At first, I was going to use this week to get on my soapbox due to several things. Mainly the circus that took place in New York yesterday, Biden’s damning comments and the continued dividing of the people by the network news media. However, I decided not to get on that train and take you all for a ride with me. So, I will switch gears and unfortunately as good as what I will be talking about was, once again the sports media especially, used their forum to further divide people. That seems to be the mantra of news media of every type these days, dividing the people instead of uniting them.

Over the past few weeks, sports fans were treated to one of the best ever March Madness basketball tournaments ever. Not only in the men’s game, but the women as well. Both tourneys were filled with excitement, hold your breath moments, incredible comebacks and even more incredible wins by teams expected to be one and done. It was a tournament that started to break from the very first games and continued to the end with plenty of heart stopping, rising blood pressure moments along the way and many of those moments created by unexpected players and teams. The games had people of the edge of their seats, sports bars were packed for every series and noise levels were off the charts everywhere.

But even with the likes of Florida Atlantic, San Diego State, Miami and few others who were expected to be pretty much done after the Sweet Sixteen they proved the so called experts wrong again and again. By the time the Elite Eight came all the number one seeds were gone. Still there were some talking heads that felt that not having the “marquee” name schools in the finals was somehow cheapening the tournament with lesser known teams and schools. Say what? That is what March Madness is all about and always has been, seeing a #16 or #15 seed going far and knocking off the big boys. It makes the entire tournament more exciting, not to mention more lucrative with ticket sales and merchandise sales. But rather than congratulate this schools for achieving all they did, some would prefer to babble on about how, in their own mind, these schools didn’t deserve to be where they were, thus creating more division.

The same took place in the women’s tourney at the same time with a number of surprise wins and teams expected to go all the way being bounced out. The most glaring example was Iowa’s take down of South Carolina who had enjoyed an unbeaten season of 36-0 until Caitlin Clark and her Iowa team sent them packing and reserving their place in the finals with LSU. Once that game began so did the action on the court. But in the end it wasn’t the actual game some sports media reporters chose to talk about. No, they had another agenda to push.

LSU was led by Angel Reese and Iowa of course, by Clark and whether they liked it or not, in spite of other good players on both teams, they became the center of attention. However, towards the very end of the game and at its conclusion with an LSU win and the championship, these two extremely talented young ladies became even more of a headline, and unfairly so. But here again, the sports media, both print and visual, chose to divide rather than unite.

They made a big deal out of Reese and her “you can’t see me” hand gestures towards Clark and another hand gesture she made as well. Of course, some members of the media had to drag out the race card and blow up this scene into something it wasn’t. While they were damning Reese for her “bad sportsmanship”, and other not so nice comments, they completely ignored the fact that it was Clark who first did it in the South Carolina game more than once. But the media chose to make it a one sided against Reese and create even more division where there should have been unity. Some even went so far as saying that the two ladies “had it in for each other” and that was totally untrue. Fact is they both have the utmost respect for each other and look forward to next season. But once again the print and visual media with a great chance to unite fans and people over the accomplishments of these two, decided to keep the division between each side going.

Bottom line: Both tournaments were the best in a long time and offered up everything as advertised, and more. For the men it just makes the future of basketball little more interesting to see who rises to the challenge next season. For the women it has elevated their game tenfold and will become more and more popular with the masses at every level and that is good to see take place.

A big A+ to all the teams, players and coaches for two great tournaments. For much of the sports print and broadcast media a big F for trying to make this all into something it was not. Thankfully the players rose above it and were appreciative, humbled and thankful for all they provided the fans with during those few weeks.

Art Koch, National Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves Magazine and AAN