Andy Katz pulls a Jay Bilas

I was just reading ESPN's "Bracket Impressions" pieces, and couldn't help but laugh at how little these guys actually know about basketball programs outside of about the top ten schools (Duke/Kentucky/UConn/OSU/etc).

My favorite was Andy Katz's use of the go-to line about Michigan/Beilein coached teams: "But Tennessee could also lose badly to Michigan and the Wolverines' 1-3-1 defense." If Katz knew anything about this year's Michigan team, he would know that we've played almost no 1-3-1. From what I've seen, we've played mainly man-to-man this year, with a little match-up zone mixed in. You could write in almost any other basketball platitude and be close, but use of the 1-3-1 line automatically tells me that the writer/announcer has done no prep work outside of watching Beilein's WVU Elite 8 team a few years back. He's like Jay Bilas - spout off a few player names or playing styles associated with a program and then pretend like you're an expert.

In sum, national sports coverage is just laughable when it comes to quality analysis. That is why MGoBlog, UMHoops, and the like will always be superior.