UCLA-Cal Basketball Game Relegated to Tape Delay in Los Angeles Market
It’s bad enough that some UCLA football games get tape delayed in the local LA market. It’s somewhat understandable when games against Montana on a busy NFL Sunday are delayed until later in the evening. But there is something that will not be acceptable regardless of the day, time, or issue: UCLA basketball should never be bumped off a live slot.
What is this, 1965 with Dick Enberg calling games on KTLA to be shown at 11pm after the local news? How can a brand name and fan base as wide and powerful as the UCLA Bruins get the disrespect of being pushed off live TV? It’s incomprehensible and quite frankly maddening.
The Pac-10 is generally a strong basketball conference, but it’s been down for the past two seasons ever since a rash of highly-talented players left school. This season has been more of the same; Washington is the only ranked team in the conference (20th, 13-4), ad Arizona is the next best team at 15-3. The conference is undoubtedly down, which means even when the top two teams meet it doesn’t become must-see TV. Think about it: not having Molly around never made Marnie hotter — she was always just average looking — same rule applies for U-Dub and Arizona.
That’s beyond the point anyway — I don’t care if it’s Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson, Jon Brockman, Todd MacCulloch, and Detlef freaking Schrempf facing Gilbert Arenas, Steve Kerr, Richard Jefferson, Sean Elliott, and Channing Frye. You don’t play a Washington-Arizona game over UCLA-Cal in the LA-market no matter what. How can you ignore both UCLA and USC basketball in LA on a Thursday night in January? It makes no sense, and the fans in LA deserve to be served their home teams.
