From 11 this morning til we burn the midnight oil late into the Chicago night, Drive & Dish has your every need and wish accounted for regarding Conference Tournament coverage.
Power conferences throw their hats into the ring as their tournaments begin in earnest today. From the Georgia Dome (which is extremely devoid of any atmosphere) to the Sprint Center in Kansas City, this is a day for the big boys.
Move over, Horizon League. Step aside, Sun Belt. Au revoir, Summit League. The big hitters take to the dish today and we couldn't be any happier.
Stay tuned to Drive & Dish for a new wrinkle to our program, Live blogging. We'll start it off shortly before tipoff at Madison Square Garden and run it all the way til game four of the Pac 10 Tournament at Staples Center.
This is just a precursor of things to come, as Drive & Dish goes wall-to-wall next week with the NCAA Tournament commencing.
We at Drive & Dish relish the opportunity to bring you the best college basketball has to offer.
And thus, Mark Buckets live blogs the conference tournaments:
10:43AM- This morning's edition of USA Today offers some insight into Georgetown's dynamic senior class. It appears that these guys are close on and off the court. Scary proposition for Villanova and teams beyond.
10:45AM- I guess it's too late to get Subway at this point. If I have to get delivery, I will.
10:47AM- TheACC.com is offering a package deal for viewing of their conference tounrey. Sure beats dishing out ten bucks for one game of the UEFA Champions League via ESPN Soccernet!
10:53AM- Okay, my heart is racing. Today is when things get vaaa-rey inter-esting. The Monster Energy I just chugged might be contributing to my rapid heart rate as well.
11:00AM- Does ESPN have to produce poetic rap songs before every big college basketball event? Listening to Bill Raftery is painful enough.
11:05AM- And the Villanova Wildcats go...MANTOMAN! (when is reality they're playing a matchup zone, Mr.Raftery)
11:07AM- Georgetown sharp early on. Jonathan Wallace looks poised for a big game.
11:10AM- The rims are rocking already at the Big 10 tourney between Iowa and Michigan. First to 45 wins?
11:11AM- It's the Jonathan Wallace show at MSG. Three 3's and Jay Wright has seen enough. 12-4 Hoyas, early on.
11:13AM- Tom Brennan and Doug Gottlieb bickering already. This time, they're arguing over mascots and their weaponry. It's gonna be a long day for Karl Ravich.
11:14AM- Reason #100000 Comcast sucks: ESPN360 is unavailable to Chicago Comcast users. This whole live blog thing would be a hell of a lot easier with access to more games.
11:17AM- Bob Knight referring to Texas Tech as "we." You're a member of the media now, Coach Knight.
11:20AM- Midway through the first half in Indianapolis and Iowa has put up 7 points. The Hawks are on pace to score 28. Somehow, I think that's attainable for the boys from Iowa City.
11:23AM- Two words that satisfy any pallet: Lean Cuisine.
11:24AM- Yahoo! Sports to the rescue. The SEC Tourney opener between LSU and South Carolina is available to ANYONE - take notes Comcast - who has a high bandwidth connection.
11:25AM- On second thought, why would anyone watch that game? I'll watch it for one reason and one alone: It could possibly be Dave Odom's final game as a major college coach.
11:26AM- Georgetown extremely impressive early on. They've already hit seven threes.
11:28AM- The Scotty Reynolds lovefest is up and running. Dana O'Neil documented his struggles early in his career on ESPN.com yesterday. It's a good read. Most of O'Neil's work is worthy of your time.
11:30AM- The ever-soothing pipes of Ron Franklin - who is in KC for the Big XII Tourney - are filling the Drive & Dish Headquarters. Welcome home, Ron.
11:32AM- Hubert Davis over on ESPN's studio coverage. Poor John Saunders. He's gotta work with this clown the rest of the morning and afternoon.
11:35AM- I love the sound of the pep band playing to an empty arena. Texas Tech's fight song is making sweet love to my ears right now. You can really sense the woodwins.
11:39AM- Speaking of which....There's no excuse for a non-family member/people associated with the program to be in attendance for these early morning games. Shelling out money for Oklahoma State and Texas Tech? I'm sure it's only available in a "session" package too. Gawd.
11:41AM- Something that I failed to mention at the outset: Jay Wright and JT3 are two of the best dressed coaches in the country. Semi-Pro has the Mega Bowl. The Big East Tournament has their version of the NYC fashion show.
11:46AM- Pat Ewing jr. T-ed up for tossing the ball after a whistle. Very un-Georgetown like
11:47AM- Michigan up on Iowa 34-25 at halftime. Iowa has recovered and closed the gap to 9. I still don't expect them to crack 45.
11:55AM- Here's a remarkable statistic: Texas has produced over 100 current Division One players. For a state that prides itself on everything football - and rightly so -They haven't been too shabby churning out roundball stars as well.
11:58AM- Our Jonathan Wallace predictions were spot-on. The English major has put up 19 at the half, and is perfect from the field. Needless to say, the Hoyas have built a commanding 40-29 halftime lead.
High Noon- When the Georgia Dome is rockin', don't come a-knockin'. The door's wide open at this point, however.
12:01PM- The fashion police are out in full force. Sean Sutton's orange tie get two thumbs up.
12:01PM- Lil' Mama? Is that the best act you could come up with for the SEC Tournament intro, Raycom Sports? I guess that's how they roll in the ATL.
12:04PM- Dave Neal going solo pre-and-postgame coverage for Raycom. Obviously, the market crunch is effecting the SEC too.
12:09PM- The rims at the Georgia Dome have a certain "twang" to them. No, they aren't from the dirty-dirty south.
12:14PM- Apparently Bob Knight had something for Eastern European big men. I guess he needed to harken back to his days avoiding land mines and killin' the enemy. But who knows?
12:17PM- It's also a prerequisite that they sport untrimmed facial hair.
12:29PM- Thanks to a technical glitch, all material was lost from the past 10 minutes.
To recap: Hibbert with four fouls. No points. Yikes.
12:32PM- This is for all of my anti-Duke peeps out there: Georgetown hasn't shot a free throw today. How many has Villanova attempted? 21. WOW
12:33PM- Well there you have it. The first free throws of the day for Ewing jr. Don't look now, but the Hoyas are closing the gap!
12:35PM- Speaking of foul trouble - or lack thereof - Dayton has committed 20 fouls so far.....with 11 MINUTES LEFT IN THE GAME. Strange days, indeed. (RIP Jim Morrison)
12:40PM- Foul shooting disparity case #3- Michigan has 19 and Iowa with 9. The world is truly out of whack.
12:41PM- Bad news for the nine-to-five working public: Some companies are taking the drastic step of blocking CBS's March Madness on Demand, and it's not for the reason one would think. No, it's not because of the decline in employee productivity. No, the reason is that it will jam the network. I'm glad these people have their priorities in order.
12:43PM- Georgetown stretching their lead to 59-50. Scottie Reynolds is still on the bench receiving attention for a cut above his eye. Nova needs him back on the court. Fast.
12:46PM- Back in Kansas City, Texas Tech's Mike Singletary just tied it up for the Red Raiders. There's no room for two Mike Singletary's in the Big XII! (See the Baylor alumnus and former Chicago Bears great)
12:48PM- Boy has the luster worn off of Wake Forest. After their impressive home victory of Duke, the Deacons are in danger of ending their conference tournament campaign in the first round. Florida State is one team you can't out-athletic, unlike Duke. This is still a team to watch in the future.
12:52PM- Roy Hibbert just fouled out. 0 points. 1 shot. 4 turnovers. NBA stardom, here we come.
12:53PM- His nervous twitch is still bothering me.
12:54PM- Michigan-51 Iowa-41 with 1:44 remaining. I'm sticking to my guns. Iowa doesn't get to 45.
12:56PM- Georgetown has put the gas down and can't miss a shot. 17 made three pointers, a new school record.
12:56PM- Trashtalk Superstar is smiling somewhere right now. The Hoyas are putting on a dribble-drive-and-dish clinic. (I'm impressed as well)
1:00PM- Dat gummit. Iowa gets to 45 with a minute to play down 9. Enjoy the CBI, Hawkeye fans.
1:02PM- I do feel bad for Iowa big man Seth Gorney, who will close his basketball career with a wimper. Oh yeah, he's still got the CBI to prepare for.
1:03PM- Dayton is running out of gas. In all seriousness, this team will be a tough out in the NIT.
1:05PM- Recapping: Georgetown pulls away from Villanova behind 17 three pointers. Florida State still has a pulse and could give North Carolina a battle tomorrow. Iowa still sucks.
Drive & Dish's coverage of "Championship" Week will adjourn for now......
By the way- Sean McDonough, it's "alma-matter," not "alma-matta."
Trashtalk Superstar adds:
Although most professional broadcasters aren't able to advance to the top of the broadcasting profession if they don't lose the regional accents that they grew up with, Sean McDonough can get away with dropping "r's" off the end of words (or adding "r's" to the ends of words where they don't belong -- a la JFK's references to the missile crisis in "Cuber," rather than in "Cuba") because his regional accent is an East Coast accent. ESPN (located in Bridgeport, CT) apparently exists in such a parochial East Coast bubble that they don't realize that, comforting as they may be to all the Syracuse alums among ESPN's executives and employees (most ESPN employees are Syracuse alums), bad Eastern accents are still -- to the rest of the world -- bad regional accents.
Just listen to ESPN radio. Most of their national radio hosts speak with pronounced New York area accents (usually of the Brooklyn or Jersey variety). Which is fitting, since the primary subject of their sports talk programming is usually one of the following teams: the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Giants, Syracuse, the Celtics or the awful Knicks.
Also:
When I see live blogging, I usually imagine the blogger doing the live blogging to look something like this:
Mark Buckets says:
I know I was laboring up and down the court the other night, but I'm not that out of shape, am I?
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6 comments:
i feel bad for Gorney too. but that's nothin' new. i felt the same way about Horner and Haluska. same goes for Brunner and Hansen.
HEY BRO
I respectfully disagree with your distaste for Bill Raftery. I think that he's one the best color guys in the business.
When Charlie Weis takes his shirt off, he probably looks like that fat guy with the computer in the picture.
I didnt hear no mention of eatin chocolate cake in your log.
Butler. 08.
We be cuttin down them nets
in that picture, notice the bottle of hand lotion next to the fatass sitting in front of the computer. you don't suppose he's looking at internet porn, do you?
i wonder what the lotion could possibly be for.
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