Well, why is that?  Why are the games and the people who are playing them taking a backseat?  We could blame an overly sensationalized media, but I won’t.  I don’t blame the media for focusing on the stories they feel will get the most interest from the public.  I blame the adults — coaches, administrators, officiating supervisors, etc. for making the athletic experience about themselves and not primarily about the athletes who ought to be experiencing sports as a developmental tool in their lives.

I can hear the snickers now about how naive this attitude is.  Most will say I’m crazy, that big-time college sports are big business.  I’m not stupid; I know that.  And it doesn’t matter whether that’s a good thing or not.  It isn’t going to change.  But none of that changes my belief that these teams and the games they play exist primarily as developmental tools in the lives of young people, whether they are 5 years old or 20 years old. 

The names I want to hear about when it comes to Rutgers basketball are:

Jerome Seagears, Dane Miller, Myles Mack, Eli Carter, Mike Poole, Malick Kone, Derrick Randall, Austin Johnson, Kadeem Jack, Jalen Hyde, Vincent Garrett, Stephen Zurich, Logan Kelley, Wally Judge and Greg Lewis.  These are the names that matter most when it comes to Rutgers basketball.

My dream is to live in a world where we don’t have to hear about maniac coaches, administrators looking to cover their own rear-ends, or any other adults who are using sports and the young people who play them to meet their own needs.