24 Hour College Hoops Marathon Gets the Season off to Good Start
If you are a college hoops fan, then you are in for a great day. Because there will be hoops on all day today courtesy of the 24 hour Tip-Off Marathon on ESPN. Some of the games during this event include Xavier hosting Butler, Gonzaga hosting West Virginia Kentucky‘s women’s team taking on Britney Griner and Baylor and their defending national championship men’s team taking on perennial powerhouse Duke. Michigan State will try to avoid an 0-2 start when they meet #7 Kansas.
Other teams that can be seen during the marathon include Missouri, Cincinnati, Temple, Connecticut and Pittsburgh. This is the fifth straight year of the ESPN Tip-Off Marathon. Every year the games seem to get better. Not only do we see many of the big name schools but also many schools get exposure that ordinarily would not. For example, at 6:00 AM, Stony Brook takes on Rider. You may remember Stony Brook’s baseball team from their run to the College World Series last June. Now you can check out their basketball team which has made trips to the post season as well in recent years.
The 12:00 noon game features Temple against Kent State. Temple is going to be in the Big East this season. The Golden Flashes are enjoying quite a year of athletic success as well. Their baseball team was also in the College World Series and their football team is going to a bowl game this year for the first time since Jack Lambert played for them. Their hoops team has had some success in recent seasons as well.
College basketball is the only sport that could pull this off. The typical game lasts about two hours, which is perfect for such an event. It’s what makes the sport so much fun to watch. Games don’t drag on for hours like baseball and football. You can check out a couple of the games in the middle of the day and only spend four hours. That is also one of the reasons the post season in college basketball is so great. You can get in a couple of games in the evening while at your favorite watering hole, and won’t spend all night there.
Football in two hours wouldn’t work. You go to a football game to make a day of it. You get there hours before the kickoff and party before and after the game. So it’s a good thing the game lasts over three hours. It gives fans a chance to sober up and tire themselves out a bit. But two hours is just right for basketball. You can get off of work, got to a game that night , and still get back home before bed time. Gotta love that.
