(09-27-2016 01:11 AM)Wedge Wrote:  The only reason CBB seems more competitive is that it has a one-and-done tournament, and even the best team, at any level of the sport, can be eliminated early in that format.

Make every round of the CBB tournament best-of-7, and then you could count on one hand the number of teams who could win the title. Conversely, make every NBA playoff round one-and-done or best-of-3, and there would be big upsets every year - there's another thread farther down on this board in which I argued that the NBA playoffs would be much more fun to watch if they did that (recognizing that they never will do it because of money).

It's obviously the biggest reason, although I don't think it's the only one. There are a lot more styles of play that can be successful, as opposed to the NBA where the Grizzlies style of play isn't going to win anything. It's also worth mentioning that teams of all freshman, no matter how highly touted, can often suffer lapses due to immaturity or simply not having much experience playing together. Sure, in a 7 game series the best talent would usually rise to the top and you'd have far fewer upsets, but teams that don't get the best recruits would still be able to win through a combination of player development and experience