If you’re like us, you woke up this morning, stumbled into the living room, groggily flipped on SportsCenter, as always (during baseball season, it’s Quick Pitch on MLB Network), and noticed … whoa, there’s a live basketball game on. Not only that: It was a basketball game in Jersey City. One that started at 6 a.m.
The game was between Monmouth and St. Peter’s, part of ESPN’s college basketball kickoff marathon, which is showing games all day on ESPN affiliates. You can watch them on ESPN360.com if you are one of those lucky souls not saddled with Time Warner Cable. The rest of us can’t: ESPN and Time Warner never hammered out a deal to offer ESPN360.com, which is not only why you’re missing games all day, but also why we’re missing our Illinois game tonight.
Anyway, the Monmouth and St. Peter’s players looked as groggy as you did: The final score was 58–34. Monmouth actually shot 20.8 percent on the game, which will happen when your game tips off at 6 a.m. Also, because the game was on ESPN, St. Peter’s brought tons of fans out, a lot more than they’d ordinarily have for a game. Even a 6 a.m. one.
Right now, Drexel and Niagara are playing. They look like they’ve each had two more hours of sleep than Monmouth.