Tonight from a “screen” perspective, I watched a ton of NCAA basketball, watched the “Soup Nazi” episode on Seinfeld re-runs and surfed the web, mostly for cards.  Now that may seem like a random way to start a blog entry but it all ties together rather nicely.

You see, I really love NCAA basketball, everything from recruiting through the NBA draft, to filling out brackets, I simply love it.  Except there is one thing missing, typically when I like sports to that degree there is some card collecting element to it.  I’m not going to like to you,  I’ve bought a card after seeing a specific event happen on TV – whether that be a touchdown, homerun, strikeout or otherwise.  Call it an impulse buy, you are probably right.

This year’s NCAA tournament has not only featured an exciting slate of games but it has featured an incredibly exciting slate of players.  Whether it is Kemba Walker, Derrick Williams, Jimmer Fredette, the Morris Twins, the Plumlee Brothers, Kyrie Irving, and on and on. There are all sorts of individuals and teams (Butler again!!??!!, VCU are you kidding me) to be excited about.  Again, part of that enjoyment for us sports fans/collectors is owning cards, GU, autographs of those players which we so enjoy watching and what do we get for those players and teams in the NCAA tournament?  A big fat “NO SOUP FOR YOU.”  Now I realize that creating cards for all of these teams and players is not feasible but even a little taste would be awfully good.

Well, we had a little taste and like Newman, it ran off.  In 2006, Topps released McDonalds All-American cards of that years class, most notably Kevin Durant.  The next year, PhotoShoot cards like this Derrick Rose, were handed out at the game.  At different points the Durant sold for $500, the following year Beasley, Singler, Rose, Mayo, Gordon, Love and more all reached triple digits.  Clearly the madness of the NCAAs and cards was a combination that worked.  The next year more cards came, Demar Derozan, Greg Monroe, Jrue Holiday and Kemba Walker.  Again, something beautiful was created, as during this year’s tournament run the Kemba Walker has repeatedly sold for $100 (let us ignore for a moment I once had 10 of these cards).

And then the set died, no mas, it went away.  Instead of progressing like the High School football sets which are going to feature releases from Leaf and Topps this year, the set went away.  With all due respect to football players, they are years away when in high school, Diaper Dandies very rarely exist, basketball is THE sport for high school cards to succeed in.  They don’t lack for opportunities to make these – there is not only the McDonald’s All American game but numerous other high profile games of which cards could be made.  I digress.

Would it capture all the players that I’ve mentioned, no, that’s unlikely, would it give us something to collect in the NCAA basketball realm, yes it would.  But at the present time we are left with nothing, left feeling like a guy who was looking to see what Derrick Williams had on eBay just in time to flip to Seinfeld and hear those famous words, “NO SOUP FOR YOU.”