Mark Cuban wants sweeping changes made in college basketball game, but not for the sake of being a spectator, because he believes it is hurting the NBA.
Speaking with ESPN, Cuban, the basketball fan, does not like watching NCAA Division I men's basketball. Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, even considers the slow pace and offensive shortcomings a real problem for young basketball players making the jump to the pros.
"It's uglier than ugly, and it's evidenced by the scoring going down," Cuban told ESPN. "When the NBA went through that, we changed things."
The billionaire franchise owner is an Indiana alumnus and supports the school's embattled head men's basketball coach Tom Crean for running a pro-style, fast-paced offense. Such an approach may better prepare players for the NBA, but it has proved unpopular and ineffective.
"If they want to keep kids in school and keep them from being pro players, they're doing it the exact right way by having the 35-second shot clock and having the game look and officiated the way it is," Cuban said. "Just because kids don't know how to play a full game of basketball."
The NBA currently does not allow prospective employees to enter the amateur draft right out of high school, requiring at one season. This rule has given rise to the "one-and-done" phenomenon, another highly divisive issue in its own right.
As college is supposed to prepare young people for the "real world," Cuban is arguing Division I basketball should be as close to the NBA as possible, in terms of rules.
"You've got three kids passing on the perimeter. With 10 seconds on the shot clock, they try to make something happen and two other kids stand around," he told ESPN. "They don't look for anything and then run back on defense, so there's no transition game because two out of five or three out of five or in some cases four out of five kids aren't involved in the play.
"It's worse than high school. You've got 20 to 25 seconds of passing on the perimeter and then somebody goes and tries to make a play and do something stupid, and scoring's gone down."
