__DirecTV's NCAA basketball tournament package
+ Working from home
__Bliss
When the NBA first allowed high school kids to enter the draft, I joined the chorus that feared for the future of college basketball. Surely, the talent drain would be lethal. Ironically, what actually happened was the opposite of what I expected. The quality of college ball has gone up, as actual scholar-athletes remain to improve their skills and shake bad habits, and NBA play is mining new depths of dreadfulness, as lunkheads with unshaken bad habits roam the hardwoods.
I am now an enthusiastic proponent of the new age rule.
Not that lunkheads with bad habits don't remain in college basketball. Anyone who watched Ohio State fail to execute anything resembling a set play can attest to that. They got where they are on sheer muscle, and it shows. Their eventual conqueror, Georgetown, was the antithesis of that. John Thompson coached the socks off of whoever the Buckeyes' coach is. You'd think my boys had never seen a pick, screen or give-and-go in their entire lives. They were absolutely bewildered, helpless. They looked exactly like my dog, Ed, when I do the fake tennis ball throw. They were vexed by sorcery. Georgetown, meanwhile, is my new tourney favorite. Athletic, disciplined, and very smart, they're thrilling to watch.