DL549: Well, At Least It Was Close

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Nick and I talk first about the NCAA Title game, the commentators, the Tweeters and recap a pretty lackluster finale. We do talk about Jim Nantz’s inexplicable “dog fight” reference during the game and I pat myself on the back for almost nailing the Nantz-ism that ended the game.

Then Jon Tannenwald joins the show to talk more about the game and talk about the legacy Butler has created for itself. We use Butler to talk about the leveling of the NCAA basketball playing field, and how in now way are the Bulldogs anything like the Green Bay Packers, despite NFL PR head Greg Aiello trying to convince us of that.

Oh, yeah, I do break down the studio show in “basketball math” terms. It might be more entertaining than the game was.

Congrats to UConn. Thanks for listening.

DL543: Final Four, Sharing Glass Slippers, Best & Worst In Media, More

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Action packed show as Nick and Jon Tannenwald talk (with me) about the most improbable Final Four ever. Here’s a little bit of what we discuss, in bullet form:

• Can a Final Four have two Cinderellas, or did VCU’s win move Butler — who will be wearing white jerseys and got to the title game last year — officially out of that role?

• Is Nick, a Richmond grad, happy for rival VCU or totally jealous of the cross-town success, especially considering VCU beat a Kanas team that beat Richmond the round before.

• Are we waiting for the inevitable title game blowout? Will the mid-major bubble burst in the title game, or can we get a game like last year?

• Who is smarmier: John Calipari of Jim Calhoun? And is Calipari’s run to the Final Four — after losing his entire team to the NBA draft last year — actually the most impressive situation for all four teams there?

• Does Calipari get to say he’s taken three schools to the Final Four?READ MORE

DL542: Will Brinson on NFL’s PR Madness. Plus: Actual Madness (March Style)

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Will Brinson and I talk about the ridiculous PR battle between the NFLPA and the NFL. Is either side winning? How has social media and the instant-reaction media world we live in changed the way this lockout is being covered, and how the participants are acting…and reacting.

Look, you can’t begrudge the players for talking, or Tweeting, about the injustice they feel has been brought upon them and you can’t blame them for hijacking news during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament when they’re trying to make sure they still have jobs, but you’d think the league, itself, would have more understanding that IT’S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT FOOTBALL. Forcing legalese down our throats isn’t helping.

That said, the more we see football players in suits and not helmets and pads, the worse the PR battle gets for them. We love the guys in our favorite uniforms. The guys in suits, yelling about money? The average fan can’t relate to that.

So there’s a lot of lockout talk, but mostly talking about whyREAD MORE

DL540: A Look At NCAA Regional Announcer Assignments

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Marv got the worst Region? Reggie Miller is paired with Gus and Len? Nantz isn’t with Duke?

We go over an interesting set of decisions for who is calling what this weekend in the NCAA Tournament. We also talk more about the TV set up and how all the games on four channels has changed the game for live events from now on, compare it to NBC’s work during the Summer and Winter Olympics (and the old NBC TripleCast from the 80s) and wonder if the TruTV bumb will get more people to watch Pawn Stars and whatever else is on that network.

I also bust out my theory that CBS should handle the Final Four like a pitching staff, with Nantz starting the game before handing it off to Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery at halftime with Gus Johnson getting the closer spot if the game is close after the four minute timeout. It would be amazing.

Thanks as always for listening.

DL539: Weekend Madness, ONIONS, DC Games & Why Chuck Has Been Turrible

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Consider today and tomorrow our two-part look at week one of the NCAA Tournament, the great games, great calls and, yes, some of the stuff we think is not so great.

Tomorrow we’ll cover the assignments for the Regional sites, but today we spend more time looking at the games we watched this weekend.

Nick was in DC and got to watch two phenomenal finishes that had Butler winning both games en route to another trip to the Sweet Sixteen. What was the crazy finish of the Butler-Pitt game like in the arena? We spend a lot of time on how the building felt, as well as what we think the referees should have done in that situation. We also touch on some of the reaction from the sports writing and tweeting types, plus Nick gives an assessment of how the tournament feels when you’re at a site and how that compares to the incredible ability to watch every game at once on TV.

We move around the tournament a bit, talking aboutREAD MORE

Zoe (and Max) Picking Brackets

We do this every year and every year it seems Zoe’s bracket gets better. Well, Morehead State might prove her wrong…or prove ALL OF YOU WRONG.

Here’s Zoe (and Max) picking brackets. Happy basketball, everyone.

What’s On In Sports, Tonight: March 16th

Tonight is a great night.

Why? Gus Johnson begins his NCAA Tournament season on truTV this evening, calling the second half of the First Four games. The action begins at 6:30 with UTSA and Alabama State, and continues immediately after (around 9 p.m. EST) with USC vs. VCU. Normally, I would link to some videos of Gus’ most memorable calls, but the New York Times has already done that. If you haven’t checked out that collection yet, or read the profile of Johnson it accompanies, you should get out from under your rock and do so.

Now on to the rest of the field:

6 p.m.

ESPNU- WLAX: Georgetown at Johns Hopkins. Rob Simmelkjaer (PbP), Kristen Kjellman (Analyst).

6:40 p.m.

truTV- NCAA Tournament First Four: UTSA vs. Alabama State. Gus Johnson (PbP), Len Elmore (Analyst), Marty Snider (Sideline)

7 p.m.

ESPN2- Men’s NIT: Nebraska at Wichita State. Also available on ESPN3.com

7:30 p.m.

Versus- NHL: Washington Capitals at Detroit Red Wings.

8 p.m.

ESPN- NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder at Miami Heat. Mike Tirico (PbP), Hubie Brown (Analyst) Also available on ESPN3.com ESPNU- Men’s NIT: Bethune-Cookman at Virginia Tech. Beth MowinsREAD MORE

DL538: Bias, Chalk and Why I Already Hate My Bracket

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Nick and I run through the bracket and I basically have chalk. And I hate myself for it. Nick has a few more upsets than me. Listen along and don’t forget to join in on the bracket challenge at With Leather. (or follow this line of direction from Zerkle: If you’re hard-up for a bracket pool, join ours. The link is here and the password is “dukesucks”.)

You can’t not beat me.

Before our bracket breakdown we also talk about John Feinstein’s WashPost column ripping the NCAA committee for, well, everything. The lesson here: get better, ACC, so the writers in your area don’t put out columns that rip the selection committee for having a secret agenda, thus exposing the writer’s own secret agenda.

Madness!

DL537: Brackets, Networks, Announcers, Barkley, Bilas, Vitale, GUS, More

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What else today? Brackets!

This show is basically in two parts — the first part with Jon Tannenwald of Philly.com’s college hoops blog Soft Pretzel Logic and the second part with Nick — talking all about the brackets and the media coverage, including what announcers will be calling games on what networks, how we think Charles Barkley will and won’t fit into the telecast, Jay Bilas ostensibly lobbying to get himself on the NCAA Selection Committee, Dick Vitale’s annual rant for those who didn’t get in, Gus Johnson as an indie rock band and a whole lot more.

We get a little bit into the brackets and what we think could be some good matchups — including the Temple Penn State game that is a big deal around here and the balance of watching games live and still trying to catch the other games you care about on TV, something Nick will have to face on Thursday and Saturday in DC.

We also talk about whether you should fill out a bracket that’s chalk,READ MORE

DL536: Where Jim Burr, Tim Higgins, Earl Walton & Cowardly Big East Make Me Curse…A Lot

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(THERE IS CURSING IN TODAY’S SHOW. A LOT OF IT.)

Forget impartiality. Today’s show is hot fire directed at the old, out of touch, terrible officials employed by the Big East and the cowardly way the conference handled the screwjob given to Rutgers at the end of their Big East Tournament game against St. John’s yesterday afternoon.

Would Rutgers have won the game? Maybe not, but 1.6 seconds is an eternity in basketball and the refs just quit doing their jobs and got protected by the conference office. This could be a REALLY LONG rant, but just listen. Oh, and if you don’t think the Big East is cowardly for their decision to not do anything, consider them cowardly for how they scrubbed down the AP story on their own website.

Here’s the AP story in full at ESPN. Here’s the version the Big East put up. Yeah…that tells you everything.

An absolute joke.

We must credit the job ESPN did in handling this story. Someone got it right, and the network pulled no punchingREAD MORE