The Florida Gators secured their third NCAA Men’s Basketball championship last night, defeating the Houston Cougars deep in the heart of San Antonio, TX. This year’s viewership figures for the men’s tournament were, notably, on par to be the best in many years. In fact, the Final Four secured their best viewership in eight years this past weekend.
Meanwhile, Danny Parkins of FS1’s Breakfast Ball program shared his insights on his viewing experience of last night’s championship game, which he was ultimately disappointed in.
“I appreciate sports, I know this is college sports and not professional,” Parkins noted. “I really don’t think a two-point game to decide a national championship could have been a worse viewing experience than last night.”
The FS1 co-host noted that the contest was a better viewing experience in the first half. According to Parkins, the teams were allowed to just play basketball. However, as the game progressed, Parkins just couldn’t get into it due to what he considered a lengthy second half and below-average play.
“I thought that was a terrible game, and I thought it was a terrible watch. I kind of resented that I stayed up for the full game,” said Parkins. “By the time this game was done, we had had two teams that couldn’t crack 40% from the floor, combined to shoot 37%. Making less than one out of four threes, 22 turnovers, 26 second half fouls. There was no flow to the game.”
Although average viewership numbers have yet to be released, the NCAA decided to begin airing the game at 8:50 p.m. on the East Coast, which is 30 minutes earlier than in previous years. Even with the earlier broadcast time, Parkins felt that the quality of play—with a championship on the line—was sub-par.
“I didn’t tune into a national championship game to watch a ref show,” complained Parkins. “Congrats to Florida and the resiliency, and we’ll talk about the Gators here in a minute. But that was not a good game. I really did not enjoy it.”
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