Friday, March 18, 2005

CBS, You're Fired


Somebody get Trump on the line
You know the games are finally getting good when you start screaming at your TV, begging CBS to switch feeds. That's what happened in the first round of night games, as three contests went down to the wire. Which one did I see? Wisconsin-Northern Iowa, which is the curse of being in Big 10 country. But I can live with regional preference where primary coverage is concerned. What enraged me was CBS' inability to call the audible.

With 2:12 to go, the Badgers stretched the lead to eight, while Syracuse hit two free throws to tie their game with 30 seconds left. Perfect time to go with the, "We'll keep you posted on the action in Charlotte, but right now let's go out to Syracuse-Vermont ..." Right? Wrong. The latter showdown went to OT without a single live look-in. Then, as the Cuse and Vermont battled with under a minute left, we were forced to watch Wisconsin parade to the line, protecting a five-point lead with under 10 seconds to play. It's over! Switch games! Finally, during a timeout (with 2.6 seconds to play in a 5-point game; which meant that it was OVER), we got a live look-in as Vermont made one of two free throws to extend their lead to three. Then, just as Syracuse inbounded the ball for their final possession, CBS took us back to the Wisconsin ... just in time to see the officials gather around the scorer's table to discuss whether there should be 2.6 or 2.9 seconds remaining. Presumably they were also discussing whether to institute a new rule, allowing for seven-pointers.

Needless to say, the best game of the first round ended dramatically and I didn't see it. Perfect.

Oh well, at least the games are finally good, even if CBS sucks.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

CBS really dropped the ball here, they should have showed The Orange losing (This Tar Heel fan loved to see that). Best game in the first round however turned out to be Kansas losing to Buknell (WHO?????) What a game!!!!

Anonymous said...

That sucks for you, CBS really screwed you. Since I live in NY I saw all of the syracuse vermont game and none of the wisconsin game but I am sure that the vermont game was much better. ESPN should sign a contract to the 1 and 2 round games so they can show a lot of games at once. They could show games at ESPN,ESPN2,ESPN Classic, ESPN PLUS and whatever other ESPN's there are. Vermont and Bucknell won WOOOOOO!!!

Adam Hoff said...

I agree. The worst part about missing the good games is that I TRIED to purchase On Demand. I was willing to pay extra - to do my part - to avoid CBS' annual lunacy. Alas, Comcast doesn't offer the service to the downtown area of Chicago. If not there, where exactly are they offering it? You'd think the third biggest media market in the country would be a good place to offer your services. So add Comcast to my crap list.

Anonymous said...

Well, you must be steaming right now. CBS ran the Illinois game until the final second and missed a back-and-forth upset by UW-M. By the way, nice call on UAB vs. Arizona being one of the best games of the day.