Let’s Talk About The Dumpster Fire That Is The Cayman Island Classic

I don’t even know if this is the correct score.

Dear God. Let’s take a minute to talk about what just happened.

That was by far the worst broadcast of a collegiate event I have ever seen. Scratch that, maybe the worst broadcast I have seen of any event. Ever. Before I get into what went wrong, let’s look at what possibly could have created these problems.

The rights to the Cayman Islands Classic Holiday Basketball Tournament, belong to College Sports Online, a company owned by CBS Advanced Media. That’s right, CBS, one of the biggest television companies in the world. Oh, and did I mention it’s $10 to watch all these games?

So how on earth did this happen? I have a few theories.

1. They gave the reigns over to the local high school.

Reasoning: watch this clip in particular. This is exactly what I did when I was a manager for the varsity basketball team in high school. I would get so caught up in the play that I would completely forget to turn the camera and miss the play. Coach would always get mad at me but it’s not like there were hundreds, maybe thousands of people watching.

2. They picked a crew off the beach and paid them $100

This seems the most logical for me, seeing as the crew didn’t have much clue as to what was going on the entire game, including the announcers. Exhibit A:

"Are we in commercial break?" says the announcers, whose microphone is playing over a smoothie commercial.
— OhVarsity! (@OhVarsity) November 21, 2017

I just don’t understand how this is possible. Even the officials looked like they had been picked up off the beach, but I’m sure Spencer will talk about them separately. Here they are doing a replay, but all they have is the SAME TERRIBLE ANGLE THAT WE HAD.

Here is one thing in particular that I just have to mention. I have never seen a college basketball game with two primary cameras coming from the same angle. I just don’t understand it. Here is an example of what it looks like, and this was probably one of the smoothest transitions of the night. If you watched the game, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

It was almost nauseating to watch. This happened every single play. A two camera set up only works if you are providing a different angle, and you sure as hell don’t change that camera in the middle of a play.

I JUST DON’T GET IT.

Now, this next clip was probably the best camerawork of the night, which, ironically, was when the camera guy presumably left his station to go get nachos or something.

So, in the middle of this game, I made the comparison to Fyre Festival.

this cayman islands tournament is the fyre festival of basketball tournaments
— paco 🇺🇸 (@AllaireMatt) November 21, 2017

If you don’t know what that is, I strongly suggest you watch this video.

This was the hype video for the 2017 Cayman Islands Classic.

That should have been a warning. I’m pretty sure this was made in Windows Movie Maker. Then teams started to show up and this was their locker room.

Probably one of the first times we have had an outdoor locker room @CaymanClassic pic.twitter.com/bWj4buPh3w
— UB Men's Basketball (@UBmenshoops) November 20, 2017

HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?! HOW IS THIS A REAL TOURNAMENT?!

At one point during the game, the official scorer and the scoreboard had a completely different score. In the first half, the official scorer gave a point to a player who hadn’t played a single second. The incompetency of these people continues to amaze me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I could do any better. I’m just saying that if you know this is happening, you have to plan in advance.

There is no way the NCAA approves of this, right? I’m assuming they either have just completely ignored it, or refuse to do anything about it because it’s not important, but this is just ridiculous. I just don’t understand how they thought this was a good idea. If you don’t have the facilities to handle eight D1 college basketball teams, maybe don’t host a tournament. Just a thought.

Expectations:

Reality:

This was Day 1 of the tournament. I hope this just gets disbanded and nobody ever speaks of it again. I also want a disclaimer that this isn’t me making fun of the people actually running the cameras or the announcers, more of a criticism of the people in charge. It seems they put people who were not capable behind the reigns, opening them up to unwarranted criticism. So, organizers, if you’re reading this, you’ve got a lot of work to do.

UPDATE: 11/21

7:50PM: This is where the pregame interviews were conducted.

Our pregame interview studio at John Gray Gymnasium in the Cayman Islands. Fortunately, Speed Queen makes quiet washers and dryers #Bearcats pic.twitter.com/WD6xQ5mNbK
— Dan Hoard (@Dan_Hoard) November 21, 2017

8:07 PM: The scoreboard and the broadcast showed TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SCORES AND TIMES

8:55 PM: The broadcast just showed the “keys to the game”. TWO OF THEM WERE THAT THEY WON THEIR PREVIOUS GAME HOW IS THIS REAL

9:16 PM: Our good friend Mo Egger with the discreet flash photo of Gary Clark. We see you, Mo.

.@MoEgger1530 real smooth pic.twitter.com/tw9f85275O
— paco 🇺🇸 (@AllaireMatt) November 22, 2017

9:21 PM: This was a lead in shot after a commercial break. It really went on for this long. Try to make it to the end of the gif. Also, EXCLUSIVE BEHIND THE SCENES.