2016 Pac-12 Tournament Teaser: Day 4

VEGAS, The Pac-12 Tournament, March 12th --

It's the morning after, and I still can't completely grasp what I watched last night.  I talked about it before Day 3 began, promising insanity and ridiculousness from the Pac-12 semifinals, but I didn't really expect a pair of games going to overtime based on final-buzzer pandemonium.  It was electric!  It was intense!  It was random as hell and marred by officiating 'issues.'  It was pure distillate of everything it means to watch Pac-12 basketball over an entire season.  In essence, it lived up to the hype.

In the first game, the league champions Oregon seemed to be on the front foot for most of the action against Arizona.  They closed the half on a blistering 15-2 run, capped by a final-second exclamatory dunk, and expanded their lead out to 17 points early in the second frame.  But, in an effort to avoid foul trouble with their short bench, the Ducks stopped playing defense, and the Wildcats began to chip away.  By the 10-minute mark, momentum had shifted, and the heavily pro-Arizona crowd was getting back into it.  It would be a fight to the finish.

While the lead was shrinking, Oregon had always been able to keep the UofA at arms length.  Powered by the fantastic shooting of Tyler Dorsey, the energetic attacking of Dillon Brooks, and the all-encompassing fury of Elgin Cook, they continued to put up points, and went into the final seconds with a four-point lead. Arizona's Gabe York, who struggled for much of the night against the Ducks' length on the perimeter, hucked in a desperation three that went in with only .7 seconds to play, cutting the lead to one point. Apparently too little, too late.  But, the Ducks didn't call a timeout to set their inbounds play, and the wayward pass that followed went into the waiting arms of Mark Tollefsen.  The refs called a foul on his resulting frantic heave, and suddenly, with an 82% free throw shooter headed to the line, Arizona was in position to flat steal their way into the final.

Tollefsen never looked comfortable headed to the line, though.  With the extended review time acting as a natural freeze, he fidgeted and paced for minutes while he waited for his chance to shoot.  When he finally got the ball, he fired the first free throw off to the side, forestalling an Arizona win in regulation.  His second make sent the game to overtime, and the crowd was in a tizzy.  The Ducks, however, are made of stern stuff, and responded like the champions they are.  They dominated the extra frame, pulling away throughout. Buoyed by the return from in-game injury of Dwayne Benjamin, Oregon finally settled into a 95-89 final.  An incredible, dramatic stretch of basketball.

The nightcap, featuring Utah and Cal, was just as exciting.  There were 16 lead changes and nine ties; the action back-and-forth from the onset.  The atmosphere in the building was a little muted, with the Arizona hordes off to drown their sorrows in booze and gambling, but the game on the court was one of the better I've seen all season.  Heroes on both sides, it eventually devolved into a battle between Utah's Jakob Poeltl and Cal's Ty Wallace.  Poeltl had the run of the paint, as Cal refused to double-team him down low; he would finish with 29/11.  Wallace was a one-man wrecking ball, launching into the lane to open up options both for himself and others; he ended with 26/6.  Eventually, after another moment of Lorenzo Bonam last-second brilliance (BuffNation knows him well from that game in Boulder this season), the Utes pushed the game to overtime, and rode Poeltl's un-checked grace to an 82-78 win.

All-in-all, I couldn't have asked for a better, more dramatic pair of games.  The Pac-12 answered the bell, serving up exactly what was called for; I'm glad I was in attendance to watch.  The shame of it was, as exciting as the games were, they were played either too late or on a channel no one gets, keeping most of the country from joining in.  An ugly situation, the Pac-12 has purposefully sequestered themselves on a regional network of their own choosing.  It is what it is.

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Best pep band of the day:  Utah

Why?:  Utah always surprises me.  As a former Mountain West program from what could be considered a "flyover state" (one that, per Trey Parker and Matt Stone, does not allow music), I just wouldn't think they'd be great off the top of my head.  But they come to play.  Fun, loud, brass-forward sound, built around a good tempo.  Much like Arizona, they get good crowd involvement, and are quick to jump into tags and cheers after playing a standard tune.  Loved my time listening to them!

I also considered Oregon, but they played "Walking on Sunshine" twice.  While a good arrangement, there's no reason to play a non-fight/cheer tune twice.  Expand your book!

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Today's action:

- #2 Utah vs #1 Oregon - 8pm MT - FS1 - 

Well, here we are.  The final, the 'ship, the whole tamale.  The tournament has been chalk the whole way. While there's been some scares for the higher seeds, and both probably should've lost last night, but a win's a win, and there's a reason this bracket has played out this way.  The good news here is that it leaves us with a terrific final matchup to watch.  The Ducks took both meetings this year, including an early blow-out victory in SLC.  Utah is a completely different team now, however, and, on a neutral (leaning-Utah) court, things could be very different.

Real talk, the combination of Brooks and Cook is a difference maker, and I don't think Utah can answer.  If UO can hold Poeltl in even a little bit of check, probably by double-teaming, then the Utes will be in big trouble. As fun as the Ducks are to watch, I cannot bring myself to root for Altman.  While I think Oregon will pull it out, I'll be rooting for the Utes tonight.


GO UTES!  PROVE ME RIGHT, AND TAKE THIS THING!

The Pac-12 throws up-and-in at DirecTV

This is getting serious.

With each passing day, we get closer to a second season of Pac-12 football on Pac-12 Networks.  Yet, in a continued standoff, the Pac-12 and DirecTV are still miles apart in negotiations for carriage rights of the fledgling channel, leaving millions of DTV subscribers in the west without access to the full slate of Pac-12 programming.  Early promises of a quick resolution have long since been forgotten, and reality is starting to set in: this deal isn't getting done any time soon, if ever.

For the record, I wholly blame DTV.  They've sniffed their nose at a fair deal that was accepted by the vast majority of the market.  Negotiation tactics aside, after over a year of stubbornness, they're long past any sympathetic bargaining position. 

However, my own frustration with the service went deeper than one carriage dispute.  I left Dish Network three years ago because I was tired of the seemingly endless stream of petty negotiation brinkmanship.  I went to DirecTV because I perceived them as a carrier that wouldn't nickel-and-dime their way out of content that I wanted.  Not anymore, apparently.  What was once the provider for sports entertainment has forgone logic, and started low-balling sports channels in favor of bullshit like DogTV.  

As a result, I jumped ship last week, and called Comcast.  I now pay less, and get Pac-12 Networks. I just couldn't be happier. Yep, couldn't be happier with Comcast.  Let that sink in.

Hooray, Pac-12 Network!

As frustrated as I had become with the stalling tactics of the satellite leader, the Pac-12 has been even further pushed over the edge.  Tired of boardroom sniping, they've ramped up their public campaign to get their fan base to leave for friendlier television pastures.  What started with a verbal salvo from El Jefe Larry Scott at last month's Pac-12 media days has now escalated, with the conference throwing a fastball right at DTV's noggin.  Yesterday, they released a series of school-specific advertising spots aimed a luring paying subscribers away from the carrier.  Here is the CU one:

It's a good ad.  Targeted, slick, and impactful. No punches pulled.

Some, however, like SB Nation's Rodger Sherman, are still dubious, mocking the campaign, in part, for suggesting that anyone would actually want to watch Colorado football.  While I'm sympathetic to the sentiment that CU football was (and probably still is) unwatchable to an outsider, the point of the campaign is that those loyal fans across the Pac-12 - yes, even including us poor, suffering Black and Gold diehards - who subscribe to DTV are weeks away from another season in the dark.  Regardless of how crap the product may be, College still fans want to watch their schools compete, and DirecTV won't give BuffNation the option.

The fact remains that DTV is not the place to be if you want to watch west coast sports.  Contrary to their own ads, you can't 'get the games' with their service.  This crap will only continue in future years, with disputes already forming around carriage rights for Fox Sports 1 and NFL Sunday Ticket.  If you are a true sports fan, regardless of whether you care about Pac-12 Networks or not, there's only one choice left.  Do yourself a favor, and follow me to the dump with your old dish.

Monday Grab Bag: Basketball schedule finalized

The @CU_Video team is at it again.  Early last week they released a spectacular video that highlighted the unique beauty of the CU-Boulder campus.  For any and all who have called the University of Colorado home, it was a timely love letter to the most beautiful academic setting in all of God's creation.

If you missed it, please do yourself a favor, and spend a few minutes watching:

(The night time shot of Norlin gives me chills.)

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Today in the bag, I'm talking the completion of the basketball schedule, DirecTV dropping the ball, and the Gold Cup.

Click below for the bag...

Quick Post: Time's running out, DirecTV *shakes fist*

The season is quickly approaching.  In fact (*looks at calendar*), we got three days til gameday.  Still, when I, a simple DirecTV customer, look at my channel lineup, I see a gaping hole in my guide.  Namely: there's still no Pac-12 Network.

Pull your head out of your ass, DTV

Almost from the start, the Pac-12 had a deal with the major cable outlets (including loathsome Comcast) to carry the channel and it's six regional affiliates.  While that deal never got so far as satellite providers, we DirecTV subscribers were told repeatedly that it's as good as done (in fact possibly due as early as this past Monday), but they'll wait til the last minute to forge a final deal.  (Dish Network Subscribers?  You guys are up shit creek.  Better find an escape route.)

Well, the last minutes are quickly approaching, and, if uplink testing news and the president of Pac-12 Enterprises are to be trusted, DirecTV is prepared to start the season without offering any of the seven versions of the Pac-12 Network.  Remember, with no paid access to a Pac-12 Network provider, there's no access to the streamed online content (what I am most looking forward to).

I have nothing on Pac12 & DTV, Dish, Charter, U-verse or Fios. Clocking ticking, but remember: 9/21 is full panic date (prior to USC-Cal)
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) August 29, 2012

Bullshit.  If we're still sitting here on 9/21 without any satellite provider coverage of the Pac-12 Network, we're way past panic date.  If you want a real drop-dead date, how about tomorrow when football games start being played?  I'm most worried about September 8th, when CU is scheduled to open the home portion of the season against Sacramento State.  Coverage is supposed to be on the P12N, but how am I supposed to see it, or the subsequent replays if DirecTV is playing some asinine game of chicken?  I had also planned on watching soccer and volleyball games (both teams still undefeated) this fall, but no dice if DirecTV is still sitting on their hands by Sept 16th (CU vs Air Force in soccer).

I'll tell you right now:  I hate Comcast.  Hated 'em for years.  I'd rather lick Cam's ram-sack then deal with their customer service system.  However, I'll embrace them in a second if DirecTV keeps stalling, and fails to deliver some version of the network.

This is what I want, and I'll go elsewhere to get it, I promise you.

We're already in a situation where my beloved hometown of Chicago is being deprived of access to Buffs content (Comcast has decided that no one outside of the Pac-12 footprint should even have access to the network on an sports tier, leaving the Chi and Washington DC out of the loop), if satellite subscribers in Boulder/Denver can't even get it, then we've got a problem.

Fixit, fixit, fixit, fixit, fixit... Fixit fixit fixit.