I would've preferred the ESPN college analysts, but it was CBS. The NBA guys were not as knowledgeable of the NCAA game compared to the NCAA guys who have covered the NCAA the whole season.
The womens game is much better than the mens. ND were down by 12 but finished strong to take the lead by 2 or 3 by the half.
I still can’t believe it. My heart was broken 2 times in 364 days. 2 times I had to walk out of a packed stadium almost in tears. I’m absolutely speechless still. I wish I didn’t love Matt Howard, Zach Hahn, Shawn Vanzant, and Butler University so much but how could I not. How could anyone not love Butler. It's my home and it's my university. The feeling of pure joy I felt at the 2010 Final Four and the days in Houston leading up to the championship game were the ultimate high before the second big low I've felt. I feel like a close family member died last night.
The women's final was much better than the men's final. I don't like Notre Dame at all, but I actually have liked some of those ND girls for a while including a few out of high school. Congratulations Aggies!
It always annoys me when people say the opposite: NBA is better because of the fundamentals and all of that. Those people rarely realize how great every player on an NBA roster is. They just make everything look too easy so people take it all for granted. NBA players are too damned good. I'm not sure I agree with this. It's important to note that CBS hasn't used NBA commentators or analysts in the past(they don't have NBA), but this year they extended the tournament to Time Warner stations and decided to include NBA personalities. They obviously did not know as much on some topics as some espn people, but it was obvious the personalities had done homework and prepared for the tournament. It's worth noting most espn commentators and analysts almost exclusively watch a few teams and a single conference. They aren't very knowledgeable outside of a small sampling. Their research is often severely limited and biased towards the few games they follow. The NBA personalities are more entertaining. More importantly, they don't have the same biases as the espn people. If the NBA people are biased they admit it or are called out on it because of the chemistry of the crew. They're honest and I actually think they are much better at explaining plays and tactics. I also like that CBS commentators are normally positive about games. I can't stand negative announcers(watch a regular season SEC football game or a regular season college basketball on CBS and compare that to espn... it's drastic). Some of the announcers during the tournament were negative announcers, but they weren't regular CBS announcers. Quite a few of the announcers are not exclusive to a particular network. There were several announcers who do several broadcasts and networks.
You guys have had a great two year run that any program longs for, be proud of where these guys have put Butler in terms of national attention. Can't wait for the day the UC Davis men make their first NCAA Tournament. The women made their first this year, and it was a great evening at Stanford (although we lost). I know CBS doesn't have the NBA, that's why it seemed odd that they would use NBA announcers all of a sudden. ESPN / CBS announcers catch bits and pieces of every conference, and of course they know more about the prominant ones than the smaller ones. Personally I don't think the NBA personalities are not more entertaining than Vitale (most famous NCAA announcer), Bilas and others. They should've kept the guys who announced the whole season who have more knowledge of whats happened than Barkley and others who crammed some general info.
Back in the day, meaning the 1970s and 1980s, there used to be A LOT of talk about how the NCAA guys played real basketball with fundamentals, while the NBA was just street bullshit with guys who didn't care about winning and didn't play defense. You don't hear that stuff so much any more, in part because people have gotten over most of the racial mindset that underlay such comments, and also because even the dense have figured out that year after year guys go to the NBA as 20-point per game scorers, and then become role players in the NBA because the defense is so much tougher and more athletic that they can't get their shots off without being blocked.
Sorry, bro. Not many schools have made it back 2 back in the finals. That is quite an accomplishment itself. Cheers to the Bulldogs. I like Vitale, but he gets annoying. However, his knowledge of the college basketball was something I desired and wished he was announcing, rather than someone like Kerr. I like Kerr, Barkley, et al, and they certainly know about the basketball in general, but I find that their info was generalized and lacked depth. In agreeing with you, I did not really find them entertaining, and that was the reason why there were on their in the first place. My fav is Van Gundy, even though he is a Lakers hator, but even I would not have wanted him on the NCAA end.