College hoops mararthon to be announced

Gerk · #1 09-24-2008, 11:09 AM

Oh, that's nice

Not much longer

Attention insomniacs: Now you can while away the predawn hours, on Nov. 18, watching live college hoops.
The idea, says ESPN programmer Ilan Ben-Hanan, was to create a made-for-TV "stunt" to give college basketball a sort of round-the-clock opening day — albeit days after games are already being played.
ESPN's College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon, which will be formally announced Wednesday, will get a handy lead-in from the Cleveland Browns-Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. It will begin just past midnight Eastern time on Nov. 18 with Massachusetts at Memphis, a team which reached last season's NCAA title game.
Then, ESPN will follow with two games each tipping at 11 p.m. local time — Fresno State at St. Mary's in Moraga, Calif., and then Idaho State at Hawaii — which will amount to a sort of time travel experience for East Coasters: Because of time zone differences they each begin on Nov. 17.
Afterward, a Tip-Off studio show at 6 a.m. ET will lead into Penn playing Drexel at 10 a.m. ET. After that, ESPN's TV platforms — and its ESPN360.com broadband service, so you can goof off at work — will air a stream of games involving 15 conferences that won't end until past midnight in the East.
ESPN's Ben-Hanan says the "linchpin for this massive basketball-wide stunt" was having games leading into a marquee matchup — which will be Kentucky-North Carolina at 9 p.m.