I Hate You Espn!

[YCN]

There are two down-to-the-wire games going on right now in the Big 12, and ESPN is sticking with a 16 point LSU game with under four minutes left.

Show us the slightest bit of mercy, please! :( :( :( :(


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[Noah121]

Don't you love it when the whiparound coverage tends to favour the highest seeded teams even when their games are not always the centre of attention? In particular, the one-sided games should be changed as quickly as feasible. :mad:

[SAXkid1407]

now they make up for it by switching between the osu game and the fsu game....

[DblT81]

ESPN 360! I saw every minute of the Baylor game and every important minute of the OSU game.

[SAXkid1407]

my comp decided to not load espn 360...ugh! haha

[TTU79]

My complaint is about the WNIT. ESPNU was showing the men's NIT games and ESPN and ESPN2 were showing the MNIT scores in the crawl across the bottom of the screen. Absolutely no mention in any form or fashion about the WNIT, for shame ESPN, for shame:mad:

[ISU3PointLand]

During the ISU/Rutgers game, the straight feed here in Iowa cut out about 2/3 the way through the second half. I had to turn it to ESPN2 to catch the rest of the game. So glad I had the flu so that I could make the adjustment and save the game on videotape.

ESPN is doing an absolutely horrible job. I am so GD Sick of hearing about UConn and Tennessee. There are other stories out there and this so called "Whip-around" coverage is like a kiddie ride at Adventureland. You bascially sit in one place and then maybe you get a little movement.

I was floored that I was stuck watching the Marist/LSU game while the FSU/OSU game was neck and neck all the way in the second half.

Plus the fact that there was only 1 featured game and yet two NIT games on ESPN and ESPNU. Almost makes me wish Fox would give a crap about women's basketball.

Okay, I'm done venting.

[Bball Girl]

What's weird is if you get the national game - there seems to be NO whip-around, you barely even get to hear how the other games are going. However, when you are "protected" - then suddenly you get taken to other games.

I agree - I don't understand why we get stuck watching blowouts when other games go down to the wire. CBS does a much better job with the men of taking you to the close games.

[ChipperF1]

"My complaint is about the WNIT. ESPNU was showing the men's NIT games and ESPN and ESPN2 were showing the MNIT scores in the crawl across the bottom of the screen. Absolutely no mention in any form or fashion about the WNIT, for shame ESPN, for shame.

We barely care about the NCAA tournament, what makes you think ESPN will put WNIT scores on the bottom line?

[35TangoTango]

We barely care about the NCAA tournament, what makes you think ESPN will put WNIT scores on the bottom line?

Touche, Chip! We have the best coverage ever of the Women's NCAA, thanks to ESPN, and we're not satisfied! We all want improvements, but I'm betting that we'll have to see justifications in the ratings to get them. It occurs to me that ESPN's job will be much harder next year when there are 16 round 1-2 sites rather than 8.

One thing I'd like to see. I don't know how hard it is to have a lot of flexibility in what is fed to different parts of the country, but I would think that most states that do not have a rooting interest in a particular game would like to see the closest game, not necessarily the biggest name. That said, when we couldn't have it, I lived and died by the little real-time score and time boxes in the upper right hand corner.

My other pet peeve, is I want announcers to aim less at giving history lessons to first time listeners and more at revealing what's really going on in the game. Kara Lawson excels at this! I thought her analysis of the walk call at the end of the Cal game, and the Cal confusion that led up to it was a great example of what the experienced eye can reveal to the rest of us.

[swok34]

It seems to me that there are becoming less and less play by play and everyone is color.

[40ishHorn]

swok, you are right. I find it especially annoying when it comes to fouls. WHO fouled? Many times we are left to figure it out with body language or some other mysterious clue. We should get that info from the pbp person, but many times they can't get a word in edgewise over the color person.

[DblT81]

I'm still confused why ESPN shoves Tennessee and Connecticut (and other #1 seeds to a lesser extent) down our throats and then disses the women's tournament for having low TV ratings. If ratings are low, it seems the "Tennessee/Connecticut/#1 seed" theory of "what they want to see" is not working.

The biggest story in the men's tournament in the early rounds is not watching North Carolina blow out the play in game qualifier, it is about the Davidsons and George Mason's who play the big boys close and win some. I agree that CBS does a much better job of showing us the close games. It makes it interesting. It makes it exciting.

Tenneessee v. Connecticut is old. If I have to watch it in the championship game at the end, que sera sera, but in the meantime, I'm watching more minutes of the tournament than I have in 5 years via ESPN360.

ESPN is missing out by showing their own commercials on ESPN 360. They could be making me watch real commercials every time I switch to another live or archived game.

Since I discovered that I can chose which game I want to watch or which game to whip to when it gets close via ESPN 360, I've kissed the TV version of the tournament good bye. It is a much poorer quality and size of picture watching on the computer but I will sacrifice that to watch it my way. I get to see lots of different talented players from teams I've only read about against Big 12 teams. And the rest of the country gets to see a full dose of Candace Parker going through the motions against a totally outmatched opponent. No wonder viewer ratings aren't great.

[YCN]

It wouldn't bug me so much if I thought ESPN was the least bit interested in what the fans say or want. I think they'd rather kill the tournament in favor of taped poker championships.

The conferences need to get together and fix this. It took two courageous schools the break the NCAA football broadcast monopoly way back when, but nobody will get out of their easy chairs for women's basketball. It's sad.


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[giraffespots]

Since I discovered that I can chose which game I want to watch or which game to whip to when it gets close via ESPN 360, I've kissed the TV version of the tournament good bye.


I agree with your entire post. I have discovered that subscribing to ESPN FullCourt for the entire season has enabled me watch the games I want to watch in entirety. Especially with the DVR (I have DirectTV), I can watch one game and record another.

For an extra $78, I only missed ONE Sooner game, and have seen more games of other teams, Big 12 teams, mid-major games, as well as the Tenns/UConns/Rutgers games. It was definitely worth my $78 dollars.

[spooky]

My other pet peeve, is I want announcers to aim less at giving history lessons to first time listeners and more at revealing what's really going on in the game. Kara Lawson excels at this! I thought her analysis of the walk call at the end of the Cal game, and the Cal confusion that led up to it was a great example of what the experienced eye can reveal to the rest of us.

Kara Lawson is fast becoming my favorite announcer. In the games I saw this year that she did, she seemed to have a good mix of telling what was happening with using her history and knowledge to give depth to that explanation. She knew her stuff, and made observations about a team I'm sure she hadn't watched a whole lot (specifically in this case, Baylor in the OU game in Norman) that were right on.

And she's been very smooth in the studio. Stacy, though I love her, does lose her train of thought occasionally and stumbles, but Kara is very good.

[40ishHorn]

I LOVE Kara and Stacy.

[MsProudSooner]

At this moment, ESPN has the same game on ESPN2 & ESPNU. :mad:

[dem]

I agree, Kara is absolutely terrific. Extremely professional.

[labcoatguy]

Okay, so I'm trying to cut television some slack. I understand that there's going to be a gap in the level of excitement when it comes to the differences between radio announcers and television announcers, and that this is in part due to the fact that your interest in the game relies more on the visual rather than the audio, but I have to say that there are many more men's basketball TV guys who sound like they actually give a crap about the game they're witnessing, like Gus Johnson. ESPN's women's basketball play-by-play people sound like they're calling a golf match rather than a do-or-die single elimination tournament where the ultimate prize is a national championship and enshrinement among the sport's elite.

SWMNBN, the queen of saying nothing and making it sound like even less, takes excitement down to new lows every time I hear her, but the boredom virus is more widespread than just her. It affects the women's game way more than the men's. One way to cure this virus would be to actually observe the way the game is being played right before the commentators' eyes. I want to hear about how much the Rutgers zone defense is suffocating passing lanes, and just how much better Nebraska is driving in the second half than the first, etc. I don't want to hear anything about how any player was recruited or what kind of neighborhood she grew up in, or why this Connecticut team is only better than 72% of past Connecticut teams. I really wish ESPN's announcers would start focusing more in on the plays than on the backstories of the players. Womens basketball deserves to be treated more like a real sport and less like a human interest spectacle.

[dem]

I am curious as to why ESPN believes that all-top-seeds all the time is a better draw than close, competitive, exciting games. Have they done demographic research that shows the women's audience is so different from the men--that they really don't want to watch good games, but would rather watch a two-hour blowout by a "name" team?

Focus group dialogue:

Viewer One: Hey, switch off that other game and get back to Candace Parker.

Viewer Two: But Tennessee is leading by 35 and that other game is in double overtime, and neither of those other teams has been to the Sweet Sixteen in a decade!

Viewer Three: Who cares, I want to see Parker stuff it down their face another time!

Viewer Four: Yeah, so what if we've been watching her dominate for 90 minutes, I just never get tired of that stuff!

Viewer Two: Whatever.

[40ishHorn]

It's a shame ESPN can't do with 3 or more channels what CBS can do with just one. The same game still on both ESPNU and ESPN2. Give us ODU/VA or something.

[DblT81]

So I see what the ESPN point of the day is now. The Big East is dominating the Big 12 in the tournament. They don't mention that most every matchup the Big East team is the higher seed. I used to respect Bob Picozzi. But he said about 10 times the fact that the Big 12 had lost two games to the Big East, was about to lose 3 and of course "we have Texas and Connecticut coming up later tonight"- Smug, arrogant, Big East cheerleader.

[ChipperF1]

Bob Picozzi is a play-by-play guy for UConn games on CPTV sometimes...He has a definite bias

[ChipperF1]

"But he said about 10 times the fact that the Big 12 had lost two games to the Big East, was about to lose 3 and of course "we have Texas and Connecticut coming up later tonight"- Smug, arrogant, Big East cheerleader.

What did he say that wasn't true.

Baylor lost to Pittsburgh. It was close and competitive
Iowa State lost to Rutgers. It was close and competitive
Kansas State lost to Louisville. The Cardinals carried the fight.

Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma can still win

TAMU and OSU are through... We can still get 5 of 16 through...

[DblT81]

He also mentioned that "Kansas State was the NUMBER ONE seed in the Big 12 tournament and Louisville was the NUMBER 7 seed in the Big East tournament and Louisville is leading the Big 12 champ by 21 points." Mary what's her name pointed out that KSU did lose their top scorer "in the Big 12 championship game against Iowa State".

[YCN]

I was going to say that the Colonial had a team in the Sweet Sixteen, but Virginia got FOUR offensive rebounds in the last 30 seconds, and a score and a foul off the last.

ODU leads by 1 with 1.8 left, with a Virginia free throw coming up...

Wow!


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[YCN]

Overtime.

Last off-topic post on this thread.


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(I need some more smileys tonight!)

[DblT81]

Sure what he said was true, but it is what he didn't say that left it biased commentating.

He didn't mention what KSU lost that left them struggling somewhat in the tournament. He didn't mention the same about Baylor. He didn't mention that KSU lost in the second round of the Big 12 tournament when Dietz was injured at the beginning of the game. He didn't mention that Louisville had improved so much over the beginning of the season that they played in the Big East final against Connecticut.

He said that it was Geno vs Gail and that they had split the results of several meetings before. But he didn't mention that Gail's team is a big underdog this time.

[Bball Girl]

ESPN's women's basketball play-by-play people sound like they're calling a golf match rather than a do-or-die single elimination tournament where the ultimate prize is a national championship and enshrinement among the sport's elite.

SWMNBN, the queen of saying nothing and making it sound like even less, takes excitement down to new lows every time I hear her, but the boredom virus is more widespread than just her. It affects the women's game way more than the men's. One way to cure this virus would be to actually observe the way the game is being played right before the commentators' eyes. I want to hear about how much the Rutgers zone defense is suffocating passing lanes, and just how much better Nebraska is driving in the second half than the first, etc. I don't want to hear anything about how any player was recruited or what kind of neighborhood she grew up in, or why this Connecticut team is only better than 72% of past Connecticut teams. I really wish ESPN's announcers would start focusing more in on the plays than on the backstories of the players. Womens basketball deserves to be treated more like a real sport and less like a human interest spectacle.

BRAVO!!!!

[BearLady]

Wow! Doris has on color tonight. :cool:

[Bball Girl]

ESPN is lazy - it's easy, easy, easy to recycle the endless loop of the Pat v. Geno saga. It's right in their office - heck they don't even have to walk out the door - they've got in right in front on them. It takes no creativity, thought, commitment or thought to play the Pat/Geno loop.

Granted...I've seen some nice talk about OSU...
They've done a superb job getting Kara, Stacy and Doris

However....wake up ESPN...there are wonderful stories in this tournament. While Coach Bill may not be a legend, there's a wonderful story in that ISU team, losing two starters and yet finding a way to win. KSU's improbable road to the Big 12 championship, Jill Noe's guts to keep playing ball, the Pitt coach who's done a remarkable job in a very short time, who is this baby faced Jasmine Walters who can knock down a NBA 3. There are SO many wonderful stories in this tournament that ESPN is missing. If ESPN wants WBB to grow and make some money for them, then honor that commitment by helping the rest of the country see the wonderful basketball and wonderful people we have playing this game. Little Walters shot should be on EVERY Sports Center highlight reel. Wake up - Tenn and UConn are fabulous program and they deserve respect and regard. But not if it means taking respect and regard away from the other 62 teams in this tournament.

So....I think ESPN wants a UConn/Tenn matchup cause it's easy, they don't have to work to get the highlight reels and the stories. They show the games, but like labcoatguy said ...they really don't focus (with some exceptions) and the game being played on the court...

[Cyclones Rule]

Unbelieveable. The UCONN game is at halftime and all they can show is highlights instead of ND / OU oh wait they just gave us a game and it's UNC. ESPN SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Scamp]

ODU/UConn at the half. ESPN's gushing over Geno and Maya Moore is way out of hand. :confused:

Trey Wingo, referring to freshman Moore, says "And a child shall lead them." :eek:

Doris told us that Wendy Larry told her ODU players about David and Goliath (and gave them slingshots and stones). Mike Patrick snickers, "Sometimes Goliath has a gun." That is so inappropriate. :mad:

And now we get a halftime piece about how Geno wants to be George Clooney. Pathetic. :(

Just call it ESPN/UCONN. The partiality is so obvious. :p