One of the perks of being rated nationally is that you get your scores on ESPN's Bottom Line. Casual fans see your name on the Worldwide Leader every day, and soon, their opinion of your program goes up -- or if they didn't even know who you were before, they do now. I first noticed this phenomena in 2003, when the Jays were ranked from December on. When I was away from Omaha and wanted the score, I used to have to rely on score boxes in the morning paper -- and it was a crapshoot whether they'd print the Jays score.
But when you're rated, ESPN shows your scores on Bottom Line all day, all night, and sometimes you even get highlights on SportsCenter.
And sometimes, you get the privilege of Digger Phelps poking paper darts through you.
Longtime Polyfro readers, either on the flagship blog or on this one, are well-versed in my bemusement-slash-hatred of Digger. He's an idiot of the first order, like a more well-spoken version of Michael Irvin on NFL Countdown. His opinions are never based in fact, and he doesn't care. If you aren't a traditionally good team, in Digger's World, you're insignificant. In fact, you're worse -- you're annoying, like a pesky gnat.
So when I saw on my Cox DVR guide that ESPN was running a one-hour "College Basketball Preview" on Tuesday night, I had to watch the train wreck. Besides squirming during a feature segment on George Mason -- you just knew he was gouging his eyes out as highlights of the UNC and UCONN upsets rolled -- he otherwise took the "high road" and simply avoided making comments on any team not from a so-called BCS league.
The great Jay Bilas, who isn't without his biases but is tremendously open-minded and willing to accept the changing landscape of college basketball, talked up the Jays when asked for his "sleeper" team.
Rece Davis: Who do you like to be this year's George Mason?
Jay Bilas: I don't know that there will be one, but if I had to pick one, you could pick Southern Illinois, you could pick Nevada, both will have an outstanding chance, Missouri State, but I would go with Creighton. Creighton has a chance to be the George Mason of this season. Dana Altman, one of the best coaches in America, he's got Nate Funk back, he missed all of last season with a shoulder injury, inside, Anthony Tolliver an outstanding player, a guy who can finish plays, he's a big time player. Josh Dotzler (Bilas pronounced it DOTTSler, incidentally) has had some injuries as well. They've got Nick Porter, this is a team that's solid at every position. I've watched Creighton play over the years, Dana Altman one of the best coaches that doesn't get near the credit that perhaps he deserves for it.
ll this while highlights of the Jays-UNO game rolled. I didn't edit those comments, by the way, so that's why his sentences run together -- he was talking over highlights. It sounded better on live TV.
Later in the show, Bilas made a great remark when Digger brought up Butler's "upset" of Notre Dame Monday night. "If we're going to talk out of one side of our mouth about the mid-majors being good teams capable of winning against the big guys, we have to stop talking about it being an upset when they win. You can't have it both ways. It can't be just because so-and-so lost the game."
Way to stick up for the 90% of college basketball that otherwise gets dissed by the likes of Digger.
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