OT-ESPN special features during college basketball last night/tonight

Submitted by UMWest22 on

So, ESPN is apparently trying to enhance college basketball viewing these last few days.  Last night, they showed the Kansas-Kansas State game with two cameras focused on Frank Martin and Bill Self all through the game.  They put two small, annoying (in my opinion) boxes on the left side of the screen with the two coaches through the entire game. 

Tonight, the Kentucky-Mississippi State game is being shown from the "sky cam" view, which is kind of making me ill.  Worst of all, the Texas Tech-Missouri game is being directed by Doug Gottleib, with a quarter of the television screen showing Gottleib in the control room.  Another quarter of the screen shows the game, and the other half is just dead space.  (In fairness, it's not there the WHOLE game, but still...)

Also, the MSU-OSU game at 9 is going to have a ref with a microphone on.  This is actually kind of a cool idea I think. 

I think, though, that these 'gimmicky' ideas should be used in early season games, not in games that truly matter.  What do you all think about it?

Sorry if this is too stupid of a topic to post here.  Just wanted some opinions on this, and to see if anyone knew what ESPN's reasoning is here, as I haven't read anything about it yet.

the_white_tiger

February 15th, 2011 at 8:22 PM ^

I'd agree with your statement about using these types of gimmicks in early season non-conference games, but this is the best way to get feedback, showing this stuff in games that people watch. FWIW, I don't like any of them, but the MSU-OSU ref mike should be interesting. I am glad they're trying to innovate though, but failures are bound to happen.

BlueDragon

February 15th, 2011 at 9:21 PM ^

I am currently rooting for Meteor and/or a 1-0 victory for either team.  I guess OSU winning would be better for our bubble prospects but I can't bring myself to really "root" for either "team."

Sac Fly

February 15th, 2011 at 9:32 PM ^

MSU winning would be best for us, best case for us would be MSU going 5-1 in the next 6 games and losing to us in the last game. That would make the spartans look like a legit NCAA tournament team, and two wins against them would look better to the selection committee, but that's just my opinion.

jmblue

February 15th, 2011 at 9:40 PM ^

Personally, I'm tired of MSU's NCAA streak.  I'm all for them tanking.  We can get a marquee win against someone else.  It would be awesome for recruiting purposes if we were to go to the Dance and they were stuck in the NIT.

But yeah, rooting for OSU makes me want to take a shower afterwards.