Dumping Them Out: College Basketball – Burn The Rulebook

John Rich2/01/2026 8:40 PM

Welcome back to another episode of Dumping Them Out. Today I will be using this blog to complain about shit.

I sat down for a full day of college basketball for the first time all season yesterday. I'm assuming not many people without a direct rooting interest watched or cared about Indiana vs UCLA. It featured an all-time end of regulation choke job by Indiana. Really remarkable stuff. Look at this shit.

Never have a seen a team less prepared to handle a press at the end of the game than Indiana. Somehow they didn't completely implode and managed to win the game in 2 OT. Which is just as big as a testament to Darian Devries coaching as his team's lack of ability to handle a press was an indictment.

But that's aside the point. I've bitched about this before, and I'll continue bitching about it forever because every time I watch college basketball it boggles my mind. The last 2 minutes of a college basketball (and NBA too for that matter, but it seems worse in college) is the most painful watch in all of sports. I boggles my mind that we as a society just accept that as part of the game. It doesn't have to be this way. We don't need to spend 10 minutes reviewing every tipped ball. We don't have to let the end of games become an entirely different sport by letting them become free throw contests. It's the same thing as ending a hockey or soccer game in a shootout. But at least shootouts are fun to watch.

Here's by dumb idea to fix the end of games in college basketball. I haven't fully thought this out. I'm just firing from the hip. But what if at the end of games the defense only gets a whistle for the foul if they turn the ball over. I actually feel like they could implement that rule for the full game. Why should the offense have to shoot free throws if it doesn't benefit them? A foul is supposed to penalize the other team. There was a situation in that Indiana-UCLA game where an Indiana player was founded while passing, but still got the ball to a wide open teammate underneath the rim for an easy basket, but the refs blew the whistle and Indiana had to shoot free throws instead. It flies in the face of all common sense. But the rules of basketball are so engrained into us that we just sit here and take it like assholes.

Idk exactly how it would work. I'm just spitballing here. But basketball should implement some sort of continuation rule. Something similar to soccer where the ref raises his arm to signal foul, and if the offense wants to accept the foul, they just stop playing and get the ball out of bounds or go to the free throw line. Maybe that idea fucking sucks, but so does the way basketball games end now. I'm begging for somebody, anybody, to come up with a better way.

Alright new thing to bitch about. There's a show called Tell Me Lies on Hulu. I'd imagine not many people who read Barstool Sports are watching that show, unless you're in a situation like I am where your wife watches it and you've seen a good portion of it that way. But holy shit. I see my fair share of rage bait on the internet. But nothing rage baits like Tell Me Lies. Whoever made that show sat down and thought, "How can I make a show that pisses the viewer off to the absolute max."

First off, the show is about nothing. It's just one group of friends who go to some small college in the northeast. The only drama is their relationships. It's truly a collection of the dumbest, most selfish, most infuriating characters imaginable. Nobody has redeeming qualities. Nothing good ever happens to anyone. I don't know why anybody in their right mind would watch that show. And when I search Tell Me Lies on Twitter, it's just a bunch of people (who presumably are fans of the show) talking about how much they hate what's happening. Why do people do that to themselves? Why is that a brand of content that appeals to us? People really just want to sit down and get mad at fictional idiots making poor choices? Is society really that masochistic? I don't for the life of me understand how that show has such a big audience.