HOME
Takeaways are very big on newspaper websites. Here are some of mine after watching the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament on television.
* * *
To stick with a game until the end, you need the patience of Job, the tolerance of Edith Bunker, and/or the stupidity to have money riding on the outcome.
* * *
Televised basketball is the sports version of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” We see what we want to see. Unfortunately, what I saw was a TV commercial festival, occasionally interrupted for a minute or two of basketball. Duke’s Boozer brothers, Cameron and Cayden, were on screen more promoting State Farm Insurance and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra than they were playing basketball.
* * *
Isn't it weird that the company formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts is, with a straight face, offering what it describes as “a meal,” charging six dollars and calling it “a deal"?
* * *
Try as they may, Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson are not the second coming of the Three Stooges. And their Capital One commercial with Will Forte as basketball creator James Naismith went from “sort of funny” to “oh, no, not again!” by its third showing.
* * *
It’s time for Wrangler jeans to retire its commercial and make a new one.
* * *
The tournament may have crowned a new champion, but left viewers with one burning question: Exactly how did Excel Microsoft Copilot help the proprietor of Hank’s Pizza sell pizza by the slice?
* * *
Once again, I gave thanks to Robert Adler and Eugene F. McDonald, the men responsible for one of the world’s most useful inventions — the mute button. (Adler was a researcher at Zenith Electronics who developed the remote, adding a mute button at the request of Zenith president McDonald, who found commercials annoying.)
* * *
There is no good reason a 40-minute game should drag on for 140 minutes.
* * *
Announcers should refer to media time outs as “commercial breaks.” And why are there four of them in each half? The announcers treat them as though Naismith included media time-outs in the original rules of the game.
* * *

In-game interview with coaches and players are almost always pointless, though I got a kick out of a remark by St. John’s coach Rick Pitino during the Duke game when he said, “Dillon Mitchell just made a three. The Lord is blessing us tonight.” Mitchell, a six-foot-eight forward, made only 6.7 percent of his three-point shots this season.

And I'm sorry I missed the Connecticut-South Carolina game during the women's tournament when UConn coach Geno Auriemma launched into a mini-tirade when he talked to ESPN's Holly Rowe after the third period. (Women's basketball games are divided into quarters, which is the way it is in high school and the NBA.)
* * *
When certain players are interviewed, I wish they were asked, “Which of the five colleges you’ve attended did you enjoy most?”
* * *
Instead of huddling by a TV monitor for several minutes to decide if a ball grazed a player’s hair or bounced off a toe before going out of bounds, officials should do what was done many years ago — settle the matter with a jump ball.
* * *
If anything thing should be reviewed, it’s personal fouls that shouldn’t have been called. Unfortunately, there are so many that appropriate reviews would extend the games at least another hour.
* * *
Most blocking fouls called against defensive players should be charging fouls against the offensive players who initiated the contact. To a great extent, saying defensive players didn't "establish position" is a bogus argument.
* * *
Does college basketball still have the three-second rule that limits the time an offensive players can stand in the foul lane? If so, it’s not being called. Also overlooked is the rule against palming the ball (or carrying it), probably because if this infraction were called, some teams would never score.
* * *
It's obvious officials overlook the above restrictions in order to keep the game moving, and some fouls are called to prevent players from retaliating and starting a brawl. Nonetheless, as one who played high school basketball more than 70 years ago, I think much too much contact is allowed.
* * *
Years ago no one talked about “dribble penetration” because that was a sure way to pick up an offensive foul. In those days, dribbling was bad, passing was good.
* * *
“It’s a one possession game” is one of the most annoying phrases in the sports announcer’s handbook of insulting clichés.
* * *
The three-point shot may be a crowd-pleaser, but relying on it is the surest and fastest way for the trailing team to turn a 10-point deficit into a 20-point loss.
* * *
A word about cheerleaders. To almost all of the young women shown during the tournament, and particularly the Connecticut cheerleaders on camera briefly in the championship game, a word of advice: Get rid of the lipstick you're wearing. The too generous layer of deep red lipstick made you look like you were auditioning for a role in a vampire movie.
* * *

This was the first time I did not switch channels during the hour or so between the two games on Final Four Saturday and I was unaware there'd be what amounted to a half-time show. So after Connecticut eliminated Illinois and while I awaited the Michigan-Arizona game, I was not expecting to be exposed to The Chainsmokers, described as an electronic DJ and production duo, Alex Pall and Drew Taggart.

Judging by the reaction when these two made their entrance, I concluded the vast majority of the crowd had never heard of them either. I wouldn't describe them as musicians, and certainly the noise they make isn't exactly music. The whole thing was so embarrassing that it was the one time during the tournament I would have preferred commercials.