My gosh how uninformed people, even the sports media, are with UConn!

[DogMania]

I always enjoy watching Mike&Mike in the Morning, but my gosh are they both ill informed about UConn and no one, including Jay Bilas is correcting them. I can't remember which Mike it was, but one of them keeps on saying how neither UConn nor UK were ranked coming into the tournament. UConn ranked 18th in the AP poll and 17th in the Coaches and had an RPI of 22.

As for Kentucky, they weren't ranked in the AP Poll (according to points they were 28th) but were ranked 22nd in the last Coaches Poll. I was surprised to see that the last poll rankings were post-conference tournament (dated 3/17 & 3/18 according to cbssport.com). I would have thought that UK would have snuck back in there while UConn rose even higher than 18, say around 15 or 16, ahead of NM, Creighton and maybe even Cinci who they beat down the stretch, including in the AAC Semis.

People keep on pointing out how under-seeded UK was, which I did agree when I first saw the seedings, but rarely mention, afterthought at most, that UConn was under-seeded as well.

If you go by their RPIs...not saying that's completely the way to go...both teams should have been seeded between 5 and 6. If you take into account how they played leading into the tournament in addition to their RPIs, seeing that both made it to their conference finals but lost a 3rd time to their conference regular season and tournament champions who were ranked #1 and #5 respectively in the polls, IMO both should have been seeded at least 5 if not 4.

I'm sure I'm preach to the choir, here. One things for sure, this team has plenty of fodder to get fired up and prove so many people wrong.

 

[BankShot]

Do yourself a favor, STOP WATCHING and LISTENING TO ESPN.

It's hot garbage, has been for a long time. It's old and biased, every sport, every segment, it's gross

 

[Dooley]

Second what BankShot said. You can find far more intelligent sports conversation on other channels. Heck, you will find far more intelligent sports conversation here on the 'Yard. ESPiN is nothing more than a PR machine, pumping up their own interests while doing as much as possible to de-value the competition. And yes, UCONN and the AAC is competition to their larger contracts with other conferences. Their "experts" know next to nothing about the sport that they are talking about. The ONLY thing ESPiN should be turned on for is when UCONN is playing on their channels. That's it.

Sadly, most people still go to ESPiN for their sports "news" and simply regurgitate whatever uninformed vomit that they hear on their programs. That's how UCONN's perception gets soiled. Simply stated, if less people watched ESPiN, less people would be dumb.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

I watched that conversation also this morning. It was nonsensical gutter analysis.

 

[dante]

What has happened to Jay Bilas?

 

[tykurez]

What has happened to Jay Bilas?

He's been busy hammering the NCAA.

But I also saw somewhere that he's doing color for the game broadcasts on international markets? Usually he's tweeting some thoughts during the game, but that would explain his lack of comments.

 

[Rondogg]

I was watching M&M this morning. I think it was Bilas who told Greenberg that Kevin Ollie took the Huskies to the stadium in Arlington when the team was in Texas earlier this season.

Greenberg said "this is the first I am hearing of this"? Really? It has been mentioned and shown for the last 3-4 games! He LIVES in CT and he did not know this?!?! I thought it was fairly common knowledge at this point.

Just goes to show how superficial the knowledge depth is on that show!

 

[3RingsCT]

I was watching M&M this morning. I think it was Bilas who told Greenberg that Kevin Ollie took the Huskies to the stadium in Arlington when the team was in Texas earlier this season.

Greenberg said "this is the first I am hearing of this"? Really? It has been mentioned and shown for the last 3-4 games! He LIVES in CT and he did not know this?!?! I thought it was fairly common knowledge at this point.

Just goes to show how superficial the knowledge depth is on that show!

Seth Greenberg had St. Joes beating UConn.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Mike and Mike? You actually listen to that drivel?

ESPN aside ( who I hate) those guys just suck. They know nothing and their shtick is awful too.

 

[bigAbruns]

Seth Greenberg had St. Joes beating UConn.

Seth Greenberg has been to 3 NCAA tourney's in 22 seasons as a head coach, never made it out of the 2nd round and is known for complaining about his VT teams not getting picked as a bubble team. His insight/opinion is worthless.

 

[tykurez]

Seth Greenberg had St. Joes beating UConn.

Different Greenbergs here ...

 

[firstnline]

Could not have said it better myself. What a piece of trash he is.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

These two have to cover every sport. I wouldn't expect them to be experts on college basketball. They are much stronger on MLB and the NFL. So so on the NBA.

 

[CTBasketball]

ESPN is the bane of my existence.

 

[NHUConnfan]

As much as I hate ESPN, I think Dana O'Neil has actually been pretty fair the entire tournament. I think she was a former BE reporter (?) but between her tweets and articles, I think she's been the best of the bunch over there in Bristol.

 

[Kitaman]

I will agree with not taking things personally. We can not let it make us jealous or envious.

Its our team that will correct this madness, so all we can do as fans is keep the mojo going and cheer like you are out of your mind.

 

[dsturdy5]

Second what BankShot said. You can find far more intelligent sports conversation on other channels. Heck, you will find far more intelligent sports conversation here on the 'Yard. ESPiN is nothing more than a PR machine, pumping up their own interests while doing as much as possible to de-value the competition. And yes, UCONN and the AAC is competition to their larger contracts with other conferences. Their "experts" know next to nothing about the sport that they are talking about. The ONLY thing ESPiN should be turned on for is when UCONN is playing on their channels. That's it.

Sadly, most people still go to ESPiN for their sports "news" and simply regurgitate whatever uninformed vomit that they hear on their programs. That's how UCONN's perception gets soiled. Simply stated, if less people watched ESPiN, less people would be dumb.

The reason for this is simple. Most markets don't have or can't afford their own sports networks running 6am-6pm or later. They use ESPN to fill some area and in many cases ESPN contracts that you must carry their morning drive show. BSPN has little to no listener interaction and thus, they control the message. Plain and simple.

 

[3RingsCT]

Different Greenbergs here ...

If we are talking about the NCAA specialist on ESPN, then no. Same Greenberg.

 

[Leebo]

If we are talking about the NCAA specialist on ESPN, then no. Same Greenberg.

They're talking about Mike Greenberg. From Mike and Mike.

 

[hungry husky]

Umass was a 6 seed

 

[BankShot]

I was thinking the same about Greenberg. What since Pearl got the job at Auburn, they need another LOUD MOUTHED OVERRATED coach to take his spot at ESPN? Greenberg sucks and he's picked against us every game, then I looked him up. After about 6 seconds of reviewing him, I realized his opinion was about as credible as the guy who sold me my coffee this am at DD (no respect to Eric at DD)

 

[DogMania]

What has happened to Jay Bilas?

What do mean? Are you referring to him usually being a very good unbiased analyst? He did say some good things about UConn, though not nearly as much as he said about UK. He did say in the end that the game is a toss-up, which can't get any more unbiased. I rarely have issues with him, though I think he's buckling under the ESPN propaganda machine that pimps certain programs and conferences over others.

 

[sportsart]

Didn't know that KO took them to the stadium? Is it so hard to read every story you can about the 2 teams in the finals? That story was everywhere. Lazy journalism.

 

[DogMania]

Mike and Mike? You actually listen to that drivel?

ESPN aside ( who I hate) those guys just suck. They know nothing and their shtick is awful too.

Wow! I really enjoy their show. I don't watch it to get informed on Xs and Os, but more for the overall entertainment. I agree that ESPN has its bias, but it rarely bothers me like it does some of you.

FWIW, I'm getting a tad tired of the victim mentality I keep reading on the yard, and I'm to blame at times as well. Let's act like we're a 3 times NC and soon to be 4, not to mention all the NCs our women's team has accomplished. No matter how much ESPN or anyone to that matter tries to make UConn out as irrelevant, the sports fans around this nation have taken notice that UConn owns college basketball these past 15 years. I'm sure those who don't like our program saw UConn in the NC game for both men and women and had a visceral reaction. That's good enough for me. Hopefully, both we'll have a repeat of 2004 with both teams cutting down their respective nets. If that happens and ESPN or any network tries to downplay that achievement, people will take notice.

 

[BoatShow]

We've made two of the best teams in the country look like utter garbage in MSU and UF. They've been beating decent teams by the skin of their teeth. We're lucky and they're clicking.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Umass was a 6 seed

Anyone using Furious as an avatar is good with me

 

[intlzncster]

What do mean? Are you referring to him usually being a very good unbiased analyst? He did say some good things about UConn, though not nearly as much as he said about UK. He did say in the end that the game is a toss-up, which can't get any more unbiased. I rarely have issues with him, though I think he's buckling under the ESPN propaganda machine that pimps certain programs and conferences over others.

Yup. Other people (rcatalan?) have said this, and I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[Lefty2one]

As much as I hate ESPN, I think Dana O'Neil has actually been pretty fair the entire tournament. I think she was a former BE reporter (?) but between her tweets and articles, I think she's been the best of the bunch over there in Bristol.

I swear she's the only one writing pro-UConn stuff in Bristol.

 

[Kgun7]

What do mean? Are you referring to him usually being a very good unbiased analyst? He did say some good things about UConn, though not nearly as much as he said about UK. He did say in the end that the game is a toss-up, which can't get any more unbiased. I rarely have issues with him, though I think he's buckling under the ESPN propaganda machine that pimps certain programs and conferences over others.

Todd Wright got fired by ESPN because he admitted on the air that he was given a script of his opinions for his appearance on "Around the Horn". Although ... if you go to the Kentucky boards they have a thread about why ESPN is pimping UCONN to win ...

 

[aceboon]

In regards to Jay Bilas, dude just gives canned, lazy analysis these days, I know this board loves him but when you listen to him speak about the players/teams(not just us, everyone) it sounds like some cookie cutter nonsense that anybody could deliver, doesn't even seem as if he watches much film on players and teams. How long did he go throughout the season with his canned response about Bazz with him being "the one player you want with the ball in his hands at the end of the game"...that was it, nothing else about what he does for the rest of the 39 minutes of the game, just that same tired, cliched response repeated ad nauseum. Dude is a personality more than an analyst these days.