Start watching the NBA, you rubes. It's basically a million times better than college in almost every way imaginable.
It really is.
Meh... have you ever been to a live NBA game? The atmosphere is terrible, and the game doesn't really get intense until the 4th quarter. The product has improved a lot over the years, and the players are ridiculously good, but I still think the college game is better overall when you factor in March Madness and the live game experience.
You're clearly going to the wrong games then. I've attended games at Denver, Dallas, OKC, and Chicago and have absolutely no complaints about the atmosphere in any of those places. A Deroit vs Sacremento product is going to be pretty horrible, but so is a matchup between TCU and Texas Tech.
The average college basketball experience isn't Allen Fieldhouse. It isn't even Bramlage. Most college basketball games are 58-54 shitfests where the whole time fouls out involving Utah and Colorado on a Tuesday night in front of 6000 bored fans. It's a shitty product in shitty venues almost all the time.
I've been to multiple Portland Trailblazers games, where they've sold out 100+ consecutive times and have the 4th best attendance in the NBA. The Rose Garden is a great venue, and the games are a lot of fun. It just has kind of a ticky tack, corporate feel to it compared to the atmosphere at AFH and other college venues. I like the pep band, the student section, the tradition, the coaching legacies. College basketball just feels more "real" to me, if that makes any sense.
College basketball needs to make some rule changes (shorten the shot clock, expand the lane, defensive 3 seconds, etc.), but the one thing that's really hurting the quality of the game is the one-and-done rule. The best players are going pro after one year, whereas in football they're required to stay in school for three years. It hurts a lot of programs establish consistency from class-to-class. That's why teams like Gonzaga and Butler are so good nowadays. Most of their players are "program" players, who stay in school for at least 3-4 years and develop their games.