Love basketball but hate the NBA? Check out the Jazz

For many of you college basketball fans, March is the greatest month of the year. Nonstop college hoops, Bill Raftery going nuts, and 65 teams in the hunt to be national champs. Unfortunately, after 1 weekend, only 16 teams are left, and by the first week of April, it is all over. Now most Cincy area hoops fans pack it up and start tracking recruits or wait for preseason tournament fields to be revealed. However, basketball continues until June. That's right, I'm talking about the National Basketball Association. But, El Fuerto, I hate the NBA. All the tattoos, off-court scuffles, and undisciplined basketball are embarrassing to watch. Okay, I understand the problems in the NBA. Too much flash, not enough defense, players bringing guns in the locker room, refs fixing games, half-hearted effort, no team in Cincinnati. But to all you haters out there, I introduce the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz are the closest thing to a college program in the NBA. Jerry Sloan has been the coach since 1988, and since 2001 has been the longest tenured coach in American Big 4 sports. You gotta love the tight leash Jerry runs, as his teams have always played the most fundamentally sound basketball in the league. They also are well known for their lack of off-court problems/ player arrests. Basically, you won't be seeing J-Slo letting Gilbert Arenas or Jason Williams on his team. He won't even let players on the court if they refuse to execute the offense, regardless of talent. You will not see him put up with a player not getting back on defense, except, of course, when Kosta Koufos passes out during his third time running down the court, but you get the picture. GM Kevin O'Connor shipped Ronnie Brewer out of town earlier this season, ridding the team of its last athletic "upside" guard that mediocre franchises try to build around. Instead, they are dividing the shooting guard minutes among the much more disciplined trio of Wesley Matthews, C.J. Miles and the high energy white guard, Kyle Korver.

Next, I would like to point out the absence of tattoos on the roster. While most NBA teams are loaded with "Birdmen" and Rasheed Wallaces, only 3 Jazz players have tattoos. Even better, Wesley Matthews only has one on each arm (but he's also a 4 year college player). Carlos Boozer is only a couple of months away from being shipped out of town, which would bring the number down to 2. D-Will is covered, but he averages damn near 20-10 a game, which makes up for them. So, not only do this Jazz play like a respectable college team, but they look like one, as well.

Now, I've probably already convinced you at this point, but let's get to player specifics. Andrei Kirilenko is probably the biggest fan favorite of the team. Not only is he easily the best looking player in the league (with close competition from Brian Scalabrine and Walter Herrman), but he's actually pretty good. He plays lockdown defense with over 1,000 career blocks and is closing in on 1,000 steals. More importantly, he brings that Russian intensity and is a major intimidation factor every time he steps on the court. Mehmet Okur is a 6-11 white guy from Turkey who occasionally decides he needs to wear a shooting sleeve. I already have mentioned Kyle Korver in numerous articles, but I'll go ahead and remind you that his 54% shooting from behind the arc is by far the best in the league (Daniel Gibson and Mike Miller are tied for second with 47%). Ronnie Price doesn't really do much, but he is the only NBA player from Utah Valley St. Likewise, Othyus Jeffers is the only product from Robert Morris. I'm talking about Robert Morris in Chicago, not even the one that got a 15 seed. That's pretty impressive. Paul Millsap is ready to take over the 4 spot after Boozer leaves, and while most fans will be disappointed, Utah has had a pretty solid history with power forwards from Louisiana Tech. To top off the roster, Utah has a pair of awkward, white, uncoordinated, Eastern European big men in Kyrylo Fesenko and Kosta Koufos. Although the Jazz have never truly recovered from the retirement of Greg Ostertag, this is about as well as they can possibly recover.

With that said, it is very obvious that Utah has a bright future. They are flying under the radar now, but when AK-47 locks down Kobe and they upset the Lakers, they will become America's Team. Here is your chance to claim them before everyone else. With that, Fuerto is out, but stay tuned because I'm sure KFW is brewing up something good as we speak.