NCAA Tournament Thursday Open Thread: Window #2

Thursday, March 20, 2008


(11) Kentucky (18-12) vs (6) Marquette (24-9) 2:30 PM South (Anaheim): Carter Blackburn and Jay Bilas
(11) Baylor (21-10) vs (6) Purdue (24-8) 2:50 PM West (Washington, DC): Craig Bolerjack and Bob Wenzel
(9) Kent State (28-6) vs (8) UNLV (26-7) 2:55 PM Midwest (Omaha): Kevin Harlan and Dan Bonner
(13) Oral Roberts (24-8) vs (4) Pittsburgh (26-9) 3:00 PM South (Denver): Gus Johnson and Len Elmore
(14) Cornell (22-5) vs (3) Stanford (26-7) 4:55 PM South (Anaheim): Dick Enberg/Carter Blackburn and Jay Bilas

Spreads: Marquette -6 (O/U 129), Purdue -3 (O/U 145), Kent State -2.5 (O/U 127), Pitt -8.5 (O/U 127), Stanford -15 (O/U 137)
AA's Picks: Kentucky +6, Baylor +3, Kent State -2.5, Pitt -8.5, Cornell +15

I'm getting Kentucky-Marquette like most of you, and keep the comments coming.
_____________________________________

Is anyone else really disappointed with the MMOD? i think the picture quality is absolutely terrible. i know, don't complain about something that's free, but hey.. (Via Vic)

Yeah it was much better last year.

Is it just me or is Carter Blackburn sounding a lot like Mike Adamele. I am half expecting him to announce Dominic James having to go through Gemini and Nitro in Breakthrough and Conquer. (Via AR)

Does Jay Bilas ever stop talking?

When's the CBI live blog? (Via StalkingErinAndrews)

When is Richmond vs. Virginia???

Anybody see that in the Baylor game? dude just threw it up, not down...never seen that before guess it doesn't count if you make the basket from the bottom of the goal. (Via JD)

Yeah that was completely random. And Kent State with 10 points in the first half. Unbelivable.



Okay...your choice of joke....

A) Is that Topher Grace?
B) Is it take your kid to work day?

Thank you....thank you.

AA, picking Georgia over Xavier? Tsk tsk those trendy picks will get you nowhere! *goes back to watching Baylor get blown out*...goddamnit (Via JD)

Haha...I picked Baylor too. I suck.

Where's Enberg? (Via Mal)

He gets very tired these days. Must take breaks.

"When you give the guy the ball with the shot clock running down it is like handing him a hand grenade with the pin pulled out".- Jay Bilas (Via Mal)

What's everybody drinking today? How's that for a conversation starter? Bud Light. Go. (Via JD)

Just got some Red Bulls for my Vodka. Trying to turn this up a notch.

"They're going to have to do it over Joe Crawford who's played like Two and a Half Men."- Jay Bilas

Oh my god....that is so bad.

Is there a worse time to "win" a jump ball than with 1 second on the shot clock? You're going to turn it over anyway, might as well keep the arrow. (Via Spartan Dan)

I couldn't think of one. You probably shouldn't even jump....although I did see someone tip in a jump before. Also, HD seemed to be on the fritz but it's back now. That would have ruined my day.

I know I've given Mr. Carter Blackburn, esquire, a bit of a tough time here. But, he's pretty decent. He doesn't take away from the game. He doesn't talk over Bilas - which is tough because Bilas likes to talk. Not bad, Mr. Carter Blackburn. (Via Mal)

I agree. He wasn't bad at all (although he looks five) and actually made me enjoy Bilas a bit. So Pitt, Purdue, and Marquette look to be moving on. Can someone say chalk?

Here's just about the only highlight of the day.....



"What a run by the Giants. Eli and company."- Craig Bolerjack

Anyone hear about that? The Super Bowl???

Who's got USC/KSU? Nantz/Packer or Lundquist/Raftery? (Via Mike)

Kevin Harlan and Dan Bonner

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 2:24 PM

64 Comments:

is anyone else really disappointed with the MMOD? i think the picture quality is absolutely terrible. i know, don't complain about something that's free, but hey..

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:46:00 PM  

I just wish I had a better internet connection here at work. I'm running crappy Verizon DSL. It feels like I have 3200 bps dial up. I even tried using Joost because they also have the MMOD and its just as bad. My earlier wood soon became an innie.

Jeremy said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:48:00 PM  

Welcome to the Madness, Carter Blackburn. Anyone else things he sounds like a younger Ian Eagle?

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:50:00 PM  

holy crap, apparently no one from Kentucky or Marquette wanted to make the trip to Anaheim to see this game. they should have had Stanford open this set of games to get some butts in the seats. This is the worst tournament game I've ever seen and the lack of crowd is part of it.

pete said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:52:00 PM  

AA, my television says I am getting a Kansas/Kentucky/Duke/Notre Dame quadrupleheader. Congratulations to CBS for ESPN-izing the tournament. I think I'd rather watch "Deal or No Deal" than be forced to watch Duke. Thank God for MMOD.

J.J. said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:52:00 PM  

Jay Bilas got some growl in his voice early. It's so cute when he tries to do his Bill Raftery impersonations.

Signal to Noise said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:52:00 PM  

Is the SID job for UNLV one of the hardest in sports? I mean, how often do you need to talk to players/coaches about not getting embroiled in some gambling scandal? Twice a month? Once a week?

Mez said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:54:00 PM  

Well, here comes my upset special for today - Oral Roberts over Pitt. I'll pull that one up on MMOD while Kentucky-Marquette is on the TV.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 2:55:00 PM  

The mmod time out is really annoying. can't they play a sound or something so you know in case the window isn't open? and why can't you see the score and time of the game you're watching at the bottom of the screen? when the game goes to timeout you don't know what it is.

pete said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:06:00 PM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:11:00 PM  

"Does Jay Bilas ever stop talking?"

Only when Greg Gumbel changes the game for me. And I wanted to see the Bilastrator.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:15:00 PM  

When's the CBI live blog?

Mar 20, 2008, 3:17:00 PM  

Deadspin's servers are crapping out faster than Kansas was scoring baskets, so you have my full attention AA.

The whole score symmetry of window one was spooky. All teams losing at the half scored 26. All teams that lost ended up with 61. Kentucky avoided the first half of this little spook fest with 29. I was nervous for awhile.

Mike Adamle is with WWE now. Messing up every line he tries to say. It saddens me. Guess it's good American Gladiators was never live.

I have great MMOD quality, idk what's wrong on your end. It gets slow occasionally, but that's more our speed connection than anything.

Finally, Kent State is sucking copious amounts of cock.

Zak said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:28:00 PM  

Had to turn on MMOD to watch the Purdue game. The quality is garbage. I'd gladly pay for $100 to get high quality video of the tournament.

Justin Williams said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:29:00 PM  

LOL

anybody see that in the Baylor game? dude just threw it up, not down...never seen that before guess it doesn't count if you make the basket from the bottom of the goal.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:32:00 PM  

Kent State is a #9 seed. That's just disgusting.

Signal to Noise said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:42:00 PM  

NCAA...where 10 points in 20 minutes equals a point every two minutes happens.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:43:00 PM  

Kent State, nice work. You could see this coming, they blow. Well, I guess they're probably tired from every analyst on every network slangin their D. I did not hear one person pick UNLV or even discuss the possibility of them winning. Bilas and everyone were all over Kent's D.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:45:00 PM  

So much for my upset special ... 39-18 Pitt is not the start I was looking for. (Nor is 31-10 UNLV, for that matter, but since Kansas is going to kill either of them it doesn't matter that much.)

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:46:00 PM  

AA, picking Georgia over Xavier?

Tsk tsk those trendy picks will get you nowhere!

*goes back to watching Baylor get blown out*

...goddamnit

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:46:00 PM  

In the Baylor game, Bob Wenzel just said: "His shoulders got square...that's why I made the shot."

Didn't realize you were on the team, Bob. Walk-on or transfer?

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:48:00 PM  

Where's Enberg?

Mal said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:50:00 PM  

I'm gonna have to go with joke B, although it gets a little uncomfortable...look at the way Bilas is shooting Blackburn that "Ohhh yeah" stare, shitty smirk...the tension is thick and I ain't talkin' bout the game.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 3:53:00 PM  

That's the hack callin the game with Jay? No wonder he blows, what a tool.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:00:00 PM  

Bilas: "When you give the guy the ball with the shot clock running down it is like handing him a hand grenade with the pin pulled out".

Mal said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:01:00 PM  

On the plus side ... at least the only mildly interesting game in this time slot is the one we get here anyway. The rest have gotten ugly in a hurry.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:02:00 PM  

Why in the hell am i still watching the Kent game? This should be illegal.

Mez said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:04:00 PM  

You must be in Ohio or Nevada, mez.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:05:00 PM  

It took Kent 3 minutes and 22 seconds to score what they did in the 1st half (10 pts). Their reward for this hurry up? The lead on them grew by a point (22 instead of 21).

Oops, make that 4 points.

Zak said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:07:00 PM  

No Wikipedia page for Mr. Carter Blackburn. Anyone care to start one for the intrepid young announcer?

Mal said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:08:00 PM  

Welp that's ballgame for UK. I'm calling it with 8 pt lead for Marquette with 9 mins left. Bring out the UK hate, I'll accept.

If there's one positive thing I can take from this...hopefully Patterson's ankle will be healed 100% for next year...

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:10:00 PM  

What's everybody drinking today? How's that for a conversation starter?

Bud Light. Go.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:15:00 PM  

Carter Blackburn - son of Louis Winthorpe III and Muffy. Began career as an intern at Duke and Duke before completing his education in broadcast journalism at Yale. Likes hair gel, grey poupon and shopping at Brooks Brothers with his VERY white trohpy wife, Mimsy.

Mal said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:16:00 PM  

What the heck? Anyone else have an HD outage for the Kentucky-Marquette game? I'm just getting the SD feed on the HD channel with the black side bars

Willmott said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:20:00 PM  

Had something happen to it here too, willmott.

Is there a worse time to "win" a jump ball than with 1 second on the shot clock? You're going to turn it over anyway, might as well keep the arrow.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:28:00 PM  

I have MMM on Directv, and twice now all the games not on locally have gone out. Not that I'm missing anything right now. Anyone else having this problem?

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:32:00 PM  

Yep....same thing has happened to me DOS. Anyone else extremely bored with these games.

Mar 20, 2008, 4:35:00 PM  

Kentucky keeps fouling away from the ball on a guy who's a terrible FT shooter, and they're not getting called for intentional fouls. That's ridiculous.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:35:00 PM  

Crawford finally decides to hit a contested three....with 38 secs left.

*burps, indigestion*

This day has it's give and take, I'm a mess.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:37:00 PM  

I agree about the timeout being annoying on MMOD. I'm just listening to the audio (video is choppy at work), so I am not looking at the screen that much, and then all of a sudden I am kicked out.

Andy said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:37:00 PM  

I know I've given Mr. Carter Blackburn, esquire, a bit of a tough time here. But, he's pretty decent. He doesn't take away from the game. He doesn't talk over Bilas - which is tough because Bilas likes to talk. Not bad, Mr. Carter Blackburn.

Mal said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:38:00 PM  

eh spartan they weren't intentional, they just happened to run into the guy...and slap him...no biggie

*wink*

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:38:00 PM  

Hopefully the Stanford game will actually be a contest. Otherwise, I might actually show my face at work today... at least for a few minutes.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:39:00 PM  

Bilas: "the ball went off his noggin". Did he get a boo-boo on his tummy, too?

Mal said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:42:00 PM  

Carter Blackburn is a good broadcaster. Good enough to be a part of the 3 or 4 CBS team and getting a more national audience for his first game.

Blackburn is from a suburb of San Antonio, TX and once did a regional game for the NFL on FOX. I believe it was STL/SF opening weekend 2 or 3 years ago.

Mikey said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:42:00 PM  

ball went off his noggin...

I was expecting to hear a "nyuk nyuk nyuk".

Noggin?

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:44:00 PM  

*rips up bracket and spits*

every goddamn year...

*cries*

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:46:00 PM  

Gotta give Carter props. Not a bad job at all. Kentucky, on the other hand, continues my streak of upset picks gone wrong.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:48:00 PM  

Of course, they take us to UNLV-Kent State (which is, for all practical purposes, over) instead of one of the games with 6-7 minutes left (although those aren't exactly exciting either).

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:48:00 PM  

Don't like bolerjack and wenzel - well at least not wenzel. I'll turn it to Pitt v. ORU and see if Gus can make that frog-strangle interesting.

Mal said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:54:00 PM  

So who looks the youngest, Carter or Purdue's Scott Martin?

Ross said...
Mar 20, 2008, 4:57:00 PM  

Tough choice Ross....I'd go with Blackburn. New thread going up around 630 or so. Have to find some food and drink some more Red Bull.

Mar 20, 2008, 5:04:00 PM  

Who's got USC/KSU? Nantz/Packer or Lundquist/Raftery?

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:06:00 PM  

Who's got USC/KSU?

Kevin Harlan & Dan Bonner

And I guess Dick Enberg is doing the evening games because they are after Carter Blackburn's bedtime.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:12:00 PM  

Harlan and Bonner. Nantz/Packer and Lundquist/Raftery are Friday/Sunday pairings.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:13:00 PM  

Well... I got to watch Cornell/Stanford online as Houston is done until primetime. Thank goodness for T1. I get the MMOD perfectly.

Mikey said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:19:00 PM  

WHAT THE HELL IS JEMELE FRICKIN HILL DOING ON COLLEGE GAMEDAY RIGHT NOW?!?!?!?!?!?!? JEMELE HILL?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ARE YOU SERIOUS ESPN?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? ITS BAD ENOUGH THAT THEY STICK HER ON FIRST TAKE, BUT AN ACTUAL SHOW??????????? YOU'RE KILLIN ME ESPN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT, HAD TO REACH YOUR DIVERSITY QUOTA?????????????? ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!!!!! JEMELE FRICKIN HILL IS ON ESPN COLLEGE GAMEDAY SCOREBOARD RIGHT NOW, ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:24:00 PM  

Did Cornell's band just play Carry On Wayward Son?

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:38:00 PM  

The rookie, Carter Blackburn, just had the line of the tourney. When some Stanford kid completely blew a dunk Blackburn in the perfect tone said "Great defensive play by the rim." For some reason it justg worked so perfectly. I love this B&B Blackburn and Bilas pairing.

Brett said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:45:00 PM  

Blackburn is a youngster and is fresh. To be quite honest, Enberg can just stay away.

Mikey said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:50:00 PM  

.....ummmm, I won't go as far as earlier posted, but Jemele Hill shouldn't be on College GameDay. Jimmy Dykes must be giving a seminar on getting inside a dude's jersey in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

BTW, Newcastle.

Mar 20, 2008, 5:54:00 PM  

Stanford up 38-17 on Cornell at the half. Sounds like a football score, except Stanford's football team would probably be losing by that score. Unless they're playing USC.

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 5:59:00 PM  

Mal you left out the fact that Carter Blackburn was the victim of a twisted social experiment gone awry by the sons of Randolph and Mortimer Duke.

Unknown said...
Mar 20, 2008, 6:02:00 PM  

Brian, you have to talk about this announcing in the Stanford-Cornell game. Bilas and Blackburn have been creaming themselves over Cornell all game, even though Big Red has been pathetic. If you didn't know the score, you'd think Cornell was winning. I've heard Louis Dale's name more than Stanford itself. You'd think he was a first team All-American the way they are gushing over him. And the kid is 3-15 from the field!

Anonymous said...
Mar 20, 2008, 6:49:00 PM  

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