ESPN's hoops binge: A bad idea whose time keeps coming

There's been some idle conversation lately about college basketball filling the void created by the postponement of the NBA season, but the world of intercollegiate hoops can feel like an empty space itself when television gluts the market with meaningless games between unrecognizable teams.

I suppose college students and insomniacs with Jay Bilas fixations might have been amused by another 24-hour basketball marathon on ESPN, stretching from midnight Tuesday to midnight Wednesday.

Maybe some found it invigorating to wake up to Drexel vs. Rider at 6 a.m. or Morehead State vs. the College of Charleston at 8. Next time, they might want to try coffee.

The "alarm-clock" games were followed by more bland appetizers throughout the day and early evening, leading up to the main course - Duke vs. Michigan State and Kentucky against Kansas - in prime time from New York.

Theoretically, this kind of exposure should be good for basketball, but instead of providing a shot in the arm, the saturated coverage has the virtual effect of an anesthetist's needle.

Though the mutual self-destruction of the NBA owners and players eventually might give a larger stage to college basketball, it's not really needed to fill a void this year more than any other - at least not until the Super Bowl is played and digested.

The sports calendar at the moment is a logjam of competing interests, most having to do with pro and college football. As Thanksgiving approaches, basketball still has a seat at the kids' table.

Whetting the appetite for basketball was North Carolina's victory over Michigan State on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson, and Tuesday night's aforementioned Madison Square Garden double-header between basketball blue bloods.

All the other games - or the overwhelming majority, at least - are lost in the backwash of the NFL, football fantasy leagues and BCS standings.

Speaking of things that appear to be lost on people, there was something about the Mike Krzyzewski tribute on ESPN2 Monday night that got under my skin.

Shown in anticipation of Coach K moving ahead of Bobby Knight for most career victories, the program was a fitting acknowledgment of a man who has helped shape the game for the better.

It was only in the last quarter hour that I took exception to the tone. That's when the TV manipulators attempted to transform a great coach into a jock deity.

In the wake of the controversy that engulfed Joe Paterno, I found myself thinking, "Haven't we learned anything?"

At one point, a Duke student appears on screen and refers to Krzyzewski as "god." That's followed by a shot of a female student saying that Coach K is "the head of the Duke family."

The first student gestures to the top of an administration building and says that it's only right that Krzyzewski works from the highest office on campus.

Twaddle. Drivel. Nonsense.

Don't take this as criticism of Krzyzewski. He's paid to win basketball games, and does it as well or better than anyone. If he didn't, nobody would care what kind of teacher, leader or head of the family he is.

Why isn't it enough to celebrate him for the job he does? That goes for all the most accomplished coaches. Why do we put so much effort into godding-up these guys?

Yes, the media contribute in their own warped way. But why do our universities spend so much time servicing coaches? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

It disappoints and confuses me when educated young adults at Duke, Penn State or anywhere else bow down to coaches. It's foolish. And dangerous.

Where are the skepticism and irreverence that are supposed to accompany youth? So here we go again: Jock culture wants us to believe that like Paterno and select others, Krzyzewski is a coach who is more than a coach.

No he's not. None of them is.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373 bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com