Haha I was going to point that out to you but I had to pinch myself to make sure it really said that. CBSSports's caption of their title has "Whew!" in it, too

That could be the worst announcing team I have ever heard. The play-by-play guy sounds like he is doing a bad impression of a radio DJ, and Wetzel is simply an idiot for whom English may be a second language.

I fully agree AA. I'm not sure what to make of this garbage. Did Wetzel see the Minnesota-Indiana game last week with 1.5 seconds left?
Blake Hoffarber's "tip in" was the only possible way Minnesota could have won that one, know that. Wetzel is cut from the team!

Granted ... it's women's hoops ... but he might have wanted to watch the Big Ten women's tourney championship, when a Purdue girl missed a jumper and followed, grabbed the board and tossed it up ... all in 3.1 seconds.

Good thing it was 3.1 ... or she just would have had time for a tip ... haha.

If Wisconsin survives Fullerton, do you think there would be a "Whew" headline.?

Trick question--ESPN wouldn't make the Wisconsin game the headline anyway. Duke could have won by 31 and they would still be the headline story.

I'm all for calling out ESPN when they're off-base, but really, what else would you have put? That was clearly the story of the day thusfar.

Willmott, it's not about the story's placement on the front page. That's fine, it should be there. It's the headline. Everyone believes there's a Duke bias anyway...and then you go and put a "Whew!" up in the title? Come on.

Wilmott = Dumbass

No shit it goes on the front page, the point is the "Whew!" moron.

Perfect example: Ufford over at With Leather throws up a headline that says "Phew! Xavier escapes scare from Georgia." He throws the "Phew" in there because he has Xavier in the Elite 8 in a money pool. So for him, it's a relief, which is where the "Phew" comes in.

Same for ESPN--their golden school escapes, so they're relieved as well.

Just in case you still don't get it, do you think that Belmont fans were saying "Whew!" when the game was over?

No need for name calling, but yes that was the point. They're saying phew, so they have something to talk about and Bobby Knight can tell stories about how he coached Coach K.

yeah because if duke as a two seed lost in one of the biggest tourney upsets ever they wouldnt have anything to talk about.
there is no duke bias outside of bilas and any other former players there have. vitale loves duke and carolina equally, moreso whoever is on top. espn naturally gives more attention to the biggest programs.
they fucking love jumping on duke when they lose, you guys are trying too hard, just enjoy the face that is was a hell of a game

Really now? It was a crappy headline, and nothing more.

ESPN used "Whew!" because it would be the exclamation of the team who won; in this case, it was Duke. Does ESPN have a bias towards any teams where they use some sort of exclamation like that?

Honestly, to me, this is only slightly less ridiculous than Donald Fehr saying that MLB is colluding against Barry Bonds. Again, I'll jump in and join the chorus anytime that ESPN deserves to be called out, but this is closer to a witch hunt than anything.

BTW, MSNBC has roughly the same headline, and since they've got just the AP's text, I wouldn't be shocked if they just pulled the AP's headline, since all they had up was the AP's recap at that point.

Then again, there's the question of whether ESPN should've just used a stock headline, but that's another argument......

the main story splash on espn.com now says 'But in turning back Belmont 71-70, a little more Duke mystique was lost.'

the article essentially says duke is not what they used to be and are an ordinary team. god espn loves duke so much its sickening!

its kind of bullshit actually. they had a down year last year, and are incredibly young this season and overachieved from what people expected. they bring up the old 'havent won a title since 01' argument. yeah well theres only been one repeat champion in that period and look where they are now, in the fucking NIT.

Thank you for writing about what a moron Bob Wenzel is. I've been sitting here just scowling at the TV every time he talks. I googled Wenzel just to find who else in this world hates him and thankfully I was directed to your blog. Wenzel clearly wants desperately to be Dick Vitale(who I don't like either). Today, in imitation of Dick Vitale's "Are you kidding me?" line, Wenzel said in the same voice "Are you joking with me?"-- that was just one of the hundred idiotic things that came out of his mouth today. I hope the Execs at CBS are lining up to fire the guy the minute this tournament is over.