Mark Cuban: ‘Ugly’ college basketball is hurting NBA

The chorus of voices coming out against college basketball just keeps getting louder.

On Wednesday, outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban took the latest shot at the sport, saying its slow, low-scoring version of the game isn’t just doing itself a disservice, it’s hurting the NBA.

“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.

“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,” Cuban continued. “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.”

College basketball fans appear to be nodding their heads in agreement, though not from their seats at the game.

Average attendance at Division I games has been in a steady decline for the last seven years, according to Sports Business Journal. And, coincidentally, scoring was at a record low -- 66.85 points per game, according to analyst Ken Pomeroy -- going into the NCAA tournament in March -- when college basketball begins for the casual fan.

Even college coaches are complaining.

Last week, Connecticut women’s basketball Coach Geno Auriemma called the men’s game “a joke” before winning his 10th national championship.

“There’s only like 10 teams, you know, out of 25, that actually play the kind of game of basketball that you’d like to watch,” Auriemma said.

Said Cuban: “It’s uglier than ugly, and it’s evidenced by the scoring going down. When the NBA went through that, we changed things.”

Follow Matt Wilhalme on Twitter @mattwilhalme