Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Observations on the UConn game

So I am watching the Holy Cross at UConn game. UConn seems to be riding high after their resounding win over #4 Oklahoma last weekend which was aired on ESPN (or ESPN2--I don't remember). I only watched a few minutes of it at the end of the first half before I turned on the penultimate episode of Tru Blood*.
Tonight's game is being aired on Connecticut Public Television which airs a lot of UConn basketball, which is nice. Of course they also use the games as an opportunity for fundraising with pleas for money at every time out and half time. As with most public television fundraising there are incentives for various donations. CPTV is offering the in-demand (the first printing is already gone) media guide. Also there is an auction for a basketball signed by members of the team. In describing these items the CPTV host keeps referring to the players' numbers; as in "featured in the media guide is #31" and "the ball has been signed by #30 who we just saw score 5 points." Seriously none of the players--you know some of the biggest names in women's basketball like Maya Moore and Tina Charles--were mentioned by name. How weird is that. Makes me think the host is not so well informed about the product she is actually trying to sell.
Also not so strange, just disheartening. The pre-second half interview with associate head coach Chris Dailey who referred to her players as "guys" as in "these guys are going to focus on ____ in the second half." Another grrrr moment.
Well UConn is just destroying Holy Cross and since I cannot really root for anyone (don't like Geno, have a policy of not supporting religiously-affiliated schools) and this just isn't interesting in the least, I'm going to go catch up on my episodes of Heroes. Hmmm...there seems to be a pattern to my television viewing.

* I have not seen the last episode that has already aired. Please don't tell me what happens.

2 comments:

anonymous said...

Regarding the CPTV host, she may have only mentioned the women by number because it throws up the facade that "we're not profiting off the notoriety of student-athletes who get no share of the revenues." If they mention the names, the linkage to revenue and the notoriety of the student-athlete is much greater. In the bookstore, UConn basketball jerseys are sold without the last names on them (the women's team doesn't have the names on the back anyway, but the men do). There has been debate in the sport management world regarding the unfairness of making money off student-athletes who see none of that money. The powers-that-be seem to think referring to them by number somehow exonerates them.

ken said...

That's something I had not thought of. Then I guess I revise my statments and say kudos to CPTV for not exploiting athletes.
I still think though that it sounded weird to use the numbers when everyone knows their names--especially because, in the end, they are, of course, making money off of amateur athletes.
I'm still miffed about the references to all the "guys" who were playing.