March Madness on Demand

agibson · March 15, 2012, 10:34:11 AM

I'm disappointed to see that they want... is it $3?.. this year for March Madness on Demand.

I mean, it's only $3 for the whole tournament. I routinely pay more than that for a lousy video feed to watch Valpo play on the road. But, I was _extremely_ impressed by it as a free service.

Anybody have a favorite free way, aside from your TV set, to follow the games? Even a favorite score crawler?

vuweathernerd · March 15, 2012, 11:07:20 AM

honestly, the espn college basketball full scoreboard. in the postseason, you can even sort it by tournament, and the active games are at the top of the page. but i was also sad to see that they want $3, compared to the free mmod of years past. but maybe the $3 will pay for better quality - the video quality online was a little bit lacking at times in the past.

edit: if you're on twitter, following @marchmadness may not be a bad way to go either. but the jury is still out on them.

valporun · March 15, 2012, 08:09:01 PM

It was $3.99, but honestly, it doesn't look much different yet. I wasn't able to watch as much as I hoped today, but you get the half screen view, or a small screen view with some stats, but when it comes to teams that I'm only watching for bracket purposes, stats don't tell much. The one thing I wish it did have was a mosaic view, like the MLB.tv package has, where you could watch all four games at once.

vuweathernerd · March 15, 2012, 08:43:31 PM

Quote from: valporun on March 15, 2012, 08:09:01 PM
It was $3.99, but honestly, it doesn't look much different yet. I wasn't able to watch as much as I hoped today, but you get the half screen view, or a small screen view with some stats, but when it comes to teams that I'm only watching for bracket purposes, stats don't tell much. The one thing I wish it did have was a mosaic view, like the MLB.tv package has, where you could watch all four games at once.

i made this exact complaint on facebook earlier, actually. my cable provider doesn't do it, but i believe directv has one, and dish might too. but i don't know for sure.

valporun · March 15, 2012, 08:52:44 PM

Either the satellite tv groups have one, or they have the NCAA package, like what MMOD is, for the additional $3.99?

StlVUFan · March 16, 2012, 12:13:39 AM

My complaint is that the Android App is really lame when it comes to actually trying to watch a game. The listen button (Westwood One) is much more reliable. The video is weak (if it plays at all, I get audio only and the screen remains blank). Originally, I was getting full video, but after about 10 seconds it would crap out. Furthermore, in audio mode, I'd much rather have a screen with text play-by-play and a few stats in place of a full screen of some of the lamest tweets I've ever seen.

By the way, on Tuesday and Wednesday (Dayton PIG quad), the Westwood One play-by-play guy kept giving time left coming out of a commercial break followed by the mysterious phrase "Frozen First-Half Clock". HUH?

The $3.99 didn't bother me a bit, though.

valporun · March 16, 2012, 10:23:45 AM

I agree. The $3.99 is chump change, when you consider that's for 3 weeks of action, plus the games are archived, so you can watch games you missed, or want to see again. Just for the sake of the archives and the multiple resources fans can watch on, $3.99 is surprisingly reasonable. They could have charged $29.99 for what schools charge for a month's worth of access to their audio-only live and archived events.

agibson · March 16, 2012, 11:57:50 AM

It's super cheap, no question. The best pay deal in college basketball. Clearly.

Nevertheless, it somehow manages to irk me that they took a service that was free... for the last five seasons? And attached a price tag.

It'd be a good deal for one game I actually wanted to watch.

But, I happen to get all of the appropriate TV channels at home. I'm not at all sure that I'll pony up the $4 to casually have games on at the office.

valporun · March 17, 2012, 12:00:09 AM

I'm still surprised it was super cheap, considering all the platforms to use it for. I mean PC, laptop, iPad, iPod Touch(?), Android phones, maybe iPhones too? All for $3.99? That's a freakin' steal!!

StlVUFan · March 17, 2012, 12:06:47 AM

Quote from: agibson on March 16, 2012, 11:57:50 AM
It's super cheap, no question. The best pay deal in college basketball. Clearly.

Nevertheless, it somehow manages to irk me that they took a service that was free... for the last five seasons? And attached a price tag.

It'd be a good deal for one game I actually wanted to watch.

But, I happen to get all of the appropriate TV channels at home. I'm not at all sure that I'll pony up the $4 to casually have games on at the office.

It has been invaluable for keeping up with games while I work productively. Listened to most of the Norfolk State state stunner today, all without taxing my company's network

StlVUFan · March 17, 2012, 12:22:05 AM

If I could have one wish for improving the NCAA Tourney: get Marv Albert outta there permanently. Send him back to the NBA. I just watched the first half of the NSU-Mizzou game and he couldn't be bothered to get the names right half the time. Just hate him as play-by-play guy, particularly during March.

valporun · March 17, 2012, 09:45:51 AM

Marv Albert is so old that his barber is a millionaire with all the hair coloring that had to go into that toupee to look like he doesn't grey or age. The NCAA could do without Mike Gminski too. He doesn't add a whole lot. I can't think of a lot of the pbp teams for the NCAA tourney that add a whole lot.

FWalum · March 17, 2012, 11:32:59 AM

Quote from: valporun on March 17, 2012, 09:45:51 AM
Marv Albert is so old that his barber is a millionaire with all the hair coloring that had to go into that toupee to look like he doesn't grey or age. The NCAA could do without Mike Gminski too. He doesn't add a whole lot. I can't think of a lot of the pbp teams for the NCAA tourney that add a whole lot.

They pretty much all just chant the big six power conference mantra. Not a whole lot of time spent on any in depth analysis of the mid majors unless you are VCU or the like.

StlVUFan · March 17, 2012, 02:29:00 PM

Quote from: FWalum on March 17, 2012, 11:32:59 AM
Quote from: valporun on March 17, 2012, 09:45:51 AM
Marv Albert is so old that his barber is a millionaire with all the hair coloring that had to go into that toupee to look like he doesn't grey or age. The NCAA could do without Mike Gminski too. He doesn't add a whole lot. I can't think of a lot of the pbp teams for the NCAA tourney that add a whole lot.

They pretty much all just chant the big six power conference mantra. Not a whole lot of time spent on any in depth analysis of the mid majors unless you are VCU or the like.

And Clark Kellog is now a full time member of the Duke Kool-Aid club too (along side Jim Nance, the President of the club) after listening to his play-by-play comments on the Duke-Lehigh game. Maybe someone else saw a better angle, but that foul on Rivers' desperation 3 looked like an absolute joke to me (NOTTHATITMATTERED!!!!!). That was just one example. You can try to deny it, Clark, but you're a Duke fan.

FWalum · March 17, 2012, 02:56:49 PM

Quote from: StlVUFan on March 17, 2012, 02:29:00 PMAnd Clark Kellog is now a full time member of the Duke Kool-Aid club too (along side Jim Nance, the President of the club) after listening to his play-by-play comments on the Duke-Lehigh game. Maybe someone else saw a better angle, but that foul on Rivers' desperation 3 looked like an absolute joke to me (NOTTHATITMATTERED!!!!!). That was just one example. You can try to deny it, Clark, but you're a Duke fan.

Could not agree more StlVUFan. Rivers was off balance when he took the shot, actually falling to the side and into the Lehigh player that had been pushed into that position by the Duke screen. Just be impartial, if you see what you think is a bad call, say so no matter what or whom. I swear the coverage is done in a fashion to make sure the officials do not take too much heat over calls. Everything that I would like to see replayed is glossed over and the glitz that makes no difference is replayed over and over again.

agibson · March 17, 2012, 03:10:33 PM

Apparently Xfinity/comcast is streaming all games for free for subscribers.

So, that takes care of my $4 objection, I guess!

StlVUFan · March 17, 2012, 04:13:58 PM

Quote from: FWalum on March 17, 2012, 02:56:49 PM
Quote from: StlVUFan on March 17, 2012, 02:29:00 PMAnd Clark Kellog is now a full time member of the Duke Kool-Aid club too (along side Jim Nance, the President of the club) after listening to his play-by-play comments on the Duke-Lehigh game. Maybe someone else saw a better angle, but that foul on Rivers' desperation 3 looked like an absolute joke to me (NOTTHATITMATTERED!!!!!). That was just one example. You can try to deny it, Clark, but you're a Duke fan.
Could not agree more StlVUFan. Rivers was off balance when he took the shot, actually falling to the side and into the Lehigh player that had been pushed into that position by the Duke screen. Just be impartial, if you see what you think is a bad call, say so no matter what or whom. I swear the coverage is done in a fashion to make sure the officials do not take too much heat over calls. Everything that I would like to see replayed is glossed over and the glitz that makes no difference is replayed over and over again.

Shamelessly, Kellog even stated that Rivers initiated the contact, a signature of Duke teams under Coach K (allegedly -- see Reddick, Singler, Scheyer, et. al. with the patented leg-kick method of causing a foul on a 3-pt shot).

I would bet that if McCollum had pulled that trick on Rivers, he would have been screaming bloody murder (and Nance would have been backing him up).

What I *loved* about that game is that Duke pulled huge shots out of their rear ends, got some standard help from the refs, and it *just* *didn't* *matter* one bit. They were still done at the 1:00 minute mark. LOVE IT.