Sports Media (ESPN mostly) and College Basketball (mild)

The BBQ Pit
1

I hate this time of year in sports, mostly because of the media coverage of college basketball. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind watching the games every now and then, but the extreme saturation and over-analysis that goes along with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament kind of make me feeling less-than-excited about watching it. I’m usually worn out before the tournament actually begins. My hate list:

  1. I hate Dick Vitale.
  2. I hate the CBS music that gets played at EVERY commercial break (DA-da-duh-duh-da-duh-DA-duh-duh).
  3. I hate that grown men (alum or not) go gah-gah over 20 year old men playing basketball. You’re 45. College was a long time ago. I don’t care about Clemson. You went to San Diego State in 1985. Why do YOU care about Clemson? Do some work and stop trying to regurgitate to me what you heard the anchors of SportsCenter yelling. No, the first 15 minutes of every meeting does require a warm-up with a re-cap of the 2,847,292 games that were played over the weekend.
  4. I hate the ubiquitous brackets and the several accompanying e-mails telling me when to have said bracket completed and submitted by. There is always one self-appointed tool who wants to run the bracket pool and he’s always the “I’m the sports guy” character.
  5. I hate seeing the crowds where everyone is wearing the same colored t-shirt over their clothes while jumping up and down in unison, and further I hate ESPN/CBS for constantly focusing on it.
  6. “March Madness” = “OH MY GOD IT’S SO CRAZY!!!” = :rolleyes:.
  7. This year we’re lucky to get a raspy, Xanax’d Bobby Knight on ESPN to share his “expert analysis.” This guy’s usually a mildly-retarded bully. Why do we like him again?
  8. I just want to see the highlights from a couple NBA games. Perfect, I think it’s coming, at 1:23 of a 90 minute SportsCenter. Guess what filled up 75 of the first 83 minutes? COLLEGE BASKETBALL! Christ!
  9. Let us not forget the annual tribute to Jim Valvano. Don’t get me wrong, I’m human and his speech was certainly touching, but good God, do we have to see it every year!?
  10. I don’t have a #10 – like I said, it’s mild.
2

I’d rather nail my dick to a 2x4 then watch/listen/experience in any way college basketball, especially this time of year.

And calling Bob Knight a “mildly-retarded bully” is too kind. The guy’s a bloody, cancerous hemorrhoid on the asshole of sports.

3

Some people think opening day of the baseball season should be a national holiday. I think Thursday should be a national holiday…for one solid day of entertainment there is nothing better. We may not have a national holiday but Good Friday is a pretty good replacement this year.

YMMV, but I love the CBS music. It’s going to be my ringtone when I get a new phone.

But I do agree with you guys about Bobby Knight.

4

Ah yes, March Madness, when the flyover states get a few precious weeks to celebrate their flatlanded, tornado-ridden, flood-plained, locust-swarmed hell.

(have 3 freakin’ people in my cubicle from Indiana. Kee-ryst what a nuisance, every damn March)

5

I don’t have as much of a problem with the saturation of NCAA coverage this time of year, but I have always had a problem with the seemingly random college teams people root for. Out of the 20 or so sports nuts that I know that go crazy this time of year only ONE person actually went to the school that they root for. 1 more at least lived in the region (within 200 miles) of the school. For the rest it makes no sense. Who/What are you rooting for? You didn’t go there. You don’t know anyone who goes there. You didn’t come from the region. What is the draw? At least with professional sports you (baseball and football anyway) have the same players on the team for long periods of time (at least the bigger names) so I can see people getting attached to their favorite players and by proxy those teams, even if they don’t have any connection to the region/city in which they play.

But college sports dudes who have no connection other than the TV make no sense to me. I’ve decided that there can be only 2 explanations for this:

  1. They really like the team logo and apparel and like to flaunt it. I’m serious here.

  2. They picked the team in the office pool and want to appear attached to the team in a way other than financially.

Fucking college sports…

6

I’m really not sure what it is, but for someone who loves watching sports I absolutely loathe college sports (not just basketball).
Everything is just slowed down too much, they look amateurish compared to the pros, the college kids as fans are annoying, etc.
The pro teams usually represent an entire major city or even an entire state. Something I can realte to. College teams represent a school, their students, and their alumni, who cares.
It not that much better than watching high school sports.

7

My dad used to live in the Middle East, and paid an exorbitant amount of money for a satellite dish that could pick up American programming and BBC World (rather than the local programming, which appeared to consist entirely of prayers led by beardy men and boring news reports on Emir X bin Xey’s visit to the Sultan).

I soon learned not to visit during March, because there was only one channel I liked (Prime Sports, part of the now-defunct or renamed PrimeStar network) and during March EVERY SINGLE FUCKING MINUTE WAS DEVOTED TO COLLEGE BASKETBALL.

So I’ve hated college basketball since before I knew what it was, since big-time college sports are pretty much unknown in Britain and elsewhere.

8

With the exception of about five freshman, all the talented colelge players are in the NBA already. I don’t understand why a high school player even goes to colelge one year and has to pretend to worry about class and such- why not go overseas and make 100k or so, as well as get some culture and experinece against pros?

9

I can explain my support for my particular NCAA team (which is not for the school I currently attend):

  1. My school isn’t in the NCAA. It’s a football school, anyway, and I hate football.
  2. I cheer for Duke because DUMC did some very good things for me fifteen years ago that ensured that I stay alive.
  3. I don’t care about the NBA. I find that the rivalry among college teams adds spice to the game.
  4. I’m female so I don’t go into testosterone-fueled bracket frenzy.
10

Because people- the kind of people who Nike wants to sell shoes to, anyway- aren’t watching FIBA basketball.

College is an easy way to get your name out there and thus get bigger endorsement deals come birthday number 19.

11

I…I…I…I…don’t understand this thread.

I’m frightened and confused. It’s like I’m viewing an alien universe. You mean there are people who don’t consider March a month-long festival of basketball and the birth of Spring (that is, until your team of choice loses)?

I…I…I…never even imagined! :wink:

However, I can absolutely get behind the pitting of sports media and their crappy, crappy coverage. I’ve got just a few days before CBS manages to piss me off yet again. Fortunately, I haven’t watched anything programming besides actual games on ESPN in years–I recommend this course of action for any sports fan. I’m a much happier person for it!

12

The entire pitting could be applied to just about every sport in existence.

Bobby Knight has also won more basketball games than any other coach in NCAA history, has three NCAA titles, eleven Big 10 titles, six time Big 10 Coach of the Year, Naismith Coach of the Year in 1987 and elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.

He may be a punk but there are few, if any, that can give more “expert” analysis than him.

13

Knight is such a jerk. Maybe as an analyst he wont be abusing college kids and sports writers. Any body he has authority over will get his nasty temper.

14

Let me guess, you’ve lived in North Carolina at some point?

15

Indeed, and I am a diploma-carrying member of the ACC family.

My exile from home has lasted many Marches, and it fucking pisses me off. I want to go home.

/I can’t even get out of work tomorrow
//I haven’t missed the first day of the NCAA-T since I was a sophomore in HS :mad:

16

Try being a baseball fan and trying to get some news about your team’s spring training progress from ESPN. Good luck with that.

17

Last year I won my march madness pool by picking teams based completely on numerology. As in, full-on, completely meaningless numerology. I think the way I did it was that in the first matchup, I favored the team with an even seat number, then in the next, I favored the one with the odd number, alternating all the way through. Eventually, this pattern gets you to some matchups that need a different criterion (e.g. because they’re both odd), so then I picked the team with the longest name.

This year I think maybe every matchup will be decided by whichever team name would get a higher score in scrabble. Tie goes to the team with the highest individual letter score (go Xavier). If it’s still a tie, flip a coin.

18

Unless you’re a fan of the Red Sox or Yankees. Then you get all kinds of info on how the team is hitting, what they had for breakfast, the color of their bowel movements, etc. :rolleyes:

19

Psst! He has the highest number of wins for a men’s coach. He may be a tool, but he knows basketball. I think he’s generally sticking to analysis of specific plays, not games as a whole.

20

Ain’t that the truth. SportsCenter was blaring in the locker room this morning and over my headphones all I heard was crap about how the Red Sox wouldn’t play in Japan because they weren’t going to get the $20,000 each for the SINGLE GAME that they were supposed to play and that now they are, and everybody’s happy then about a half an hour on something Yankee related, then one soccer game result GO MANUTD! And 30 minutes of snooze-inducing blather about hockey.

FTR, I can’t stand college athletics. Most sports is boring and pointless, hell, even my beloved Cubbies fall into that category, but seriously, the NCAA thing is just a giant snore.