NCAA Tournament Time - What's Your Team?

Two observations:

1. Greg Gumbel, Charles Barkley and the other two guys doing the commentary between games are extremely annoying. Like Terry Bradshaw annoying.

2. I'm not really rooting for Kentucky, but the tv commentators all seem desperate for someone to beat them. In the first half of the Cincinnati game, the play-by-play guy was hooting and cheering every time Cincinnati scored a basket.

ummm

Thursday wasn't a good day.

Rock Chalk!

Well, Mr. Hyde showed up again. Look, I don't want to bag on WSU. Senior team, well coached, etc. But the first ten minutes of the game told what should have been the story. We outsized them and had a physical advantage. Then we did what we've done all year. Stop playing and stop thinking. And they do what a great team does. Focused, went to work and just out hustled the Jayhawks. I am the biggest Bill Self fan around but Bill, let me 'splain something. This is 2015 and not 1975. YOU NEED GUARD PLAY at the tournament level. I said it last year and I will say it this year. We don't have a big man who can dominate it on his own so the guards HAVE to take over in a game like this. You can't shut down the 3 point shooting 2/3 of the way through the season and hope they get hot in tourney to pull out a game like this. Devonte Graham(who looks like he's fourteen years old) was the only one who didn't look like a deer who was already wrapped around the brush guard on a four wheel drive truck. Let alone just a deer in the headlights. This team was in a nutshell, not mentally tough. I hope, really hope,Giv this team can get its mental state right next season. Second straight year of losing to a lower seeded team. This needs to be righted in a hurry before top shelf recruits start kissing off the team. Good lord guys, I did not expect an Elite 8 but please, show up!

(Give me a day or two and it will fine)

For what its worth Phog, I'm sorry that Kansas lost. The only team that I would root for against Kansas, is my hometown Shocks. Otherwise, I'm a Kansas fan.

One has to also give credit to the Shockers who are a good team, and that almost any top 50 team can beat any other 5 through 50 ranked team on any given day, which makes the tournament fun to watch. If Kansas and WS played each other 7 times it would likely be a 4-3 or 4-2 outcome.

I did not watch as much NCAA this weekend as planned, as my "free" online NCAA streaming stopped without any warning. I think I had watched less than 2 hours over two days, but regardless it turned out to be false advertising unless you already had a Time Warner Cable TV package in order to login (A $66.53/monthly Internet payment to TWC is not enough for them to let you watch an extra bball game). My online stream was abruptly cut off in the first half of my favorite game since I had "used" it up. For over the air viewers it was the CBS games (which included Kansas vs WS) or nothing. I listened to my local games on radio and shut the TV off. I watched the Kansas/WS game on Sunday but boycotted the other Sunday games as part of my futile protest of NCAA/CBS/TWC handling of the tournament.

Rockminer, I agree. Marshal simply out coached Bill Self yesterday and that's a fact. I keep going back to the Jekyll and Hyde thing with Kansas. Truthfully, I am kind of glad it is over for the year. This play a half, sleep a half basketball is driving me nuts. Usually Bill Self is a great in game coach and can switch things up to make or break a drive. The main thing I took away from this season is that he is a big defence minded coach and had mostly offensive players. We have no real post man and when Perry Ellis cannot go for 20-25 the whole thing breaks down. On the other hand, the guy coached this team to another Big 12 championship as short handed as we were. I think there will be a significant shakeup in the starters next year if he lands a few big time recruits.

StillShaving. I agree with you completely. I am a cord cutter. I gave it up over four years ago and will not go back. Your points about the tournament are accurate in my opinion. Lets take Kansas. We now have this new tv contract that is supposed to be garnering the university more money and make things 'better' for the fans. Well even many local fans cannot get the first five or six games on their local channels. I think(but may be wrong) that Time Warner has some exclusive distribution rights for the 'Hawks regular season non-con games. Suffice it to say that NO one locally can watch their early season games over the air on broadcast. This is beyond stupid. Particularly with their home games which are sold out. So things like NFL blackout do not come into play. This is simply to gain more viewers and try to force people into paying for television services they do not want or really need. And since this little debacle the mid season games on ESPN are now blacked out locally on ESPN3 which is how I used to watch conference games. Again, they are just trying to drive you to a television provider. My local cable company is recognised at the ESPN3 website but because I do not have a video subscription they won't let me watch. Irregardless that I pay forty or fifty bucks a month for internet service from the 'participating' provider.

And the tournament? Again, this idea of pushing games to TNT, TruTv, and TBS are beyond annoying. They simply want to force you into video subscription. You used to be able to watch tourney games directly through the NCAA website but now it directs you to download and app that surprise, just channels CBS coverage. And speaking of CBS, the $5.99 you used to pay got you the entire tournament. Now they time expire you? The tournament is one of the most watched programmes in American television. Even online you are going to watch their ads so why all this? Greed is all I can think of. I am seriously looking into SlingTV for next season. It is twenty dollars per month but no contracts. The base package includes I believe TBS, TruTv, ESPN and ESPN2 and maybe forking over $20 a month for three months or so of the regular season and tournament is an option. But it really rankles me.

Well, my Mountaineers held on to win in a tough fought game against Maryland. We move on to the Sweet 16 to face the #1 team in the country and the overall #1 seed in the tournament, the Kentucky Wildcats.

@Phog Allen, I am a TV cord cutter who is also considering that new SlingTV service. To be clear I did not pay for the NCAA streaming but the CBS telecast stated over and over how one can watch any of the other televised games on their favorite device by visiting NCAA.com and/or downloading an App without mentioning any caveats such as needing to pay or being subject to a time limited service. The streaming had only minor buffering issues and was not too far behind the radio broadcast, so the overall quality of it was quite good.

I rarely watched TBS, TNT, etc, when I had cable and I would not sign up for them just to watch the college basketball tournament. One dynamic that the producers at CBS might be overlooking is that the March _Madness_ syndrome was created in part because all the games were shown on a single network. Where each local market got to see their local game, but anytime there was a potential buzzer beater occurring, or a Cinderella in the making, the producer could quickly switch over to that game or show 2 games on a split screen. This served to heighten the drama and excitement around the tournament and create a more shared nationwide experience. Now the tournament is much more fragmented and has lost some of its excitement.

StillShaving said:

@Phog Allen, I am a TV cord cutter who is also considering that new SlingTV service. To be clear I did not pay for the NCAA streaming but the CBS telecast stated over and over how one can watch any of the other televised games on their favorite device by visiting NCAA.com and/or downloading an App without mentioning any caveats such as needing to pay or being subject to a time limited service. The streaming had only minor buffering issues and was not too far behind the radio broadcast, so the overall quality of it was quite good.

I rarely watched TBS, TNT, etc, when I had cable and I would not sign up for them just to watch the college basketball tournament. One dynamic that the producers at CBS might be overlooking is that the March _Madness_ syndrome was created in part because all the games were shown on a single network. Where each local market got to see their local game, but anytime there was a potential buzzer beater occurring, or a Cinderella in the making, the producer could quickly switch over to that game or show 2 games on a split screen. This served to heighten the drama and excitement around the tournament and create a more shared nationwide experience. Now the tournament is much more fragmented and has lost some of its excitement.

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I hear you. The tournament is losing something without the regional coverage. I don't think I saw it once during the KU/WSU game even after is was apparent KU quit playing at half time.

The whole supply demand thing is a two edged sword. I saw an article saying the first weekend of tournament was the highest rated ever. So obviously the cable bundlers and Turner/CBS are happy. On the other hand, they are supplying something of an on demand online viewing service. As long as you buy the same bundles. The $5.99 service charge I referenced was from two or three years ago. I am unsure what they offer, if anything now, for direct tournament coverage. I paid the fee and was able to watch any game that was on. Even then, they would give you a two game freebie watch and then time you out. If I am recalling correctly, I paid the fee to NCAA direct and watched it through their site. I am foggy on it at the moment. It may have CBS all the way. Irregardless, I was able to watch with no issues. This year there was no way short of a cable subscription to the mentioned channels. And the thing that really irked me was CBS. The danged things are on their networks, even if you discount the TNT/TBS/TruTv games, the ones on CBS are FREE TO AIR broadcasts. Why do they want any money for those? If you are watching on the aerial then it is the same thing. And the whole app or whatever is misleading as well. When I went to CBS site and clicked on a game to watch it just redirected me to the NCAA website with the same nag for an app for portable devices and a login for desk top browsers. Oi. I am really tired of this. They physically and virtually sell out every tournament game. Why all the cloak and dagger?

Interesting that the first weekend of the NCAA tournament had the highest ratings ever. I wonder if they are counting all that free, yet short-lived streaming. From an economic perspective I don't know why TBS, TNT, etc would not be happy with providing free streaming as it should help bolster their ability to charge more from advertisers since they are reaching more eyeballs, eyeballs which should be more valuable since they know who is watching (have your IP address and location). There must be something in their contracts with TWC, AT&T, Dish, etc, or NCAA which is limit their ability to stream. I plan to hold out indefinitely, if a network is unwilling to broadcast over the air or over the top then they might as well not exist.

As for the sweet 16, I look forward to watching some of the ACC games, to see who can make it through the weekend.

This deep in the tourney and I still have all of my elite 8.

Kentucky
Notre Dame

Wisconsin
Arizona

Louisville
Michigan St

Duke
Gonzaga

My final 4.....

Kentucky
Arizona

Louisville
Gonzaga

I have Kentucky and Louisville in the Final with Kentucky taking it home. Considering how much of my bracket is still in tact I have a great shot at having the best year I've ever had with a bracket. I filled my first one out in the 6th grade and haven't missed a tournament yet.

Mr Daniel said:

This deep in the tourney and I still have all of my elite 8.

Kentucky
Notre Dame

Wisconsin
Arizona

Louisville
Michigan St

Duke
Gonzaga

Click to expand...

I have all of those, except for Michigan State. I should have chosen them...