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The tragedy of the Big 10 Network
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Let me set the scene:
It's late Friday Night, and it's the quarterfinals of the Big 10 tournament. The Minnesota Golden Gophers are facing the Indiana Hoosiers. Minnesota is up 57-55 with under five seconds left, and Indiana has the ball at the free throw line. Eric Gordon misses the first one. He then intentionally misses the second one, and DJ White gets the rebound, and makes the shot to tie the game at 57, and is fouled. White makes the free throw, and Indiana is up 58-57 with just over one second left, and it's up to Tubby Smith to try and keep the season alive for the Gophers:
I know the video already shows the famous Hoffarber shot, but seeing as I went to that game, I figure, why not see it again?
A genius play by a great coach to keep a team that has come from such a pathetic recent history to only two wins away from a berth to the big dance, one against an Illini team they lost to twice this season, a lower seed; and the other against a Wisconsin team that they were able to lead for a significant portion of their most recent faceoff.
What's the problem, then? Almost no one gets the Big 10 Network. A miraculous last second win by a team that shouldn't be this far in the tournament with the home town hero that made the game winning shot, but no one was able to see it. This article should not be about the Big 10 network. Cable companies need to ante up and make sure that I don't end up missing these games. People watch College Basketball to see the upsets and the miracle wins. That's what happened last night. It's not right that I cannot see a local team play, especially in the Conference Tournament.
Congratulations boys, Minnesota's proud of you. Now I await the beginning of the Semifinal game between the Gophers and the Illini, so I can hopefully write another article tomorrow about today's game.
I'll write more on this later, but as I was saying to Oh No Romo, if anyone were to have told be at the start of this season that the Gophers would have won 20 games and made it to the semis, I would have called you a hack, and wondered what you were smoking.
Credit needs to be given where it is due. Tubby Smith has done an excellent job at getting these young kids to buy into what he's teaching, and his general philosophy. Blake Hoffarber is a beast, and with the addition of a player or two that will give them a presence in the paint, you can expect them to be in the top 4 with Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan St.