This off-season for college basketball fans was one of the toughest in recent memory. Scandals, coaches in trouble and basketball teams fighting football teams all marred the sport.
Probably biggest of these scandals to me was the Rick Pitino scandal where he was allegedly being blackmailed by a former lover with whom he allegedly had an extra-marital affair. Pitino was always one of those guys who seemed to do everything right, at the college level at least, and when he became front page news, it was a real shock to many.
The other scandals, Billy Gillispie's drunk driving trial, the Kansas Jayhawk basketball team (the No. 1 team in the nation in the polls) fighting the Kansas football team along with a score of other issues made us wonder what was going in this sport that we love.
But for all the drama and questioning the off season brought, with the start of the season just days away, it will give fans a chance to put some of those issues on the back burner. If there is one thing that we know about college basketball and its fans, is that we can put aside all debate when the games start up again.
Every year, when the NCAA tournament brackets come out, we debate who should have not been in and who should be in but when the games start in earnest on that Thursday, all that stops and we focus on what is important, the game being played. While the events of the summer are much more serious than those of who made the tournament and who didn't make the tournament, the bottom line is as fans, we can put aside the turmoil of the summer and enjoy the sport we love.
Keywords: Billy Gillispie, College Basketball, Kansas Jayhawks, NCAA Basketball, NCAA tournament, Rick Pitino
