NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

Arkansas-Little Rock and Asheville were a good way to start the tournament.
Overtime game that wasn't decided until the final seconds. Quality

Random broadcast observations
* As a non-NBA watcher, are Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith always this hilarious? The whole rif they did on U.S. Reed and Barkley graduating from high school in 1981 was pretty damn funny.

* The University of Arkansas-Little Rock was called "UALR, ALR, UNLR, LRU, Arkansas, ALRU, Little Rock and Arkansas -Little Rock University." I might have missed a couple as well.

• Somebody at the studio screamed "ha haa" when they were talking about Gus Johnson calling tomorrow's night games.

• Who is the sportswriter wearing a bow tie on press row and is directly behind the golf whisperer?

* Non broadcast but who else isn't doing their brackets until these first four games are over?

 

Yes, Smith and Barkley are that funny. Even if you don't like the NBA, it's worth watching TNT's show.

Also, UAB doing nothing to disprove it doesn't belong.

And did I hear correctly that Barkley laid some smack down on Jay Bilas?

 

UAB finding out what happens when you play a crap first 10 minutes against someone with more muscle than SMU or Kent State.

 

I'll agree about Barkley and Smith. I rarely watch the NBA before the playoffs start, but sometimes I'll stumble across the TNT postgame show late at night and watch it just to hear them.

That said, it seems like the way they're going to broadcast this is overkill. Why do they need to be in New York and Atlanta? Why do we need Greg Gumbel and Ernie Johnson hosting at halftime, and analysis from Seth Davis and Greg Anthony and Barkley and Smith? (And why do they have Barkley and Smith paired with Gumbel, and Davis and Anthony paired with EJ, instead of the other way around?)

 

TruTV makes broadcasting the MLB playoffs on ABC Family look inspired.

 

While Gus and Len Elmore may be the best team, Nantz, Kellogg and Kerr is still considered the top team by CBS and will be doing the Final Four. Unfortunately.

 

Right now, everyone's in Atlanta; they'll split up after tomorrow's games.

If I'm EJ, I'm thankful that I get to work with Seth Davis and Greg Anthony; he has to work with Chuck and Kenny all the damn time. Might as well make life a little interesting.

 

I may be in the minority on this, but I think Nantz is a pretty good play-by-play man. I like Lundquist and Johnson better, but I think Nantz is good. But I don't believe he's the best possible partner for Kellogg, who I think was a pretty good studio analyst and can be a very good game analyst. (Again, I may be in the minority there.) I also like Kerr as an analyst. But the three of them -- Nantz, Kellogg and Kerr -- don't seem to be as good as the sum of their parts. They're OK -- and it may be unfair to judge them after just a few games -- but not as good as a network's top team ought to be. I think dropping Kellogg or Kerr would help -- not because either one is bad, but because there seems to be too much duplicative analysis between the two of them.

 

As your resident Big South expert ... Matt Dickey has hit big shots like that all year long, so I'm not surprised he tied the game.

Also took great joy out of Kellogg saying that "Dickey's bouncy" after Dickey scored off the dribble once.

 

Is it me, or does Florida State show up in a 7-10 or 8-9 game (that I never know how to pick) every damn year?