Gracing us with their presence in Tuscon, I mean Tucson, ESPN showed their contemptuousness to Arizona Basketball at College Gameday.
It has been four years since ESPN’s Mark Schlabach released an unsubstantiated and potentially libelous story that put Arizona Basketball, then head coach Sean Miller and Deandre Ayton in the crosshairs.
As time has gone on, that story has proven to be false, and Christian Dawkins, a major culprit in the FBI Investigation drama, even stated the supposed wiretap ever existed. Yet ESPN has continued to double-down in the vitriol towards Arizona, maintaining their truth, and issuing multiple corrections to their story.
Well, time has rolled on, the Wildcats are currently the No. 3 team in the country, and are now under the direction of a different head coach, Tommy Lloyd.
Things are going great for Arizona Basketball, and as it is often said, time heals all wounds. Well, almost all wounds anyways.
And just ahead of their marquee matchup against the Oregon Ducks on Saturday evening, the University of Arizona welcomed ESPN’s College Gameday.
The traveling roadshow which features a few college pundits, most namely Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg, two analysts who once had strong words for Miller and Arizona, descended to
Tuscon
, I mean Tucson in front of a rowdy and raucous crowd.
And the weekly roadshow proved to be nothing more than a mockery, and once again, highlighted ESPN’s contemptuousness towards Arizona Basketball.
For 60+ minutes on Saturday morning, ESPN’s crew endured several boos and taunting from Arizona’s fans. Perhaps a bit of payback for Arizona being the proverbial whipping boy by the national media the past few years, despite Auburn, Kansas, and USC among several other programs that were also embroiled in controversy and misconduct.
Not once, during the last four years, did ESPN (aka the “Worldwide Leader in Sports”) issue any sort of apology, correction, or remorse for showing a lack of integrity. But on Saturday, when they were supposed to highlight the team of the respective city that they were in, ESPN couldn’t bother to interview one player or coach affiliated with the program.
The exposure was nice, it is great to be in the spotlight again, but if Saturday revealed anything, it was that ESPN continued to show contemptuousness towards Arizona Basketball.