Channel 56
01.18.05
Back in the day, when ESPN was still showing Australian Rules Football on a regular basis and college basketball was not available every night, there was an over-the-air channel that was basically what the Full Court package is now. You could see quite a few games from all the big conferences. You know, the Southwest Conference, The Big Eight, the Metro. Remember them? Plus the SEC and WAC, among others. This thing was channel 56, and if you lived in northern Virginia in the mid '80s, you know what I'm talking about.
The thing is, while 56 was basically today's Full Court - it mostly relied on the syndicated packages for each conference - it was only one channel unlike the multi-plexed Full Court system. This meant that a lot of games were broadcast by tape-delay. The concept wasn't all bad though. When Bob Knight threw the chair across the court, I got wind of it before 56 broadcast the game later in the afternoon. So I was able to watch all the events unfold, knowing what was to come. For some reason my best memories of this station involve Indiana University. I saw the Soviet exhibition where Knight pulled the players off the floor. There was a game in there where Indiana and Purdue were #1 and #2 in the nation, and it was on 56.
When March rolled around, the fun continued. Before CBS snapped up the rights to all 63 games of the tournament, the NCAA produced the first round games and allowed local stations to air them as they wished. ESPN was famous for showing a few games live on Thursday and Friday and the rest were shown on tape delay through the night and morning, providing 48 consecutive hours of basketball. 56 did the same thing, giving you two options to find your favorite game.
In addition, the week before, 56 would deal with the preliminary rounds of conference tournaments in a similar manner. They would promote how they were broadcasting 72 hours of continuous hoops. I distinctly remember watching a Big Sky quarterfinal at 8 AM on a Saturday morning on 56. The game was meaningless in the big picture, an elimination game on the road to a 16 seed. I guess it was the voyeur in me that felt privileged that no one without a thousand miles of me could see this game, so I watched it in its entirety. I was also cognizant that I was probably the only person in northern Virginia watching this game. 56 was like the station that read my mind. If I could have programmed a TV station at the time, I would have loaded up on obscure college basketball also.
The reason I am writing this? There is no trace of channel 56 anymore. ESPN, FSN, and regional sports networks, combined with the increasing rights costs for syndicated games put 56 out of the college hoops business a few years back. Now all they offer is foreign programming. There appears to be no record on the internet of just how groundbreaking these guys were. Which is a shame, because there should be an exhibit in the Basketball Hall of Fame devoted to 56. I owe my college basketball addiction to them.
Game Diary: Boston College/West Virginia
01.17.05
13-0 Boston College tried to maintain its unbeaten record and 11-2 West Virginia was hoping to make people forget that they had just lost to Marshall. Through the miracle of streaming video, I was able to file this report as if I were attending the game, or even merely watching it on TV. Here are my uncensored musings...
1st half
15:50 BC 7, WVU 5 - West Virginia has a Princetonesque offense. There are a lot of back-cuts, it's very deliberate, they take the open three, and they get few offensive rebounds. The 1-3-1 zone they employ is forcing BC to take a lot of time to get a shot themselves.
11:49 WVU 11, BC 9 - The first player to get in any kind of foul trouble is BC point guard Louis Hinnant, when he picks up his second foul. While WVU's offense is based on the perimeter, their defense is solid inside with the shot-blocking platoon of D'Or Fischer and Kevin Pittsnogle. Given that BC doesn't have much outside firepower, it's a good matchup for the Mountaineers.
7:22 WVU 18, BC 17 - BC shows a press after a made free throw which forces a turnover. On the ensuing transition, Hinnant's replacement, Steve Hailey, commits a charge and twists his ankle. This forces Hinnant back into the game, who subsequently commits his third foul. Jermaine Watson is pressed into some rare action at the point.
3:04 WVU 25, BC 22 - BC's offense sputters without a ball-handler on the floor. On top of that, point guard de facto Watson picks up his third foul. Al Skinner leaves him in the game. BC has already taken seven threes (they only average 11 a game), but replays indicate the successful bomb before the last media timeout should have been a two.
Halftime, WVU 29, BC 29 - Center Nate Doornekamp joins the three-foul club for BC. BC has 11 fouls, but nine of them are spread among three players. Even with the makeshift lineup, the Eagles close the gap before intermission due to some impressive play from Jared Dudley who hits a couple of tough shots in the lane.
2nd Half
16:15 BC 40, WVU 31 - After WVU opens with a backdoor lay-up, BC reels off 11 consecutive points to open up the game and force a WVU timeout. Dudley and Craig Smith have combined for 26 points for BC.
14:04 BC 45, WVU 31 - Sean Marshall hits a three for BC, while WVU continues to throw up bricks. Three point field goals: WVU 3-13, BC 3-9. Overall FG%: WVU 31%, BC 52%.
11:18 BC 51, WVU 34 - The WVU offense has fallen apart, now resorting to forcing long threes and making none of them. BC continues to pound it inside where they get enough opportunities on each possession to eventually convert. The only remaining suspense is whether Smith and Dudley will outscore BC by themselves. Currently, Smith has 18 and Dudley 14. Smith is outscoring WVU 11-5 in the second half.
7:17 BC 59, WVU 42 - The only thing I learned from the last segment is that analyst Bob Wenzel does not know the difference between right and left. Louis Hinnant steps on a WVU players foot with his right foot, and goes down in a bit of pain. Wenzel declares that it's Hinnant's left foot that was injured. Not a big deal I guess, but you know Majerus wouldn't make that mistake.
3:39 BC 63, WVU 50 - WVU has matched their putrid numbers in the loss to Marshall by going 3 for 19 from three. Their best shooter, Patrick Beilien is 0 for 6.
Final BC 73, WVU 53 - Yet another lopsided affair in the game diary section. After I jumped on the bandwagon after WVU's 10-0 start, the Mountaineers have gone 1-3 with a loss to 2-10 Marshall and lopsided defeats against Villanova and BC. The lone win was a 4 point home tussle against potential Big East cellar dweller St. John's. In their first ten wins, WVU shot 35% from three, and they had some impressive W's - double-digit wins at LSU and at NC State (though without Julius Hodge) and a home win against George Washington. Over the last four games WVU has shot 20% from three.
Three Point Production
01.14.05
Today's stat is "three point production." It is...
(Three pointers made x 3) / Total Points Scored
View the season-to-date figures for this stat for every D1 team on the stats page.
Three point production is just the percentage of points scored on threes. A team's offense that relies too much on the three tends to be more inconsistent than others. I think that this is due to two reasons:
1) Three point shooting accuracy in itself is less consistent than two point shooting accuracy and free throw production. Hot nights from the perimeter will be offset by cold nights.
2) Balance is a good thing in basketball. One dimensional teams typically don't fare well because they are easier to defend.
(Speaking of consistency, it's time for another installment of "Ike Diogu: Chasing History." Last night, Diogu had his worst outing of the season in an 86-82 loss to UCLA. He went 3 of 7 from the free throw line in a 15 point, nine rebound night. This extended his career-long streaks of making at least one trip to the free throw line and scoring in double figures to 75 games. The three made free throws raises his season total to 139 as he chases (what I have anointed as) the modern day single-season record of 272 held by Alonzo Mourning. If you think this blog is becoming Diogu-centric, you'd be right.)
So you want an intriguing game for this weekend, an alternative to UNC/Wake Forest or Louisville/Cincinnati? Try Boston College at West Virginia on Sunday at noon Eastern. WVU is ninth in three point production, and their amazing inconsistency was noted a couple days ago. BC is 329th out of 330 in this category. The Eagles are one of four remaining unbeatens, and if they face the Mountaineer team that beat NC State (10 of 18 on threes) they could lose by double digits. But if they face the team that lost to Marshall (3 of 19) they'll win by double digits.
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