When something within our sporting culture becomes unavoidable, SportsCenter has long been CNN. They take you through every angle until they've exhausted their resources. The question of whether that's good or bad is up to the viewer, really.
Last night was a perfect example. On ESPNU, viewers saw Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart shove a Texas Tech fan after what appeared to be a pretty good egging on.
Though we've seen events like what Smart did before, It was clear that this broke a barrier between players and fans and therefore would be the night's biggest story.
ESPN proceeded to cover the Smart incident for somewhere between the next 60 and 90 minutes that followed. They brought on no fewer than four different analysts or reporters (including Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg) via phone to discuss what led to this and where it might go. They showed Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford's press conference at least three times.
Now, to a point, SportsCenter did an excellent job. They gave viewers all of the information necessary. They explained what happened and why it might have been building (Oklahoma State has been going through some stuff was established immediately as a narrative) and how it might immediately affect the Cowboys on the court. You saw everything you needed to see, unquestionably.
But then you get into filling more than an hour of airtime on the same story and at some point the coverage goes well beyond repetitive. Once Andy Katz reported that the Big 12 was going through the process it needed to possibly suspend Marcus Smart, that might have been the time to cut away. It was the opening weekend of the Olympics, you had NBA and NHL games on tap.
Instead, ESPN just kept added on to nothing. In fact, ESPN brought on additional beat writers to confirm that they didn't have any new information Saturday night. The interview with Greenberg seemed to go on forever. They mentioned an ESPN.com writer who'd interviewed Smart and then had the writer on air to reiterate what they'd already told the audience he'd written. It just kept going in circles. It's now been reported by ESPN that Smart has alleged the fan of using a slur towards him, but that report didn't come until the day after.
Now, there's obviously a defense of this operation. People were watching the Olympics, SportsCenter didn't want to have people flip over, see that they weren't covering the big story everyone was talking about, and then flip away (though Fox Sports Live didn't start until 1:30 a.m. ET last night). And even beyond that, this is in some ways unprecedented for college sports. It is worthy of at least getting every angle.
ESPN should be applauded, in some aspects, for over-serving rather than under-serving fans. However, there's overboard and then there's the deep end, and that's where the Marcus Smart coverage seemed to stray. It felt as if ESPN — without the NFL for the first time this season, and with little in the way of Olympic coverage — was trying to make a story even bigger than it already was, and that's where the network has shown in the past that it can lose its way.
