Now that a somewhat unsatisfying tournament is over, I thought I'd share a few thoughts about media coverage, the games and the NCAA:
1. THE ANALYSTS = CBS must have thought that adding Steve Kerr would improve game coverage but, that really just added miracle whip to mayonaise...no difference at all. Clark Kellog is pretty much an empty chair and Kerr is a color man without color. SOLUTION: Calling Gus Johnson.
2. THE COVERAGE = At some point...maybe... cut-away shots to the parents of the players made sense to entice non-basketball fans to enjoy the human element of the game. Now it seems like everytime they show the relatives on the screen, the people are watching the in-arena video, rather than the game, so they can wave and act foolish when on television. SOLUTION: There's a basketball game going on...cover it.
3. THE FATHER = related to #1 and #2 above, was there a more pathetic picture than seeing Kellog watching a TV monitor trying to follow the action in the Ohio game as his son's team played in a Sweet 16 game. Did Kellog's CBS overlords not allow him to actually attend the game or did someone think that without his "analysis" the game he was covering would suffer. SOLUTION: Kellog can just wait for another chance to watch his son play in a Sweet 16 game.
4. THE RIVALRY = The NCAA promotes the fan opportunity to be a part of great inter-conference rivariles produced by the tournament. This is somewhat laughable because schools could always schedule in-state/geographic rivalry games whenever they wanted to...they just don't for political reasons. We all have to listen to people whinning that the break-up of the Big Twelve means that we lose the great Missouri-Kansas game but, they fail to mention that each team plays about 10-15 non-conference games...play each other. SOLUTION: Create a D-1 rule that every team has to play each D-1 team within a 100-mile radius in the "pre-season" schedule (exempt teams in the same conference)
5. THE COMMERCIALS = An easy target and for good reason. This year was highlighted by a distributing trend...white people dancing. Why can't Carl's Junior advertise during the tounament so at least we could watch Kate Upton on a continuous loop. SOLUTION: MC Hammer should be available for next year.
6. THE REFEREES = Another easy target...they do a decent job. I don't understand why they can't figure out how to use DVR technology. Every time they go to reply it takes minutes to first rewind the tape, watch the play, rewind again, watch in slow motion and then review over to decide to add three tenths of a second to the clock. I can rewatch any show/any play with two clicks of my remote. SOLUTION: Put someone at the scorer's table to use a DVR to immediately review a play. In addition, then you don't have to people who made the call in charge of potentially reversing the call.
7. THE BASKETBALL = These games are not targeted for basketball fans to watch. All year long fans follow their teams watching every game they can. Then we get to the tournament and suddently this becomes a marketing tool to get an ROI. We have to live with the four additional commercial breaks, extended breaks and halftimes and human stories of personal triumph...all of this instead of basketball. The tournament becomes more an more unsatisfying. SOLUTION: The women's game....just kidding, there is nothing we can do.
8. THE GAME = Traveling is a violation...call it. Driving to the basket is a skill...don't reward indecision by calling a charge. Palming the basketball is against the rules...don't be awed by athletic ability that substitutes for basketball skill. SOLUTION: Enter the NBA draft where style not skill is valued.
9. THE PANEL = When you are splitting the quarterback job between two players it means you don't really have a good quarterback. When you add more and more bodies to the tournament set, it really means most of them have nothing to say. SOLUTION: Give Charles Barkley a one-man show.
10. THE OLD PASTY WHITE MEN = They run the NCAA...some day let's hope the players rebel and refuse to play. In the mean time, we have to wait for them to die. SOLUTION: Congestive heart failure.
1. THE ANALYSTS = CBS must have thought that adding Steve Kerr would improve game coverage but, that really just added miracle whip to mayonaise...no difference at all. Clark Kellog is pretty much an empty chair and Kerr is a color man without color. SOLUTION: Calling Gus Johnson.
2. THE COVERAGE = At some point...maybe... cut-away shots to the parents of the players made sense to entice non-basketball fans to enjoy the human element of the game. Now it seems like everytime they show the relatives on the screen, the people are watching the in-arena video, rather than the game, so they can wave and act foolish when on television. SOLUTION: There's a basketball game going on...cover it.
3. THE FATHER = related to #1 and #2 above, was there a more pathetic picture than seeing Kellog watching a TV monitor trying to follow the action in the Ohio game as his son's team played in a Sweet 16 game. Did Kellog's CBS overlords not allow him to actually attend the game or did someone think that without his "analysis" the game he was covering would suffer. SOLUTION: Kellog can just wait for another chance to watch his son play in a Sweet 16 game.
4. THE RIVALRY = The NCAA promotes the fan opportunity to be a part of great inter-conference rivariles produced by the tournament. This is somewhat laughable because schools could always schedule in-state/geographic rivalry games whenever they wanted to...they just don't for political reasons. We all have to listen to people whinning that the break-up of the Big Twelve means that we lose the great Missouri-Kansas game but, they fail to mention that each team plays about 10-15 non-conference games...play each other. SOLUTION: Create a D-1 rule that every team has to play each D-1 team within a 100-mile radius in the "pre-season" schedule (exempt teams in the same conference)
5. THE COMMERCIALS = An easy target and for good reason. This year was highlighted by a distributing trend...white people dancing. Why can't Carl's Junior advertise during the tounament so at least we could watch Kate Upton on a continuous loop. SOLUTION: MC Hammer should be available for next year.
6. THE REFEREES = Another easy target...they do a decent job. I don't understand why they can't figure out how to use DVR technology. Every time they go to reply it takes minutes to first rewind the tape, watch the play, rewind again, watch in slow motion and then review over to decide to add three tenths of a second to the clock. I can rewatch any show/any play with two clicks of my remote. SOLUTION: Put someone at the scorer's table to use a DVR to immediately review a play. In addition, then you don't have to people who made the call in charge of potentially reversing the call.
7. THE BASKETBALL = These games are not targeted for basketball fans to watch. All year long fans follow their teams watching every game they can. Then we get to the tournament and suddently this becomes a marketing tool to get an ROI. We have to live with the four additional commercial breaks, extended breaks and halftimes and human stories of personal triumph...all of this instead of basketball. The tournament becomes more an more unsatisfying. SOLUTION: The women's game....just kidding, there is nothing we can do.
8. THE GAME = Traveling is a violation...call it. Driving to the basket is a skill...don't reward indecision by calling a charge. Palming the basketball is against the rules...don't be awed by athletic ability that substitutes for basketball skill. SOLUTION: Enter the NBA draft where style not skill is valued.
9. THE PANEL = When you are splitting the quarterback job between two players it means you don't really have a good quarterback. When you add more and more bodies to the tournament set, it really means most of them have nothing to say. SOLUTION: Give Charles Barkley a one-man show.
10. THE OLD PASTY WHITE MEN = They run the NCAA...some day let's hope the players rebel and refuse to play. In the mean time, we have to wait for them to die. SOLUTION: Congestive heart failure.
