February 28 Notebook
February 28, 2005 04:55 PM | General
February 28, 2005
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Generally speaking, I’m not conspiratorial by nature and unlike some I don’t give a second thought to the allegiances of those who deliver the news to us on a daily basis. Plus, there are no grassy knolls near my Cheat Lake home.
I haven’t read Edith Efron’s 1973 book News Twisters which took the first stab at describing what she called “the liberal-biased news media” and “fair and balanced” is something I’ll leave to Roger Ailes and his conservative news-hawks at Fox News.
But when the subject of ACC basketball comes up, and comes up, and keeps coming up when I flip on ESPN, I admit I’m starting to get a little suspicious. I get even more suspicious when I listen to the network’s two college basketball stars Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas go at it.
Of course Vitale is a network original dating all the way back to 1979 and he has created an impressive personal enterprise as the loudest of the game’s talking heads. Vitale causes a stir every time he opens his mouth and he is widely sought for his impressive motivational speaking skills.
Some have also accused Vitale of pandering to the major conferences with a special emphasis on the ACC and its flag-bearing program Duke. Vitale’s critics have taken to calling him “Dukey V” for the way he plays up Mike Krzyzewski and those “Cameron Crazies.”
As a result many are growing tired of Vitale’s act. I for one usually tune him out so I can’t really claim to be an expert to his on-air ACC pandering.
But in the case of the articulate and well-spoken Bilas, it is a fact that he was a four-year veteran of ACC combat having played for Coach K at Duke from 1983-86. Armed with a Duke Law degree (the same law degree owned by Richard Nixon coincidentally) and a prosecutor’s ability to influence his audience, Bilas frequently takes us on a sentimental drive down Tobacco Road.
These coaches have earned their keep was the title of Bilas’ column on ESPN.com last Friday. “Mike Krzyzewski has done one of his best coaching jobs in bringing along his Duke team and molding it into a contender,” Bilas wrote.
Two weeks earlier, the title of Bilas’ Feb. 11 entry was Tar Heels will learn from loss.
Back on Jan. 13, Bilas wrote that the ACC only has a “lock on four NCAA tournament berths.”
Even when Bilas is discussing the RPI, mid-major conferences, or Syracuse’s strength of schedule, he still finds a way to bring things back to the more familiar ACC.
“I know that it is just as hard for Miami (Ohio) to find a road win in the MAC as it is for Wake Forest to find a road win in the ACC,” wrote Bilas.
He defends Syracuse’s soft non-conference schedule by comparing it to other Big East schools, eloquently presenting Syracuse’s case.
Then, as if to validate the job Jim Boeheim has done (Boeheim’s 2002 team claimed the national title) he made this comparison to Duke: “The Blue Devils played home games against Davidson, Michigan State, Princeton and Temple, all good teams. Duke’s real record is 6-0, 2-0 away from Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“So tell me, how far away is Boeheim from the schedule that Kryzewski set up to prepare his team for March?” Bilas asked.
Why not compare Syracuse’s schedule to the nation’s No. 1-ranked team Illinois, which is four losses better than Duke right now? Or how about Kansas which has the nation’s top RPI rating?
Speaking of the RPI, on Feb. 22 Bilas wrote: “North Carolina’s loss at Duke was not a killer loss to me. The Tar Heels were in a position to win on the road in a tough environment, against a good team.”
Of the 21 columns Bilas has produced for ESPN.com dating back to Jan. 6, 18 have had some reference to either the ACC or teams in the league.
So what about “Dukey V" – is he ACC-biased as some have suggested?
 Bilas |
 Vitale |
Vitale, like Bilas, writes columns for ESPN.com, sporting his own fancy web page that is mostly self-promotion (he takes shots at Jose Canseco’s book and the NHL strike in addition to commenting on college basketball).
In his V-Mail section Vitale was asked point-blank by a Washington, D.C., basketball fan on Feb. 3 if he could clarify his column in USA Today claiming that the Big East was the deepest basketball conference in the country but that he still considered the ACC the best overall basketball league.
Vitale’s response: “The past two years, Connecticut and Syracuse were great, great teams. I really think the edge goes to the ACC in terms of heavyweight teams. North Carolina (eventually) and Wake Forest are potential Final Four teams. Georgia Tech could come on when B.J. Elder returns and look at what Maryland did by beating Duke and Georgia Tech back-to-back.”
That’s some clarification.
Even though Vitale’s ACC roots are confined to the sidelines standing in front of a microphone, he has maintained Bilas-like consistency in his ACC promoting.
The very busy Vitale has made 27 entries on his web site since Feb. 1 and of those, he has referenced the ACC in 17. However, in many instances Vitale filed multiple reports on the same dates meaning several different topics were broached. Subsequently there were only two dates (Feb. 27 and Feb. 17) when Vitale made no ACC mention whatsoever.
Do you see a pattern here?
There is no arguing the fact that Duke is the Microsoft of college basketball. The Blue Devils were on national TV 22 times last year and 23 times so far this year with an ESPN game at home against Miami on March 3 and a CBS game at North Carolina on March 6 still left.
Of those 47 national TV games during the past two years, 35 have been on either ESPN or ESPN2. Therefore, when a very average Virginia Tech team upsets Duke at home a couple of weeks ago everybody starts calling the 11-loss Hokies an NCAA tournament at-large candidate.
With all due respect to the Gobblers, Gonzaga, Southern Illinois, Vermont, Pacific, Miami-Ohio, Charlotte, Nevada, St. Mary’s, Wichita State, Holy Cross, Old Dominion, Akron, Buffalo, Northern Iowa, Arkansas-Little Rock, Kent State, Davidson, Boston U., UL-Lafayette, UTEP, Northeastern, Penn, Western Kentucky, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, George Washington, Utah State, Ohio, Drexel, Bucknell, San Francisco, Creighton, Southwest Missouri State, Hofstra, Winthrop, Bowling Green, VCU, TCU, Western Michigan, Toledo, Oral Roberts, UNC Wilmington, Denver, Rice, Bradley, Niagara, Ball State, Middle Tennessee State, Murray State, Princeton, Central Florida, Pepperdine, Wyoming, and Dayton have RPIs better than Virginia Tech.
Promoting Virginia Tech for the NCAA tournament goes beyond irritating: it’s almost conspiratorial.
Now you know why coaches from these schools have aneurysms just about every night when Jay, Dick, Digger and the rest of the gang get on a roll.
I know Bilas has taken some shots at the ACC this year saying the league is over-rated. That’s fine. But he still writes and talks about the ACC on a daily basis. Either the ACC is good or bad, under-rated or over-rated.
What about some of the other leagues?
Both Bilas and Vitale are extremely talented at what they do and I actually like watching and listening to Bilas: he has helped me understand the game much better.
I just wish they would quit shoving ACC basketball down our throats all of the time -- at least until an ACC team wins the national title again.
I watched Arizona coach Lute Olson give an interview to ESPN’s panel of experts recently and you could see his frustration as he tried to explain to them that college basketball does exist in other places. Olson owns a national championship and has accomplished more in basketball than those interviewing him could ever dream of doing.
Because of its relationship with Duke, North Carolina and the rest of the ACC, it may be good business for ESPN to tout the conference but that doesn’t necessarily make it good for us. And contrary to what some may think college basketball is more than just the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Fortunately, basketball has a tournament to help us sift through some of what these guys pedal on a nightly basis.
I only wish we could say the same for football.
Briefly:
Chris has spent this year working for the Sports Communications Office as a student designer and you can see his great work on the covers of the varsity sports guides. You may also recognize Chris at Mountaineer football and men’s basketball games as one of the school’s cheerleaders.
Great job Chris!
Casey served a graduate assistantship in the WVU sports marketing department and is now vice president in charge of investments for Fidelity in Covington, Ky; Chris is the senior vice president for financial operations at Fidelity.
Brad, meanwhile, is a Winchester, Va., resident who works in human resources for GE. All three left the WVU Coliseum Saturday impressed with the job Coach John Beilein has done so far at WVU.
And I left Oliverio’s Saturday night impressed with their work at the dinner table -- and for picking up my check!
Have a great week!
Note: The views and opinions expressed here do not neccessarily reflect those of West Virginia University or the Mountaineer Sports Network
