ESPN Love

[rserina]

Well, not really. Their online recap has one minute worth of (four) highlights, then a minute and a half on the Noel injury (including four different clips of Calipari responding to questions about the injury).

Then their Sportcenter commentary (if I heard it correctly) basically questioned whether the Florida that played Arkansas will show up in the tournament or the Florida that played Kentucky. Apparently, no one else has played a bad game on the road this year and that one bad game surely outweighs the twenty other wins or the two close losses on the road we had.

I don't really buy the "ESPN hates the Gators" line, but I tuned in hoping to see some commentary on a pretty dominant win, maybe some praise for Young, Wilbekin, and Prather, especially in a dominant win over a ranked team while playing shorthanded and winning our tenth league game in eleven tries by 14 points or more. What I found out is the game didn't mean too awful much.

[InstiGATOR1]

Yeah, the theme of the week is everyone in college basketball sucks. So they are not willing to deviate from that theme. MSU and UF made it a bit hard on them, but they are not thinker, just repeaters so repeat the theme they did.

[GothamGator]

That's really too bad. ESPN is, of course, a joke with its sports coverage. Nobody would even pay attention to SportsCenter if the network didn't already have the rights to so many games. The show is terrible and biased.

This all reminds me of 2006. After we blew out our first two opponents in the Big Dance, I remember watching the CBS coverage to see the highlights and hear their commentary on our chances going forward. I stayed up late to watch a full one hour broadcast.

They didn't mention us. Not one word, and they covered all 15 of the other teams. If we continue to fly under the radar this year and have the same result, that would be fine with me.

[Spiff24]

This Florida team has struggled against tough teams on the road. They have every right to question which team will show up on the road for March Madness. I think the games at Mizzou and Rupp will tell us how prepared this team is for the tourney.

[rserina]

This Florida team has struggled against tough teams on the road. They have every right to question which team will show up on the road for March Madness. I think the games at Mizzou and Rupp will tell us how prepared this team is for the tourney.
You don't play on the road in March Madness; you play at a neutral site. I guess you could count K-State, though a 12/23 game in the town with their biggest alumni base that just so happens to be a halfway across the country for us is hardly a neutral venue, but that is the only relevant game I can come up with.

You would think given such a small sample size that they might show a little bit of basketball acumen (maybe they did earlier, as I only caught part of the segment) and talk about things like how difficult it us to defend our floor spacing with five three point shooters or how effective we are defending the ball or how Young and Murphy pretty well dominated action in the posts or how we were able to adjust our handling to create more dribble drive opportunities by camping Murphy in the corner off ball screens or how we smartly identified mismatches and switched some defensive coverages after switches to minimize others.

I would say those things tend to transcend venue.

[GothamGator]

Yes, but they require actual knowledge of the game and not just the ability to convincingly parrot known opinions.

[rserina]

If we continue to fly under the radar this year and have the same result, that would be fine with me.
Seriously. But Bilas and Katz have always been pretty good to us, especially Bilas this year. Whenever I hear him cover the top teams in the nation, he has mentioned us with effusive praise. Of course, he usually accompanies it with some hoops related analysis of why he thinks that, maybe because he can see how solid we play.

[gatorbogey]

yes, there seems to be some sort of agenda half the time. bilas and katz, though, do tend to buck that agenda. they are thoughtful and knowledgeable. analytical too.

half the time, i think it's because they do have pre-set preconceptions going into games and they practice those points. very few are able to ab lib properly or effectively after a game that may buck those preconceptions.

[up]

I thought Scott Van Pelt talked pretty favorably about the Gators during that segment. It was only Jay Williams (or the guy with the ugly vest) that had the terrible 'which team shows up for our first game of the tournament' argument.

[bullish]

I laughed at the TV announcers, Dickie V wanted to talk about how Kentucky had rounded a corner and were heading to the top. But, Florida showed up with focus, urgency and an experienced team wanting to make up for the 3 game sweep last year. Dickie wasn't prepared for the blowout. Patrick outplayed their bigs, our guards kept the pressure on the Kentucky team all night. It will be hard seeing Boynton and Rosario leave, as to their speed, scoring and defense. Next year we will be like Kentucky, a whole new team except, we will have experienced players mixed in.

Dickie V. partner for the night kept telling Dickie he needed to go home and get some sleep so he will be prepared for Duke/NC tomorrow. I don't know if he was referring that this was a blowout so go home or that he wasn't prepared for a Florida Blowout! LOL

[Donzo]

They have every right to question which team will show up on the road for March Madness. I think the games at Mizzou and Rupp will tell us how prepared this team is for the tourney.

Really?

So, in the NCAA tournament UF will be playing all their opponents in their opponent’s house?

[swampgas44]

Seriously. But Bilas and Katz have always been pretty good to us, especially Bilas this year. Whenever I hear him cover the top teams in the nation, he has mentioned us with effusive praise. Of course, he usually accompanies it with some hoops related analysis of why he thinks that, maybe because he can see how solid we play.

Katz picked Kentucky to win in his "Experts" show yesterday afternoon. Everyone else picked UF. :huh:

[orangeblueorangeblue]

Ah yes, they're all against us.

1 minute of highlights is pretty standard. Noel's injury is a significant story.

[tilly]

Ah yes, they're all against us.

1 minute of highlights is pretty standard. Noel's injury is a significant story.

On the national scene it is THE significant story.

[wci347]

Well, not really. Their online recap has one minute worth of (four) highlights, then a minute and a half on the Noel injury (including four different clips of Calipari responding to questions about the injury).

Then their Sportcenter commentary (if I heard it correctly) basically questioned whether the Florida that played Arkansas will show up in the tournament or the Florida that played Kentucky. Apparently, no one else has played a bad game on the road this year and that one bad game surely outweighs the twenty other wins or the two close losses on the road we had.

I don't really buy the "ESPN hates the Gators" line, but I tuned in hoping to see some commentary on a pretty dominant win, maybe some praise for Young, Wilbekin, and Prather, especially in a dominant win over a ranked team while playing shorthanded and winning our tenth league game in eleven tries by 14 points or more. What I found out is the game didn't mean too awful much.

The Arkansas game was more of the Razorbacks playing out of their minds than Florida playing poorly. We could have made a better effort defensively and shot better, but they were hitting almost everything they put up in the first half. At one point with +12 shots attempted they were over 80%. Many of those were 3s. It was their night and not ours. If they play just average, and the K State and Arizona games didn't result in last minute meltdowns we are undefeated and consensus #1.

[LoboGator]

Digger has been fan of ours all along.

[bakaduin]

You think ESPN is bad? Read this article. http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/12/florida-beats-kentucky-but-its-wasnt-exactly-impressive/

[gatorchris]

Ah yes, they're all against us.

1 minute of highlights is pretty standard. Noel's injury is a significant story.

Yep, us winning was expected, so they arent going to gush over it. Noel's injury is a much bigger deal, he was the likely #1 pick, leading shot blocker in the NCAA, SEC POY candidate, and the focal point of his team, which is a year removed from a championship. Losing him pretty much equals the end to Kentucky's chances at another run. Some of you are stretching to make this into "ESPN hates us".

[orangeblueorangeblue]

It's that simple, really. If Kentucky lost to Georgia and Nerlens was injured it'd be the same thing, even though UGA beating UK is a much, much bigger story than a top 10 team beating Kentucky.

We have to have thicker skin.

[UFG8rGuy3283]

You think ESPN is bad? Read this article. http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/12/florida-beats-kentucky-but-its-wasnt-exactly-impressive/

The guy who wrote that article needs to put down the meth pipe.

I never felt as if we were in danger last night.

17 points on your home court with a completely dominating performance defensively and the guy says we weren't overly impressive.

WTH do these people want?

[CASontag]

Digger has been fan of ours all along.

True, but I think now he's drumming up the fact that he had picked Miami to do well all along, so I think that's his "team" for now ;-) Of course he still shows UF some love, but I think he's much higher on Miami which is understandable in light of their current winning streak in the ACC. Not sure who's going to upset Miami in the regular season but heck I didn't see UF losing to Arkansas so anything can happen. Anyway, I hope I can catch UF at Auburn somewhere on TV (chances are looking dim thanks to the SEC Network *sigh*).

[crapgame44]

Anyone pick up on Vitale calling Wilbekin "Wu Bekin". LOL