I am sure by now you can tell that I love basketball, but even more, I love west coast basketball, mainly because I live on the west coast, it often gets short changed when it comes to attention and it is the home of UCLA, which set the gold standard for college basketball, under the John Wooden years.
But, telling it like it is, in the last 15 years, times have been tough on the west coast for quality college basketball teams. Gonzaga and Arizona have carried the torch, but the depth of quality teams is probably the lowest it has ever been.
Like everything else, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but here is some of my suggestions and some great suggestions all of you have written in, for both some short and long term solutions.
1. Keep local high school players home. The Washington Huskies have done a great job with this, others need to follow their example.
2. Play a brand of ball the modern player likes. The game is becoming too slow, in previous posts I have written extensively how to solve this ongoing problem.
3. Facilities need to be upgraded in most places and that only comes from the support of a school's leaders and a strong athletic director. Proactive beats reactive every time.
4. TV helps and and schools need to be constantly trying to get their games on local TV.
5. Bring back the history of the program and bring back players who were part of the previous success. This sounds so simple, but it takes some effort and time.
6. Pay your coaches what they deserve. Overall coaches on the west coast in D-1 basketball are underpaid. This has to change to sustain a program.
This post might not be the most exciting reading in the world, but it is for sure when you break it down, important information on how west coast basketball can improve as it needs to in the worst way.
Keep those emails coming, crawscorner@gmail.com
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