Hey, Bill! good to hear from you.

--- billvol@... wrote:

> 1) Dick Vitale -- He used to be great for the game.
> He IMO largely made
> ESPN what it is today. .... But his ego has
engulfed
> him. He tries to outshine the games he broadcasts.
> And worst of all, he
> pushes his favorite programs and coaches.

Bingo! It's so dreadful, i would actually consider
not watching a game i cared something about because of
him doing the broadcast. Fortunately he only rarely
does SEC broadcasts, and my team doesn't yet play much
on ESPN anyway, so there aren't many games i *REALLY*
care about that have him on there.

> With his influence, this is very
> unfair to the vast majority of programs trying to
> build themselves into
> something.

True, but it's hardly ESPN's goal to be fair. Their
goal is to develop at most half a dozen schools as
national icons that polarize opinion, that everyone
either loves or hates. (See KSR any time Dukie V.
utters 5 words about Duke for an example of why this
is a good strategy -- controversy breeds ratings, and
teams like Duke are controversial.)

> 2) Any arena seating over 16,000.

I generally agree with this sentiment. In this age
of wall-to-wall TV games, it's not like fans can't
watch most any game that would draw a sellout crowd
anyway.

> I would have said
> 15,000, but Memorial
> Gymnasium at Vanderbilt seats over 15,000, and that
> is my favorite arena in
> all of college basketball.

Aww, you're so nice to say so! :) As you mentioned,
Memorial has now been brought down to about 13K (IIRC)
with renovation, which was a good decision IMO.

[Snip comments on Thompson-Boling that i agree with.]

> People may reply that Rupp seats 23,000 or so. They
> are an exception. Rupp
> has a great atmosphere.

Actually, KSR often has threads about how bad the
atmosphere is there. UK wins a lot, and their fans
in general are passionate, so to us on the outside it
looks like a good home atmosphere. But from lurking
there it appears the "fan$" closest to the court are
not exactly the rabid college kids willing to make a
fools out of themselves, if you get my drift. UNC's
another good example; Carmichael Auditorium was
considered a great home-court advantage, whereas the
Dean Dome's just big.

Btw, that reminds me of what schools should do as far
as atmosphere: learn from Michigan State and their
"Izzone". When they moved to a bigger arena, instead
of putting big donors courtside they asked them to
endow places for the students to surround the court (I
think, or something like that). Here's an
interesting story on kids having to choose between
going to Ann Arbor for a football game and buying
Izzone tickets:
http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=545

> I read Georgia fans saying they want to build
> a new arena.

That's insane. They don't fill up Stegeman, do they?


OK, here's some things i could do without:

- So many early-season cupcakes.

A few are ok to prep your team, but some of the
schedules are ridiculous. Fortunately this tendency
has gone away because 1. people talk about SoS and RPI
a lot more nowadays, and 2. John Thompson has retired.

- Conference tournaments

This'll be controversial, and i've somewhat softened
my stance. They're kinda fun, actually, but (aside
from Kentucky fans) does anyone really remember or
even *care* who wont the conference tourney after
Selection Sunday? I sure don't. Quick, who won it
two years ago? I had to think for the answer, and my
team got directly screwed by it!

I would, however, like to see the SEC have a one-game
playoff, like in football. Or if two teams finish
tied in a division, let them play off like in
baseball. One game would be fun; Auburn-South
Carolina on a Thursday afternoon with 40 thousand
seats in the Georgia Dome isn't.

- Recruiting analysts

Actually i'm being hypocritical here, because i like
the ratings for discussion purposes. But they're so
blatantly biased toward the name programs, i wouldn't
really mind if they perished from the earth.

OK, that's my list.

later,
Philip

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1