ESPN'S RAGING ANTI-KU BIAS
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All weekend, the front page story was a video with the header: Bracketology : KU falls to 3 seed. They just updated everything, still no mention of KU’s victory over Baylor. They still have the " KU falls to 3 Seed" story up: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/
Frannie Boy might be the most anti-KU announcer in the history of ESPN. Obviously, he is soliciting opinions from our opponents about the reffing in our home games. The fact that Baylor “presented” him with questionable calls ( w/o bothering to show questionable calls called on us), and Liberace cited lil Frannie as a “source” a few years back says it all. Are ESPN producers behind this? Is this a subtle war they wage in basketball against the B12, unlike the obvious AF war they started by soliciting the AAC to poach our teams? Does anyone have any doubts why Bill didn’t want Frannie’s son?
Take a listen to Jimmy Dykes promote the SEC on his games, and then listen to Frannie. Is there ever been a starker contrast?
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Gary Perish also mentioned the refs as a home field advantage at AFH. He did also mention that same advantage for Duke so it’s not all bias, but still aggravating.
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@Jethro I personally like Dykes think he is straight up most the time - - -Screw Frannie AND ESPN
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Frannie’s “Braun is hated” is simply a fantasy in his own mind. Doesn’t stop him from blurting it out, though. I think Frannie needs to be booed off the court next time he shows up.
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Here’s a good post I found that digs into Frannie’s bias:
"I went to the game and am just now watching the ESPN broadcast. Fran is a disgrace. He just shat out this absolutely insane idea that “Allen Fieldhouse is worth 10 points” because of the officiating nonsense, which is intentionally inflammatory and absolutely untrue. Letting Scott Drew use Fran and ESPN as a cipher to air Drew’s petty greviences about fouls called (also - they didn’t show any video evidence) is beyond unprofessional. It’s also asinine when you consider how Fran is constantly falling over himself to defend the terrible officiating that plagues college basketball (“95% of the time, they get it right!” he says, without evidence), only to assert KU and AFH affects officials to the tune of 10 points a game.
Another major issue that KU fans and officials should absolutely not tolerate is his unfair and very public negative portrayal of Christian Braun.
Braun plays a little “hot” or chippy on the court to be sure, but nothing like a Laettner or Jason Sutherland. CB did get the tech against Dayton for the hat topper gesture on the dunk. I haven’t seen that type of behavior since. I haven’t heard from other fans or analysts in or out of the program that Braun is “hated.” In multiple games, Fraschilla, doing his typical, propaganda-style “repeat the talking point enough times until it becomes true” has in multiple games REPEATEDLY mentioned that Braun isn’t well-like and is hated by other teams and fans. He keeps going after Braun’s reputation of a player that is more critical and pointed that ESPN had against Grayson Allen when he was perpetually tripping people. Even if it was true (it isn’t), why do this? Why throw meat at the wolves? Why put a target on Braun’s back?
Fran keeps lying about and misrepresenting the quality of the officiating. He keeps ignoring calls that don’t fit his narrative. He keeps hammering the same points: “Braun is HATED in the other gyms,” etc.
Why does our AD roll out the red carpet for this short f**kit? He just does Big 12 regional games for ESPN. He was a failure as a coach. He’s unlikeable. He is nothing more than a second-rate troll on Twitter. He isn’t very smart, and he is now running through the broadcast a negative narrative about a junior that plays hard and keeps his nose clean on and off the court.
I hate every Fran game called even if Kansas isn’t playing. He is an insufferable blowhard with an ax to grind. He propagates biased and bad information to suit his narratives over and over each telecast. He doesn’t call or analyze the games as they play out, just bellows his prepared statements over and over. ESPN has never been exceptionally unfair to KU in my opinion. Why can’t ESPN send him elsewhere? Why does Bill Self let him in his practices?
We all need to get tough and tell this hack to get bent. I can’t believe we have to just put up with this. He is ESPN’s answer to Kevin Keitzman."
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His claims about ref bias at AFH are about as valid as the dozens of posts here every game whining about all those horrible calls that always go against KU.
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I’m simply tired of him. Send him to the Pac-12 or something
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@mayjay I think the difference is that as fans we notice every bad call that goes against KU. As an “analyst” he is supposed to be non-partisan. In saying Allen is worth 10 points based on officiating, he has taken a stance that is Anti-KU. I hear people say he and self are actually friends, but to put that out into the universe on a national broadcast between two top 10 teams is certainly not friendly.
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Drew brought a video of bad calls he got last year and showed it to Fran and Fran announced it on espn. Wonder if Drew ok’d that or if Fran threw him under the bus?
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@mayjay No, sir. None of us have a national audience. We also call out times when we get away with something. If you want to see blind ref caterwauling, go visit the Rump Rafters during a game. It’s pathological- we look like pikers compared to them.
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@BeddieKU23 said in ESPN'S RAGING ANTI-KU BIAS:
Send him to the Pac-12 or something
As long as they don’t send Walton here.
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@tis4tim said in ESPN'S RAGING ANTI-KU BIAS:
@BeddieKU23 said in ESPN'S RAGING ANTI-KU BIAS:
Send him to the Pac-12 or something
As long as they don’t send Walton here.
oh for sure its not a trade.
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@BeddieKU23 Think of all of the players to come through the B12 you could have instead. Sort of how B10 has Hummel.
It isn’t like Fran is famous or beloved or has any ties to the B12. I don’t understand why he doesn’t float around.
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King McClure did a KU game on ESPN + this year and he barely finished his career at Baylor a few back. I would definitely like to see ESPN switch it up. This crap he went on about Allen Fieldhouse and Braun was redicilous
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LOL
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@Jethro nailed it.
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So, I made it a point to see if the KU/Baylor game was even mentioned this weekend (it wasn’t) on the ESPN website…but look at what is their top story on their basketball site: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/
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@Jethro said in ESPN'S RAGING ANTI-KU BIAS:
So, I made it a point to see if the KU/Baylor game was even mentioned this weekend (it wasn’t) on the ESPN website…but look at what is their top story on their basketball site: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/
Oh buddy I seen it multiple times at like during half time of other games, talking about how KU dominated from the word go showing hi-lites of Brauns dunk – they repeatedly showed Jalen’s behind the back pass - -Sorry buddy I seen the KU Baylor game high lights - - ALOT to Oach for his three
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@jayballer67 I understand. I was referring to their website.
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@Jethro I always wonder if the website content changes in different parts of the country.
