The official start of the 2007-08 regular season isn’t until Friday, but the NCAA exempted the annual Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament, which is starting tonight in Memphis and will run throughout the week at several other sites (Storrs, Lexington, Norman) before holding the championship rounds at MSG next week. ESPN and Comcast have ensured that we won’t be able to see any of this week’s games in our local viewing area – thanks, guys! But jeez, this seems really early – we just changed our clocks for chrissakes. Mike DeCourcy has the best take on the matter:
Once again, instead of the triumphant introduction to the season we have in such sports as NFL football and Major League Baseball, college basketball just sort of stumbles in and grabs a seat in the corner.
With college football and the NFL in full swing, it’ll take until Thanksgiving for anyone to notice that we’re already playing games, but that’s ok. It gives us a chance to bone up on early hits and misses (ahem, Michigan St.) while nobody’s watching.
Here’s the CvC bracket:
A few comments:
- Quick Rant. Why the hell aren’t ESPNU games part of the Full Court Package? That makes completely no sense to us as it seems a natural fit. And yes we’re extremely annoyed that Comcast will not offer ESPNU in our area.
- Predictions. Memphis will roll through its regional, keeping the nation’s longest homecourt winning streak (32) alive. Kentucky will bomb Central Arkansas but struggle with Alabama A&M and shotblocker extraordinaire Mickell Gladness in the second round. UConn will get a game from Todd Bozeman’s Morgan St. squad before faltering, then destroy Buffalo in round two. Our possible upset alert is USF over Oklahoma. The Dons probably don’t have enough to pull it off, but we expect a close game there. Still, we expect Jeff Capel’s OU team to represent the Norman region at MSG next week.
- Quick Fact. Kentucky is 0-2 in this event, with both losses coming in 2000 (UCLA, St. John’s) when it was a four-team tourney. Grab the ball, Tayshaun! That record will change this time around.
View Comments (5)
what's with the non D-I schools (East OK St., Ohio Valley)? I've never seen that before in the CvC...
Good point. We haven't either. The CvC couldn't find enough crappy D1 teams to fill out a sixteen-team bracket??
The "ESPNU not being on Full Court" thing is all about money and leverage. If ESPN places those games on the Full Court package, they have no leverage against cable companies who still refuse to carry the channel. It took Charter in St. Louis until about 15 days ago to FINALLY get ESPNU, so I 'll be watching the CvC early rounds all week.
Gotta tell ya, bud, it's time to get DirecTV. Not only do they have ESPNU (as well as my beloved employer, CSTV), but they also have the Big Ten Network. The way these RSNs keep popping up, DirecTV is worth the investment because that's where they all start. Do you realize that as I ran on my treadmill this afternoon I watched my TiVo of Wisconsin and Ohio State's exhibition games?
Seth, we're very jealous. But not everyone is allowed to have dishes on their apt buildings and/or neighborhoods, so we continue to hope in vain that our cable company will get its act together.
RTC