In a rulebook thicker than a pint of Guinness, the NCAA has bylaws about nearly everything. It’s hundreds of pages of actions


coaches cannot do, and one of them is work with their teams more than two hours a week during the offseason.
 
This, my friends, is a mistake.

Not only because it messes with the quality of basketball.

But because it also messes with the quality of society in general.

I’ve got no plans and too much time.
I feel too restless to unwind.

That’s part of a verse of a song written by Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. And though it’s got nothing to do with college basketball, it applies lately considering what we have this offseason are a bunch of student-athletes with too much (free) time who are clearly too restless to unwind.

So they’re obstructing officers.

And fighting with ex-girlfriends.

And pointing guns at each other’s heads.

Those were the headlines coming out of Oklahoma State, Arkansas and Colorado State over the weekend, the last of which was the most baffling. According to police, CSU’s Xavier Kilby and Ronnie Aguilar were arguing in an apartment when Kilby unveiled a revolver and pointed it at Aguilar’s head. Thankfully, Kilby opted to fire a bullet into the couch rather than his teammate, at least I think he opted. The guy is a 55.8 percent free throw shooter, after all, so it’s entirely possible he was aiming at Aguilar and simply missed.

Either way, there’s a lesson worth learning, a lesson that disproves one of the great myths going. Though the NCAA would like us to think it is doing student-athletes a favor in limiting basketball activities, what it’s actually doing is eliminating the structure some not only desire but need. After six months of having each hour of their lives scheduled and practices or games every weekend, basketball players spend roughly the final six weeks of the semester with little supervision and an unusual amount of free time.

Coaches are out recruiting.

Or vacationing.

Left behind are a group of young men who have forever relied on structure with little structure at all. There are lots of hours to fill because these aren’t your average students with part-time jobs. They’re in class by 9 a.m. and out by noon with no weekend commitments. So long practices, film sessions and workouts are replaced by video games, mindless television and — at least at Colorado State — popping caps in furniture.
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What about the library, you ask?

Please.

That’s what the NCAA suggests happens in the offseason, that less hours of basketball means more hours of Shakespeare. Alas, that’s not reality for most students. And just so we’re clear, don’t consider that a shot at basketball players. When I write it’s not reality for most students, I’m including myself — a former college student who did not play basketball but did work at the campus newspaper.

Every day after class I’d head to the journalism building, where I was surrounded by the same people and presented with the same routine. There was very little free time. And if the NCAA would’ve called in April and informed me I was now limited to two hours a week of journalism I can’t imagine I would’ve spent all — or any, to be honest — of those suddenly free hours studying more or hanging out in the library.

I would’ve slept 10 hours a day.

Watched TV six hours a day.

Drank five hours a day.

(If not more)

In other words, my options weren’t to work on my craft or perfect calculus. My options were to work on my craft or waste away while searching for trouble.

Same goes for basketball players.

“I was talking to a high school coach out here, Gary McKnight at Mater Dei, and I was watching his workout,” SMU coach Matt Doherty said by phone from Los Angeles. “His players work out every day at 1:15, and he said, ‘It’s ridiculous you guys can’t do this because this is the best time of the year. The kids play and they get better.’

“One of my players, his girlfriend was a theater major, and she spent four hours a day preparing stages and backdrops,” Doherty added. “She was busier than her boyfriend, who was a basketball player. But nobody limited the amount of time she could spend there, and nobody limits the amount of time the band can practice.”

But they do limit the amount of time basketball players can play basketball.

It makes no sense.

Players suffer.

The quality of basketball suffers.

And furniture sitting in living rooms, man, that stuff doesn’t stand a chance.