Seton Hall women's Coach Tony Bozzella joked before tipoff that he was going to apologize ahead of time for any colorful language viewers heard during Fox Sports' innovative broadcast of the Pirates' game against St. John's on Friday night.
With a five-second delay in place, Bozzella had nothing to worry about. He and Red Storm Coach Joe Tartamella wore microphones throughout the commercial-free telecast, giving viewers an unprecedented all-access look at both teams during the game.
"It was everything we hoped it would be for the viewers," Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said after the game, which Seton Hall won 64-59. "It was a riveting, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in a game. It brought the passion and the range of emotions of the coaches to the viewers."
Fox Sports set up a dedicated feed for both coaches, allowing viewers to watch and listen to them for the entire game, including inside the locker rooms at the half.
Some of the nuances viewers were able to see and hear included timeout huddles, banter among the coaches and their players and, yes, interaction with officials.
After a no-call, Bozzella was heard yelling at official Tom Danaher.
"Tom, how did you miss that illegal screen there? Were you not watching?" he said.
The setup didn't stop Bozzella from being lively
"I have no voice left from yelling so much on the sideline," Bozzella joked after the game. "I liked the all-access, although I think we have to find a little bit of a way to temper it. I definitely was myself out there and I absolutely would do it again, but there were a few times where maybe you want to say something to a player, but know that everyone will hear it."
Tartamella was a bit more reserved on the sidelines. Still, he had his quips to his players. At halftime, he told them that "it's conference time, there are no easy games. We got to do a better job in the second half."
The announcing team of Lisa Byington and LaChina Robinson called the game while also allowing the viewers to hear the coaches on the Fox Sports broadcast.
"I loved it," Robinson said. "I've done games before where we left the coach's mics open, but never to the extent like tonight where I thought Joe and Tony were our play-by-play and color analysts."
Like father, like son
Austin Rivers and father/Coach Doc Rivers were ejected in the second quarter of the Los Angeles Clippers' loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night.
The younger Rivers was tossed after missing a layup and slightly pushing referee J.T. Orr with 6:38 left in the second quarter. After the ejection, he yelled at Orr and waved his arms at him and was led off the court by a Clippers employee.
During a timeout a few seconds later, Doc Rivers walked toward where all three referees were standing and began yelling at them. He was then ejected by crew chief Jason Phillips. The Clippers trailed 59-35 when the elder Rivers was ejected and eventually lost 140-116.
Austin Rivers said the contact with the official was an accident.
Phillips said Doc Rivers was ejected for using "extreme profanity" while complaining about his son being ejected. But Doc Rivers said that wasn't the case, and he called the timeout because they saw an official call a foul on a layup Marreese Speights made on the play before the timeout, but didn't give them the free throw.
"I said: 'No you forgot to give us the free throw,'" Doc Rivers said. "I said: 'Come on, you guys don't know what you're doing.' That was it."
Sports on 01/01/2017