Saturday, March 22, 2008

ESPN, still pushing to get UConn’s side of the story regarding the end of the series with Tennessee, decided to use the Huskies’ press conference as its chance to beat a dead horse.
An ESPN reporter asked coach Geno Auriemma a Tennessee related question and was told by the tournament moderator to keep questions tailored to this weekend’s games. After being rebuked, another ESPN staffer asked a similar question and debated with the moderator over what can and can’t be asked. Infuriated with its lack of success, one of the reporters followed Auriemma in hopes of extracting an answer.
Why, after ESPN was denied at the Big East Tournament, is the cable sports network continuing to push the situation?
It is airing a feature Sunday morning on “Outside the Lines” on the UConn-Tennessee rivalry.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Um . . . they were doing their job?

Just because they don't have the tournament doesn't mean they shouldn't be continuing to pursue news.

They may be based in Connecticut, but they're not gonna give Geno a free pass like the rest of the Connecticut media.

On the other hand, what side? Didn't Tennessee end the series?

Joe said...

Doing their job is one thing, but when a reporter tries to extort Auriemma during the Big East Tournament by telling him if he doesn't talk about Tennessee then ESPN will run the Maya Moore story, every time thereafter that ESPN asks about Tennessee, it has an agenda other than finding info for the sake of reporting.

Geno doesn't get a free pass -- which is what everyone thinks for one reason: When Pat Summitt says ask Geno and Geno doesn't respond, people ASSUME he's hiding something.

The report sent to the NCAA by the SEC on behalf of Tennessee was filled with accusations by the Lady Vols that proved either minor (Moore visiting ESPN) or wrong (Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird gave Moore a ride to New York even though they were in Russia).