College Basketbal Fans You Will Meet This Season

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There is no doubt that with the beginning of college basketball season you will meet many fans of the game, whether it be on the Internet, at work or in cordial relationships. There are several types of fans, several of which I will outline here. Maybe you know people like the ones listed and perhaps you can find yourself among this list.

The college hoops junkie

This person may not have a single team they follow closely but they follow college hoops as a whole very closely. They know the bench players on the bottom teams in the Horizon league and watch nearly every game possible. They have a satellite dish that gives them ESPNU, the Big East Network, the Mountain West network, the Big 10 Network and ESPN Gameplan to maximize the games they can watch. They usually have at least two televisions with different games and a game on their computer.

They know the stats, the strengths and weaknesses of each tournament team and are the favorite to win each bracket pool they win each season. However, they usually lose to one of these people.

The NBA fan who is simply scouting

These people who watch college basketball do so from 3,000 feet. They watch a half here and there just to check out John Wall or Avery Bradley. They usually are fans of bad NBA teams and like to see who their team should draft come June. Even though they have no actual decision making clout for their team, they watch games like they are the ones making the decision.

Conversations with this person are usually started by him and go something like this:

Him: “You see that Kentucky game last night?”

You: ‘Yeah what a great game, double overtime.’

Him: ‘Huh? Oh I stopped watching after the first half but John Wall looks like he will be the PG of the future for the Kings.’

The one team fan

This person is a fan of one team and often is unaware of what else is going on in college basketball. They are fully immersed in their own team (and it is often a top team such as UNC, Duke, Kentucky or Kansas) and have little knowledge of the rest of the college basketball world.

Conversations with this person often are frustrating as they circle back to this person’s favorite team and how awesome they are and how good they are this season. Even if it is clear they are not the best team there is no swaying this person’s opinion and they have not watched many other teams to see that other schools are better than their favorite team.

The recruiting expert

Even though the new season has barely started, this person is more concerned with the recruits for next season. You want to talk about the favorites for this season but they want to discuss the latest signing by Roy Williams or Ben Howland. Even though they have never seen them play live, they have read enough scouting reports and seen enough Youtube videos to make a judgment about the player.

They like to find the ‘hidden gems’ that are low-rated that they believe will succeed and brag when they are solid players on a good team. They are less concerned about success of a team and more about players they have followed for three+ seasons. They are always looking to the future and discussing the latest signings and speculating on where top recruits will play and how long they will be at that school.

The conference fan

This person has a favorite team but they may be having a down season. Therefore, they root more for conference supremacy as they have little hope for their own team. Regardless of whom the team from the beloved conference is playing, they root for that team to win so they can brag about how good their conference is this season. Even if their favorite team does not make postseason play, they have a consolation because they ‘played in such a tough conference’. I personally never understood rooting for another team in your conference to win but this person has that mastered.

The fan who always pulls for upsets

This person does not have a rooting interest over the whole season but they always have someone to root for: the underdog. They check the score and whichever team has the lower ranking (or is unranked) they immediately pull for that team. Even if every other person is rooting for the favorite, they pull for the underdog because ‘that is what makes college basketball so awesome’.

If both teams are unranked, they have an interesting dilemma on their hands. They often ask for the spread and pick the underdog that way. Otherwise, they pick the underdog based on which team they have less knowledge about and have heard less about on the national scene. They don’t really know much about college basketball but they always have someone to root for in each game.

There is nothing wrong with being any of these fans, it was all in fun. Hope you enjoyed!