I just gained a lot more respect for Indiana Hoosiers Coach Tom Crean. This is the highest amount of college basketball sensibility I have ever seen him display. For INEXPLICABLE reasons, the Big Ten decided to make his March 5th contest at border rival Illinois an early Saturday morning tip-off.
Now 11 A.M. doesn’t sound ridiculously early, but to a good portion of the media who cover the Illini, (by that I mean the large contingent of media members based in the Chicago area, an estimated 25-40% of their regular media) an 11 a.m. tip means either
a.) Getting your outlet/you yourself paying for a hotel in Champaign-Urbana the night before or
b.) Getting up at 6:30 a.m. to be there early enough to set up, effectively killing any plans you had for the Friday night before. And your plans for Saturday better be very early evening because you’ll now be ridiculously tired from covering this contest.
So with the weekend (and any semblance of a social life) now a casualty, we feel your pain Tom.
Here’s Tom’s thoughts/feelings on it.
Here’s the series of tweets from Crean, You can follow him here
I just heard the craziest thing. It must be Ashton Kutcher and his PUNKED show or a April Fools joke a few weeks early.
I heard the Big Ten network is moving us to play at Illinois after we play Wisconsin at 9 o clock Thursday at 11 on Saturday. IN THE MORNING
There is no way that could be true is it? What was the 8 a.m. slot taken?
I feel like we should jump in some vans, put the 8 track tapes in, get some cheese sandwiches and have a old school road trip.
I am okay with 1 day in between games on occasion but 36 hours? In a rivalry game? That defies rationalization.
Come on out Ashton. Where are the cameras? This isnt funny . U got me. We have been punked.
I agree Tom, us here in the Land of Lincoln are just as extremely displeased with this announcement as you are. I’ve become approximately 30% more fatigued by just typing this. The league needs to learn that basketball is like live comedy or hockey, a “night thing.” Let baseball and football have the early start times.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net. He is also a regular contributor to the Tribune’s Chicago Now network, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
He does a weekly radio segment on Chicagoland Sports Radio.com and Cleveland.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank