‘Made for TV’

Couldn’t help but notice tonight on the screens at the Brickhouse the hype starting up for Tuesday on ESPN in NYC. Certainly doesn’t hurt that Stephen will hit the city coming off another show in front of LeBron. Made me think of something executive VP of programming for CBS Sports Mike Aresco told me last summer in my reporting for the book: “The Davidson story was the best story of the entire tournament. They had beaten the Big East champs. They beat the Big 10 champions decisively. You kind of think of them as an Amherst or a Williams with a chance to win the national championship. That’s a premier time slot, that regional final going into 60 Minutes, but the Davidson story was unique and Stephen Curry was a genuine star. What he did in the Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin games, he was the single most visible player in the entire tournament, and maybe for the last several years. And TV thrives on star power. George Mason became a nice story in ’06 but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t a little school. They didn’t have a star. But everything about the Davidson story was made for TV viewership. You dream about Davidson-type scenarios.”