop jazz quartet in furious motion.

But that was a long time ago. Sunday, Michigan State will play Auburn for the right to go the Final Four for NCAA Division I men. It won’t be in a sweaty gym. It will be in the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, with a capacity of 17,000. The Final Four will be staged in the Alamodome in San Antonio, which holds an intimate 63,000.

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Worst of all, no matter how good the game is, there won’t be any frenetic final minutes.

That’s because March Madness is now dominated by a force more powerful than 100 Bill Waltons, Mike Krzyzewskis or Grant Hills.

The timeout.

It all adds up

It is maddening. Frustrating. It makes you want to rip your ears off. Every time a team gets going down the stretch, the game stops. Whenever the climax begins to rev up, a whistle blows.

That’s because each team in the NCAA tournament is given four timeouts per game, and the sport itself, thanks to TV demands, takes eight mandatory timeouts per regulation time, one after the 16-, the 12-, the 8- and the 4-minute mark of each half.

Are you adding this up? That’s a total of 16 timeouts, not to mention all the fouling that happens near the end of games which brings the action to a screeching halt.

The final five minutes of a March Madness game can take 20 minutes to complete. There’s as much rhythm to that as an elephant playing a drum set.

And of course, with every timeout, you are removed from the action and transported to the world of AT&T, Coca-Cola or Capital One. I don’t want to say we watch a lot of commercials in college basketball, but the sport’s most popular frontcourt is Charles Barkley, Samuel Jackson and Spike Lee.

“We’ll take a break …”

“When we come back …”

“There’s a timeout on the floor …”

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There’s so much departure in college basketball, they should play it on a train platform.

And by the way, “a timeout on the floor”? What is that? Did the floor develop vocal cords? If it’s on the floor, can you pick it up?

Where’s the fast forward?

Did you know they didn’t start televising the Final Four until 1969? Back then there were only 25 teams in the tournament. And people who watched the championship game didn’t go home robotically mumbling, “What’s in your wallet?”

I must confess, unless I am covering them in person, I won’t watch a live college basketball game anymore. I can’t take it. There’s no flow. No beat. When something goes to a commercial break, comes back for two free throws, then goes to another commercial break, it’s not sports. It’s advertising with an occasional interruption for basketball.

So I have taken to taping the games, or downloading them on YouTube TV, then scrolling through them manually, skipping the inane commercials, the endless free throws, the long halftimes, and the setups before each period.

I think I can watch a whole game in 12 minutes.

Or maybe it just feels that way. Anyhow, college basketball viewed this way is a lot closer to the way I remember it as a student, the speed, the energy, the crowds roaring or gasping.

But it’s a shame we have to resort to such manipulation (not to mention avoiding the internet, your phone, or any neighbor who says “Hey, how about that MSU win, huh?”).

This is why soccer fans preen so much. Their game is all action, halftime, then action straight to the finish. No commercial breaks. Of course, in soccer, you’re lucky if the ball goes in the net twice.

But can you imagine if college basketball were staged that way? If they removed the ads and most of the timeouts? How joyously frenetic it would be? Kind of like the way you actually play the game in the schoolyard, right?

Instead, all these interruptions have turned “dribble, pass and shoot” to “call timeout, deliberately foul, call timeout again.”

John Wooden, the legendary UCLA coach, often used poetry to inspire his players. That was nice. But poetry is all about rhythm, flow, meter. I’m not sure what meter best describes today’s March Madness broadcasts. Maybe Iambic Deadstop-etter.

Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.

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