The Nuances of Sport Are Why We Watch Florida’s Finest
By Space Coast Daily // August 30, 2021
Why do we love sports? What gets out pulses racing when we see the UCF Knights run a play or the Eastern Florida State volleyball team hit a game-winning spike? One of the reasons people love sports is the spectacle. As much as we understand that every sport is a competitive endeavor, there’s a certain excitement to professional events that we love.
Indeed, it’s the reason NFL teams put on a half-time show and mascots whip up the crowd during an NBA game.
Although college sport is a big deal in the US, it’s not nearly as high-stakes as professional sports. Despite this, we still love watching the Florida State Seminoles in the NCAA. We can look at college basketball to see why that is. Every player is chasing excellence and, moreover, a place in the NBA. However, that’s not the only reason we tune in to March Madness.
Tactics Make Sport Interesting
We’re interested in games such as Baylor vs. Gonzaga on a tactical level. We want to see how X player matches up against Y player. We want to see whether speed and timing can beat strength and power. We want to find out if the defense is better than offense when it comes to winning games. Put simply, we’re interested in the tactical dynamics of a game. Sports fans are, at heart, strategists.
It’s this desire to unpick the dynamics of a game that powers the betting industry. Read through the latest college basketball picks and you’ll see the experts break down tactical triumphs and failures. For example, when Baylor beat Gonzaga in the NCAA final, the scoreline of 86-70 suggested that the latter weren’t all they cracked up to be.
However, a deeper analysis of the game shows that Gonzaga was great, but Baylor was better. After taking an 18-0 lead, Baylor “turned their defensive intensity up,” according to the betting experts at Pickswise.
Don’t Count Out Florida Based on Rankings Alone
This appreciation of the tactical side to Baylor’s performance reveals certain insights about the game. Gonzaga wasn’t bad, they just came up against a better team. Looking forward, this type of analysis is what experts base their college basketball predictions on. Instead of looking at recent results and saying Florida State will beat Oklahoma State, the oddsmakers go deeper than that.
For example, Florida might have won five in a row, but they may not have faced a team like Oklahoma. Therefore, to accurately predict how the game will go, you need to look at how players in every position stack up against their counterparts.
— Florida State Men’s Basketball (@FSUHoops) July 24, 2021
This type of analysis is what makes sport interesting. It’s what we debate ahead of a new season and it’s why we feel engaged with the action. Indeed, if we look forward to the next college basketball season, ESPN has Florida State at 20th in its preseason rankings. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a long shot to win the championship.
Perhaps they have a better offense than top-ranked Gonzaga. Maybe they can hit more rebounds than sixth-ranked Houston.
These small things can make a big difference to the outcome of a game. More importantly, they make the sport entertaining. These tactical nuances get our pulses racing and that’s why we really love sports.
