22ndandF, an educated guess on my part.  The opening weekend saw an average of 166,000 with a high of 210,000.  This is prime time without much if any other sports going on.  And, it's winner-take-all.  Am guessing around double the audience of an early round weekend afternoon.

  

Mo Creek played more minutes and scored more points in his one season at GW than his three at Indiana.

Quite a finish as Sideline cancer and the Marquette alum team were tied at 70 when they went to the Elam ending.  Travis Diener buried an open three giving the Marquette team a 78-73 victory.  Mo scored either 20 or 22 points.  He fell to the floor once the game ended and was inconsolable.  His friend and former teammate, Jermaine Marshall, had recently died in France where he was playing overseas.  He was 28 years old.  Incredibly, Jermaine had lost his older brother Jerome a couple of years earlier.  Mo and Remy Abell had dedicated this year's tournament to Jermaine, and Mo mentioned Jermaine in his postgame interview with ESPN after hitting the game winner in the semifinals.  Even putting the money aside (which is substantial, Mo would have received $75,000 with a win and receives $0 as a result of the loss), this was a devastating moment for Mo.  He left it all out on the court and should feel immense pride over his TBT performances.   

Gwmayhem wrote:

Quite a finish as Sideline cancer and the Marquette alum team were tied at 70 when they went to the Elam ending.  Travis Diener buried an open three giving the Marquette team a 78-73 victory.  Mo scored either 20 or 22 points.  He fell to the floor once the game ended and was inconsolable.  His friend and former teammate, Jermaine Marshall, had recently died in France where he was playing overseas.  He was 28 years old.  Incredibly, Jermaine had lost his older brother Jerome a couple of years earlier.  Mo and Remy Abell had dedicated this year's tournament to Jermaine, and Mo mentioned Jermaine in his postgame interview with ESPN after hitting the game winner in the semifinals.  Even putting the money aside (which is substantial, Mo would have received $75,000 with a win and receives $0 as a result of the loss), this was a devastating moment for Mo.  He left it all out on the court and should feel immense pride over his TBT performances.   

Gwmayhem, thank you for the background on Mo's teammate Jermaine Marshall. I appreciate even more how well he played having had to carry a heavy heart throughout the tournament. Without Mo, I don't think Team Sideline Cancer would have done nearly as well.   
 

Gwmayhem wrote:

Well, I'll be eating some crow on my ratings predictions for last night's final TBT game.  The overnight has it in at 258,000 viewers, down 7,000 from last year and down 37,000 from 2018.  So much for a sports-starved nation.  Then again, PTI drew 356,000 viewers yesterday.

Gwmayhem, I wouldn't feel too badly about not accurately predicting something like the number of viewers for the TBT game.  I think it's awesome that more than a quarter-million people tuned in, and as long as they didn't change the channel, they enjoyed a terrific basketball game.  Also, considering what's going on with COVID-19, it's amazing to me that the TBT organizers were able to put on a 24-team tournament with such high-level play.   

I do have one question.  I noticed that each of the Golden Eagles won $90,000 for taking the title.  However, I also read in this thread, that if Mo's team (Sideline Cancer) won, they would have only won $75,000 each.  Do you or Thomas (or anyone else) know why the disparity?

Last edited by 22ndandF (7/16/2020 8:58 am)

22ndandF, thanks for the pep talk.  I am not feeling too badly about my ambitious television viewer prediction.

Sideline cancer would have donated $100,000 of their $1 million take to pancreatic cancer research.  Plus, they would have paid their coach and GM equal shares of $75,000 (which is what each player would have received).  Am not sure how the winning team's distributions work but it is feasible that: a) their coach and GM were not paid as much as the players, b) they did not donate any portion, or a smaller portion, to charity, or c) both a and b.

That was just a soul-crushing defeat for Sideline Cancer, especially when you consider the winner-take-all stakes for the tournament, and seeing Mo Creek in tears after the loss. Travis Diener played on the Dwayne Wade-led Marquette team that made the Final 4 in 2003, so he's been around for a while. 

GWRising, about the defensive rotations that led to Deiner being wide open and knocking down the 3, it seems like players on every level ALWAYS go towards the ball in end-of-game situations and leave a player or 2 wide open. Maybe its an instinctual thing. 

GWmayhem,  I also thought the ratings would be a lot higher this year because most sports fans would craving any type of live sports. Maybe the ratings would have been higher if one of the big-names(Joe Johnson/Overseas Elite, Syracuse, Ohio State, Illinois) had made the championship game

22ndandF,  I guess the fact that they were able to pull this tournament off without any sort of COVID problem gives some hope to other team sports that will start up in a few weeks. I'm still a bit skeptical about the NBA because you have guys who have tested positive attempting to play again a short time later, and the NBA's "bubble" is in a hotbed for COVID.  

BM wrote:

Every member of the winning GoldenEagles team will make a donation to the SidelineCancer charity. Wonderful move.

BM, thank you for sharing this information. I also feel it's a wonderful move by the Golden Eagles. It tells me that there's an unbreakable bond among these great young men.  With everything going on in the US right now, it helps me keep the faith that, somehow, everything is going to be alright one day