Commentary by Mark Wiedmer
It was every hoop junkie’s extremely early Christmas present. From midnight Monday until early this morning, ESPN televised a total of 18 basketball games over its seemingly endless family of outlets.
If you fell asleep watching St. John’s lose to St. Mary’s after catching Memphis over Miami, no need to despair. Central Michigan tipped it off at Hawaii on Tuesday at 4 a.m., followed two hours later by Stony Brook at Monmouth.
By 6 Tuesday night we’d learned that No. 3 Kansas State may be for real while Virginia Tech should thank its heretofore unlucky stars that the NCAA tournament is adding three teams. Playing as they did in losing 73-57 at KSU, the No. 24 Hokies looked like anything but a certain pick for March Madness.
Of course, the UConn women again look like an all but certain pick to reach another Final Four and defend their national championship after winning their 80th straight game by outlasting Baylor.
By the time Tennessee’s Volunteers hosted Belmont at 9:30, it was almost enough to make you forget the Cam Newton Soap Opera for at least one night. Almost.
The only shame of this magical marathon was that the UT-Chattanooga was left out of the mix, relegated to a sparsely attended Monday night last-second loss to Austin Peay and tonight’s visit to giant-killer Kennesaw State, which shocked Georgia Tech on Monday.
“I’m still dealing with Caleb Brown’s 3-pointer,” UTC coach John Shulman said Tuesday, the image of Brown’s game-winner tough to forget.
“We did try to get on the Marathon schedule. We wanted our game with Tennessee to be on there. But they were already playing Belmont in the NIT Tip-Off first round, and we couldn’t work out anything else.”
Shulman would love to play in it next season.
“I don’t know that I’d want to play at 4 in the morning,” he said with a chuckle. “But playing at 8 a.m. might be fun. It’s a unique concept, very exciting.”
UTC athletic director Rick Hart agreed.
“I’d be in favor of it,” Hart said. “I think it’s pretty neat. And any time you can get on ESPN’s family of networks, you’re getting some great exposure for your program.”
Mocs super fan Doug Dyer has followed the program for most of his life. As soon as he graduated from the school in 1981, he became a season-ticket holder.
“I’d definitely come, even at 4 in the morning,” he said. “The publicity would be great. It’s a unique, novel idea.”
Exactly whom to play could become dicey, though ESPN filled its morning drive-time games with Stony Brook/Monmouth (6), Robert Morris/Kent State (8) and Northeastern/Southern Illinois (10).
Surely the Mocs could convince Ohio Valley Conference members Austin Peay, UT-Martin, Tennessee State or Murray State to drive down for dribbles and doughnuts.
In fact, why not reach out to Dunkin’ Donuts as a sponsor? The first 3,500 fans get a free cup of coffee or hot chocolate and a doughnut. The second 3,500 get a Munchkin.
Assuming the game tips off at 6, if the Mocs get at least six dunks, the company could also give a free doughnut to anyone bringing in a ticket stub between 6 and 8 a.m. the following week.
If it tips off at 2 a.m., reward the best flannel pajama outfit -after all, we want children to attend.
Said UTC kicker Jeff Veres, one of many football players who seldom miss a basketball game: “I think that’d be kind of a cool thing to go to. I know I would attend it and I think we could pull together a lot of students to go to it.”
Naturally, ESPN would have to see something special in the Mocs. Then a lot of UTC fans beyond the students would need to embrace it.
But consider Hart already on board.
“Play at an unorthodox time, have a lot of fun with it,” he said.
Basketball and biscuits never sounded better.