NCAA Tourney

[CONN CHRIS]

Klingan's maturation over the year has been fun to watch. Really looking forward to seeing what he looks like as a sophomore.

[rudel.dietrich]

I was combing over the data today at work. And looking at raw numbers of viewers and also social media engagement, the women’s tournament did some massive numbers.
I hope they can keep that up and keep pushing the sport and women’s athletics in general.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I was combing over the data today at work. And looking at raw numbers of viewers and also social media engagement, the women’s tournament did some massive numbers.
I hope they can keep that up and keep pushing the sport and women’s athletics in general.

Was this the 1st year they played in the afternoon instead of prime time?

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Was this the 1st year they played in the afternoon instead of prime time?

I don't know the answer to that. But last years was in prime time.
For the entire tournament, viewership was up 42% and social media engagements were up almost 55% over the entire tournament.

Part of that is because the NCAA and ESPN were a bit less restrictive with clips and video's.
But it was mostly down to increased interest.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I don't know the answer to that. But last years was in prime time.
For the entire tournament, viewership was up 42% and social media engagements were up almost 55% over the entire tournament.

Part of that is because the NCAA and ESPN were a bit less restrictive with clips and video's.
But it was mostly down to increased interest.

I think there was more interest. But I also think having the game not pushing against the public's bed time was a factor as well. I wish more of these sports would take the hint. Screw these network pregame shows & start the game @ 7 on the dot. I think a lot of fans were curious to see Clark. But not so curious @ 9pm.

[Syd Thrift]

I wonder how much of it, I hate to say, was also down to so many upsets happening on the men’s side that the Final Four was a bit underwhelming. Like, people say they like underdogs, but I feel like people want underdogs that still have recognizable stars, which usually means they aren’t underdogs anymore.

Or hey, maybe the women’s game is just getting more popular. People need to shut the F up about the LSU player trash talking as if that’s not a huge part of basketball but one thing it did seem to do even before the final game was make LSU a villain, I guess. Maybe Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese will turn into the big Magic vs Bird matchup that pushes the WNBA up to a new level of fan interest…

[pilight]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

I wonder how much of it, I hate to say, was also down to so many upsets happening on the men’s side that the Final Four was a bit underwhelming.

They weren't at the same time, so it's unlikely the quality of the men's F4 affected the audience of the women's.

The number of upsets was not much different between the tournaments anyway (19 vs 17 lower seeds winning).

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

I wonder how much of it, I hate to say, was also down to so many upsets happening on the men’s side that the Final Four was a bit underwhelming. Like, people say they like underdogs, but I feel like people want underdogs that still have recognizable stars, which usually means they aren’t underdogs anymore.

Or hey, maybe the women’s game is just getting more popular. People need to shut the F up about the LSU player trash talking as if that’s not a huge part of basketball but one thing it did seem to do even before the final game was make LSU a villain, I guess. Maybe Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese will turn into the big Magic vs Bird matchup that pushes the WNBA up to a new level of fan interest…

The upsets for sure had an impact. Everyone likes upsets until you get FAU and San Diego State in the final four.

And UConn just crushing everyone had an impact as well. They are a really good team combined with getting a “lucky” year in that the top 15 of so seeds just **** the bed.
I said it before, men’s CBB is in a weird place. Some of the top HS players just skip it entirely now since they have options.
The rest of the best only stay for one year.

I mean Brandon Miller and Gradey Dick announced they were entering the draft and disenrolled and left campus to begin training for the draft WHILE the tournament was still going on.

The new NBA CBA did not gain any traction on letting high school players enter the draft again.
So we will be stuck in this weird place for a while longer.

[Cobra Mgr]

I think the weirdness comes more from the portal & the extra covid year. Some of these schools had players old enough to have kids in school. And the portal means you really don't know what these schools are come March. They are still trying to figure it out in Nov/Dec. So the committee is using a more antiquated way in measuring these teams. Too much emphasis is being put on OOC games in the fall.