ESPN’s choice of interviews following CBS’s selection show on Sunday was quite interesting. While CBS had television feeds piped into teams celebrating because they had just been selected to play in the big dance, ESPN took the counter-view.
One by one they filed in for interviews. Head coaches for three of the eight teams appearing on ESPN’s list of biggest at-large snubs were interviewed. If you were watching, you saw Bob Huggins of Kansas St., Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, and Bruiser Flint of Drexel all state their case as to why they got robbed of a bid.
Considering the fact that CBS holds the television rights to the tournament, it’s not a huge surprise that ESPN initially took a counter-approach. I do have to give kudos to ESPN for their post-tournament selection coverage. I thought it was great TV; I’d much rather hear an interview with a pissed off coach of a team that feels it got jobbed than an interview with a coach excited that his program will be making a first round exit.
Once they got done with the snub interviews, they moved on with true tournament analysis — it was an excellent hour of tournament programming.
