ESPN, that world wide leader of sports has cooked up a doozy of an opening in college hoops land. They have decided to air 14 damn games all in a row on November 18th.
The idea, says ESPN programmer Ilan Ben-Hanan, was to create a made-for-TV "stunt" to give college basketball a sort of round-the-clock opening day...
Ben-Hanan says "by no means would we pressure anybody" to take nocturnal tip times. Rather, teams saw it as a "unique exposure opportunity. And we suggested they maybe turn the games into pajama parties."
Yeah? Well break out the milk and cookies! Among the games scheduled are UMass at Memphis, Fresno State at St. Mary's, Iowa at Kansas and Kentucky at North Carolina. Games will span from midnight (EST) on the 18th to approx. 11:30 pm on the 19th.
ESPN sage and college basketball analyst Andy Katz gave his infinite insight into all of this with the following:
None of this was easy to put together. The programming department at ESPN had to work with existing games, tournaments and some previously scheduled games had to be tweaked to come earlier in the season.
Ok. We'll file that in the No Shit department. But we're not complaining. After this dreadfully boring off-season, we would watch Rice at Troy with rapt attention. 
Party at Gabby's!
5 years ago
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