ESPNU Drops The Ball On Dunk City After Dark Coverage

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

Florida Gulf Coast was excited for Dunk City's appearance in ESPNU's Midnight Madness showcase that extended from 9:00 p.m ET to 1:00 a.m. The opportunity to be featured on ESPN, for a team that was just recently Division I eligible, was something coveted throughout the FGCU fan base.

"I was really looking forward to our guys being on a national platform with ESPNU coming to the school," said Bryan Cooney, FGCU senior.

When the coverage started at 9:00 p.m ET, ESPNU briefly went to each school, including FGCU, for a 30 second introduction. After that, ESPNU traveled from school to school, but mostly stuck to Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse, Memphis, and UConn. But after much hype for Dunk City After Dark, 11:00 p.m passed and ESPNU had yet to broadcast from FGCU, excluding the short intro.

It seemed that ESPNU had tunnel vision, only worrying about Kentucky's amazing recruiting class and if they would mesh together, and other story lines from Duke and Syracuse.

As FGCU captured America's hearts in the Sweet Sixteen last year, there are Dunk City fans from all over the country. Most of whom couldn't make it to Alico Arena. Some FGCU students also couldn't make it out to Alico. These fans were counting on ESPNU.

"I know the big name schools get the coverage for good reason but they need to give equal time to all the schools that they said would be showed tonight," Cooney said.

At 11:30 p.m, ESPNU had still yet to go to FGCU, and even Wichita State. The Shockers, another mid-major squad, made it to the Final Four. Kentucky, a major feature in the Midnight Madness coverage, lost in the first round of the NIT.

"Wichita St a final four team last year hasn't been shown once either... I'd think the school [FGCU] should have an issue with this bringing in extra equipment, screens all for naught," Cooney said.

Finally, at about 12:30 local time, ESPNU headed to Dunk City to broadcast FGCU. It featured a Joe Dooley interview and some highlights. Then, they cut to an Andy Katz interview with Andy Enfield.

In a four hour broadcast, there was approximately 10 minutes of FGCU air time. Later though, Brian Greene's dunk contest winning dunks were shown on SportsCenter.