We’re not accustomed to good, slice-and-dice sarcasm from TV’s college basketball analysts, so at first Thursday night, it seemed as if Stan Van Gundy, the former NBA coach, was playing a tepid, tired hand.
With UMass up four over Rhode Island, 1:16 left in their Atlantic 10 Tournament game, as televised by NBCSN (seen here on SNY), the game stopped — as in dead, and for several minutes — for the refs to gather at a video monitor.
The refs had convened to determine, in triplicate, whether the original call — URI’s ball after it landed out of bounds — was supported by video evidence. Finally, the original call stood.
Such replay reviews kick in with two minutes left, and Van Gundy went into what first seemed like one of those simplistic, “It’s good that they get it right” spiels. He said he loves replay rules, so much so that “they should replay every call in the game, and just have these games take five or six hours.” Sweet!
Then more: “There’s nothing better for a fan than getting to watch the officials stand around a monitor …”
“You want all the calls to be right. Why does the call in the last two minutes have to be right, if you’re going to make mistakes in the first 38 minutes? That’s what I don’t get. I don’t like any rule that only applies to certain points in the game.”
Amen! Amen to that! How is a bad or iffy call with six minutes left in a close game any less significant than one with 1:56 or :43 left? Every call changes every game, starting with the first one!
And the questionable call made with 2:01 left goes uninspected, while, had the whistle blown one second later, it’s subjected to stop-everything, slow-motion, freeze-frame inspections and extensive examinations to “get it right.”
Perhaps replay should be used to determine if the whistle was blown at 2:00 or at 2:01? Why not?
These are not games of perfect. Never were, never could be, never will be. They’re games,for crying out loud. That there might be “a lot at stake” is a matter of opinion and was never a matter of original intent, but is now more a matter of what money, especially TV money, has done to them.
But they’re still games. Leave them alone. Play ball!
And thanks, Stan Van Gundy, we needed that.
It’s raining scary court-storming stories
The college basketball “court-storming” piece that appeared here last week produced a stack of emails with first-person accounts of being caught, helpless, in sudden, terrifying mob-rushes.
From ticket lines being breached, to being carried away by frenzied masses at concerts, to being pushed and pasted into barricades, hallways and stairwells at sports events, to fathers and their kids being swallowed, separated and terrorized, the writers told of their abject, no-way-out fear of being injured, trampled and even suffocated beneath a pile of the identically helpless.
That so many of TV’s college basketball experts — otherwise responsible adults — would condone and even advocate mass court-storming as a fun, school-spirited group activity is astonishing — even given today’s pandering, bad-is-good standards.
Reader John Busacca wrote that on one hand, broadcasters will inform us their network chooses not to show some bozo who runs onto the field because, “We don’t want to encourage such behavior,” yet a more dangerous act as performed by a mob will be encouraged and shown.
Ticket trickery rampant
The Land of Bilk and Money: Tickets sold to pro sports events around here should come with bold-print caveats, a “P.T. Barnum Clause” acknowledging purchasers have surrendered their right to be treated as anything better than a sucker.
G.S., a longtime Mets’ season’s ticket holder — the very best kind of patron the Mets can hope for, regardless of whether they deserve him — sent his annual check.
Weeks later, he read a come-on from a company that has made a deal with the Mets, selling tickets to a bunch of the same games and in the same seating level but for a lot less than what he paid.
Then there’s Paul Giannone. Weeks ago he spent more than $200 for tickets to April 13’s Bulls-Knicks because it was a 1:05 Sunday start. Perfect! He has to be at work at 5 p.m.
This week he was informed that the game has been changed to a 7:30 start.
- The college student-athlete capital of the United States? Las Vegas. Three Division I college conference tournaments — the Pac 12, the West Coast, the WAC — were held in Vegas. It’s because of all the libraries and, of course, the town curfew.
- Did you see “the new” Barry Bonds, San Francisco’s one-week spring training batting coach? The man’s all slimmed down, head to toe, ear to ear! Must be on Lipo Kill Ultra Slim Nutri Quick Fast — the clear and the cream.
- A very neat exhibit opened Friday at the New York Historical Society, Central Park West at 77th Street. “The Black Fives” is a collection of old photos, yellowed news clippings, medals and other artifacts of long-ago African-American NYC basketball teams, including some from 100 years ago. The exhibit runs into July.
- All this time I thought a bracketologist was the guy who put braces on kids’ teeth.
- Question: Would it be rude, or even impolitic, for even one of TV’s college basketball analysts or reporters to ask a kid how, given his impoverished background, he was able to cover his body in elaborate and expensive tattoos?
- Last week here, we asked this about MLB’s added replay rules: “So a replay shows the shot hit down the line that was first ruled foul, actually was fair. Now what?” Reader MPM: “If Robinson Cano is the batter, the answer’s simple: Single.”
- TV’s college basketball announcers keep telling us we’re headed for “a media timeout,” as if some newspaper guys need a bathroom break or another sandwich. Cut it out. It’s a “TV timeout,” a TV money timeout.
- To borrow from colleague Cindy “Only in New York” Adams, last week I was in Midtown when I saw a way-down-and-out man on a mat, a cardboard sign reading that he’s “homeless” in front of him, a spare-change can in front of it. On a belt loop sewn to his dirty, torn pants was a large key ring — loaded with keys.