Good Basketball Prospectus article on last night's game

[dcarp23]

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=55

A good, new, interesting website if you haven't been there.

[throatybeard]

And another on Carolina's D:

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=51

[Rich]

Really an excellent article. I specifically liked the portion about the announcing crew. Right on the money...

The announcing team working the game last night posed a constant and intractable obstacle between viewers and the game. Which, not to put too fine a point on it, is pretty much the precise opposite of what an announcing team is supposed to do.

I literally found myself leaning in toward the TV and squinting at the screen, as if that would help me follow what Gerald Henderson was doing while the announcers went happily and blissfully AWOL, addressing such pressing matters as Ronde Barber, the new College Basketball Experience in Kansas City and, inevitably, Jimmy V.

This announcing team has been tarred on occasion with the easy catch-all pejorative "ESPN," but let us be clear. It's not ESPN. Jay Bilas, Bill Raftery and Sean McDonough share a water cooler with these guys, yet they're consistently outstanding. No, it's simply that last night's announcing team has apparently been given free reign by someone in the organizational chart to ignore the game whenever they want. Which, as it happens, is very often.

That's worse than annoying. It's unprofessional in the most literal sense of the term. Anyone else in the world is free to talk about whatever they want to talk about. Last night's announcing team, on the other hand, was paid specifically to talk about Wisconsin vs. Duke. They should have tried it from time to time.

[Jarhead]

Thanks for the link, dcarp23, Looks like a great site. And ditto on Rich's post. My wife, who never yells, shouted out, "Shut up, Vitale!"