ESPN isn't fazed by your SkyCam criticisms

If there was anything that united college basketball fans during a time of year where postseason posturing and seeding speculation create vast divides, it wasthe ESPN debacle known as the SkyCam.  The SkyCam hit us hard during the Kentucky-Mississippi State broadcast and gave viewers a balanced diet of nausea and fury.  Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart said after the game that he heard your complaints (that’s in his contract) and that the school would no longer approve the camera for their broadcasts.  ESPN?  Well, they don’t seem too ready to give up yet.

In an article in the USA Today (found via Awful Announcing), the Worldwide Leader’s executive vice president, Norby Williamson, offered up some of the same defense a now-reassigned former manager of mine cited after she followed-up on her promises to “make our lives hell”.  From the USA Today:

ESPN last week tried new wrinkles on college hoops, like using an overhead camera as the main camera shot as well as using split-screen coverage showing the game and a shot isolated on a single player. ESPN executive vice president Norby Williamson admitted, “You don’t always get things perfect at first.” He said he liked elements of the shots focused on players. But he said he wasn’t fazed by criticism of the novelties: “You always get negative reaction to change.”

Ahh, yes.  The old “negative reaction to change” argument.  I’d say it’s more of a negative reaction to an awfully unnecessary and distracting change, but Matt wouldn’t let me put “executive vice president” in my title when we switched the blog over.  So, instead, I’ll just have to take Mr. Williamson’s word for it – though I’d assume a change away from SkyCam probably would get the opposite of a negative reaction. 

One technological masterpiece we can all agree on though is the Kentucky Sports Radio podcast.  If you missed this morning’s show, you missed Seth Davis facing the music on the KSR-Sports Junkies feud and the guys talk John Pelphrey, Rotnei Clarke, Trevor Lacey and angry Duke fans.  Give it a listen below.