National Basketball Association

Mavs' Cuban on state of college basketball: 'Horrible,' 'ridiculous'

Published Apr. 9, 2015 6:50 a.m. ET

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Add Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to the long list of people who think the current state of college basketball is in dire need of some changes.

"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 told ESPN.com on Wednesday night. "Just because kids don't know how to play a full game of basketball.

"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. 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 uglier than ugly, and it's evidenced by the scoring going down. When the NBA went through that, we changed things."

Connecticut women's basketball head coach Geno Auriemma echoed those sentiments before his Huskies won their 10th national title.

"The bottom line is, nobody can score," Auriemma said. "And they'll tell you that it's because of great defense, great scouting, a lot of teamwork. Nonsense, nonsense. College men's basketball is so far behind the times it's unbelievable."

Cuban's criticism wasn't just how the game is played but how it is officiated and the vast inconsistencies at the college level.

"It's horrible. It's ridiculous," Cuban said. "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.

"The referees couldn't manage a White Castle. Seriously, the college game is more physical than the NBA game, and the variation in how it's called from game to game [is a problem]. Hell, they don't even have standards on balls. They use different balls. One team's got one ball, the other team's got another ball. There are so many things that are ridiculous."

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