The moment college basketball fans have been waiting for has arrived with the start of the NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament. As the first round concludes Friday, it is safe to say that “madness” has already ensued; after all, three of the games yesterday ended in overtime.
Most sports radio hosts are invested in the college basketball action, but perhaps none more than Joe Giglio, co-host of The OG with Joe Ovies and Joe Giglio on 99.9 The Fan in Raleigh, N.C. While the show was in the midst of its “What’s Trending” segment, the game between No. 5 Iowa and No. 12 Richmond was coming down to the wire in overtime. Giglio, not wanting his bracket to be spoiled, held up the show to watch the end of the game, which cultivated some unique banter on-the-air between he and his co-host.
“I’m not the only person who either – A – picked Richmond, which I’m probably in the minority on that, but there’s a lot of people who have Iowa in the Final Four; if not winning this thing,” exclaimed Giglio.
In an effort to move the show along, co-host Joe Ovies attempted to return to the “What’s Trending” segment, revealing the number two trending topic to be something pertaining to Baker Mayfield. The listeners remained uncertain, however, of what exactly the topic would be – even though Mayfield had just requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns – because Ovies was unable to focus, inadvertently diverting his attention to the overtime action.
“Honestly, I can’t move on with the show because Giglio is just going to blurt out whatever so we’re just going to have to wait this thing out,” Ovies explained to the listeners.
Shortly after, one of the teams took a timeout, meaning that it was a perfect time to try to curtail the entropic moment on the show. “Let’s talk about Baker Mayfield while they’re in the timeout – geez,” Ovies said, breaking into laughter upon realizing that there was no chance the show would be moving on until the sounding of the final buzzer.
“Oh, that’s a foul!” shouted Giglio as play resumed.
“For whatever reason, I apparently have the ability to multitask, and everybody else in this building has zero ability to multitask when it comes to a sporting event going on,” Ovies explained.
The chances of filling out a perfect March Madness bracket are 1-in-9,223,372,036,854,775,808. Giglio cares deeply about his bracket despite the slim chances of filling out a perfect one, and wanted Richmond to win since he has them advancing to the Elite 8.
The game seemed to dawdle towards the finish – and then more time was added to the clock by the officials. At that point, Ovies had had enough and wanted to move on with their radio show.
“I would like to continue the show!” Ovies said in desperation. “I can’t continue the show if this game keeps bogging down. This five seconds is taking ten minutes.”
When producer Jonathan Rand played the “What’s Trending” sound effect again prior to the end of the game, Ovies questioned why they were even on the air if they were just going to react in real-time to a college basketball game.
“Why are we doing this?,” asked Ovies. “We’re not moving on because they’re just going back out on the court now and I’m not going to be able to move on because Giglio is watching with wrapped attention. I mean, this is where we are right now.”
Finally, the game ended with a 67-63 Richmond upset victory, setting them up for a matchup with No. 4 Providence in the second round Saturday. Giglio stood up and applauded after the show had been considerably delayed, and conveyed his emotions to Ovies and the listening audience.
“Your boy feels good,” Giglio said, referencing that his bracket had been retained – for now.
