Tons to unpack about all of this. A lot has happened, and a lot more come out, in the past 24 hours.
All matches will be streamed live on ESPN3. I'm not sure how this has been dealt with at other regionals in the past because I'm watching the Huskers, but I gather from other fans that this is actually an improvement - apparently a lot of regions don't broadcast their matches, and it's left up to the host school. Of course Nebraska/NETV broadcasts our first- and second-round matches, so we're blessed. Not the case everywhere, so streaming is an improvement.
What is not an improvement is that there will be no announcers, and that's something the NCAA could easily fix. Just hearing the sounds of the court, without any commentary, plus having the noise & whistles from the court next door (separated by a curtain) would be confusing.
After the first & second rounds are done, there will be one court per hall and they'll move to sideline cameras as well as announcers.
But we're hearing that, after the backlash, the NCAA is looking into announcers for these matches. There are literally dozens of great announcers in Omaha alone if you just ask the local High Schools, and a lot of folks have volunteered to work for free. This is likely going to happen, even if they announce from a remote site.
The NCAA announced yesterday that there will be dedicated bathrooms and changing rooms for the teams. It was EGREGIOUS to expect teams to warm up on the court, then change into game jerseys on the bench. I don't know if that was an actual factual plan, but what a colossal mistake that would have been. Mind blowing.
The court surfaces are a bit of a mess, and some of the info we're getting is likely not accurate. It's helpful to understand the setup of the whole thing. Banquet Hall C, which is massive, has eight practice courts over a concrete floor. The courts are separated by curtains and teams shouldn't have to worry about practicing near their upcoming opponents.
The issue here was that we were told they were using Sport Court, laid over a concrete floor - no cushion for players, just begging for knee & lower leg injuries. However, per the zoom meeting with the NCAA committee planning this event, as of April 1st there was supposed to be felt padding under the sport court in the practice room. So I'm not sure why yesterday people were saying it was just sports court on concrete.
Banquet C is used for club tournaments all the time. They always have padding under the court surface, and we know it's readily available in Omaha, volleyball town that it is. So why that came out, I have no idea.
There's only going to be one camera, behind one end line. No other angles, and likely no replay. This is not ideal for fans, but it's likely the best we can hope for. Space is limited in the two banquet halls they're using for the live matches.
Here's why the first two rounds will have one angle. As you can see by the layout, there's no sideline room for extra cameras.
The above courts will have a subsurface of felt padding, then sports court, then teraflex court (the kind Nebraska plays on at Devaney) over the top. The base is still concrete, but it's still a pretty decent surface.
Once they get to the Elite Eight or Final Four (I forget), they're moving the whole show to the main arena where the surface will be padding, sports court, then teraflex, all over a wooden frame (the basketball court Creighton plays on). This is the ideal surface, and what most of the athletes coming to the tournament are used to. So that's good.
Regardless of how this gets fixed, wholly or partially, that it was screwed up in the first place is a huge black eye for the NCAA - especially after they stepped in it with the women's NCAA BB tournament.
How you screw this up just weeks after that debacle is beyond me. But here we are.
