Quickish morning after: Reaction to Ohio State’s loss

Quickish is a new quick-hit, real-time service that tips you off to the best analysis of the biggest stories in sports. From Quickish's editors, here is a selection of the best proclamations and exclamations coming off Thursday night's Sweet 16 games:

If Duke losing in the NCAA Tournament is a moment for national celebration, the game when the odds-on favorite to win the entire Tournament is bounced out in the regional semifinals is a moment for -- if nothing else -- this:

"Well, there goes my bracket." #afewmillionpeople
(Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan)

Check out other things people had to say during and after Kentucky's upset win over once-imposing Ohio State:

Ouch (but sorta true)
*So between that game and Jim Tressel, I'm guessing they're just going to start calling themselves AN Ohio State University.
(National Post's Bruce Arthur)

How they did it
*The Cats were the more athletic team, the tougher team, the hungrier team. Consider that Kentucky blocked 11 shots. Ohio State blocked one.
(Lexington Herald-Leader's John Clay)

The unexpected star
*It's the Josh Harrellson show, ladies and gentlemen. Not just a cute story anymore, the guy is dominating.
(SI's Stewart Mandel)

What a shot by Knight
*Brandon Knight couldn't have been defended any better by Craft. Hand was all over his face. Perfect contest. Tough tough shot for the win.
(DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony)

Buckeyes' worst game of the year
*Kentucky deserves plenty of credit, but George Mason would probably really like a crack at this Ohio State team too.
(Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Eisenberg)

All credit to Coach Cal
*Tonight is the latest reminder that John Calipari's recruiting and Calipari-ness overshadow his ability to coach a defense.
(Basketball Prospectus' Kevin Pelton)

More love for Calipari
*Maybe it'll take the rare season when Kentucky isn't the most talented team for people to appreciate Calipari is doing more than just stomping his feet and waving his arms on the sideline.
(Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel)

The reaction in Columbus
*The season can end in the blink of an eye or the flick of the wrist, but then the Buckeyes already knew that. And no matter how many times it happens, it always feels the same.
(Columbus Dispatch's Bob Hunter)

The big news after the loss
*Jared Sullinger says he will be back next year.
(CBSSports.com's Matt Norlander)

Sullinger, in his own words
"I'm gonna be here, gonna be at Ohio State next year... I'm a man of my word. That's period, point blank. I'm coming back."
(Jared Sullinger, via CBSSports.com)

Front Page: Lexington, Kentucky
"BUCKEYES SHOT DOWN"
(Lexington Herald-Leader via Newseum.org)

Video
*Watch the thrilling endings of both Kentucky-Ohio St and VCU-Florida St.
(CBS/TBS/YouTube)

Of course, the two great evening-enders eclipsed the first half of the night, two mind-numbing blowouts best captured by these messages while it was going on:

Yikes
*CBS announcers soon reduced to reading UNC and Marq.'s notable alumi list off wikipedia. Chris Farley v Andy Griffith-thats the matchup!
(NPR's Mike Pesca)

Yeesh
*How uncompetitive are these NCAA games? I'm now watching the Wizards on CSN.
(Sports Business Journal's John Ourand)

Blowout Humor
*NCAA: Even CBS is bored. They just did a live look-in to the empty Two and Half Men set
(Late Show's Eric Stangel)

It felt like it
*For anyone still wondering, Kansas won. I think the final score was 1 million to 6.
(ESPN's Pat Forde)

In a word...
*bored
(Basketball Prospectus' Ken Pomeroy)

But let's not end on such a dull note.

Here is the image of the night:
*VCU coach Shaka Smart, triumphant.
(via Mocksession)

For more quick-hit, real-time updates of the best commentary from all the best sources throughout the NCAA tournament, check out Quickish.

Related: Ohio State Buckeyes

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ESPN expands state title game coverage to 3 states

There was once a time when catching your high school basketball state tournament required getting in your car and driving to far-flung corners where unused college arenas would host the semifinal and final rounds. Not anymore. With the help of any variety of different PBS, public access and local broadcasters, nearly every state's basketball finals will be shown on television somewhere, with many also streamed live on the web.

This year, broadcasting those games to a larger, national audience is taking a huge step forward, with ESPN gaining the online streaming rights to the boys and girls state championship games in Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee, as well as the boys semifinals in Illinois and Indiana. The games will be broadcast on the network's ESPN3 online streaming channel, used primarily to show college football and basketball and European soccer. The network streamed high school football finals in Illinois and Oregon's Class 6A football title game, with the Illinois championships the first of any high school sport to be shown on an ESPN platform.

The expansion of ESPN's streaming offerings in high school sports is no insignificant matter. The sports television goliath has added more and more high school football games each fall, and now shows a healthy helping of boys basketball games on its ESPNU network as well, mostly focused on teams featuring top recruits (the same goes for the network's selection of football games). Still, providing a healthy dose of championship action from states in the Midwest and South -- including a state title game featuring the Jeffersonville (Ind.) High girls basketball team, pictured above -- this year will give the network data from which to gauge whether it might make sense to expand and try to gain rights for championships from other states across the country.

It's also significant that ESPN will stream these games in the heart of March Madness. While the title games begin this weekend with girls championships in Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee, the Indiana boys tournament in particular doesn't wrap up until Sat., March 26. That has the Indiana finals playing concurrently with the ESPN's own broadcasting of the NCAA Women's Sweet 16.

Whether the network sees high school basketball as a leveraged play against CBS' expanded broadcast of the NCAA Tournament is a legitimate question, and one which may not be able to be answered fully for a few more years to come. Yet it's not beyond the realm of possibility to think that, if ESPN3 receives significant streaming traffic, the network would logically expand its high school basketball playoff coverage, showing games before the state semifinals, including regional finals in some larger states. That might be a particularly feasible strategy in states (Texas, among others) where such tournaments are held at centralized (usually college) sites across multiple days, just as the state finals are.

Regardless of what happens next, the beginning of the ESPN streaming era this weekend could serve as a watershed for high school basketball, kick starting a process that could elevate it into the national subconscious alongside high school football. Whether the experiment is a success or failure now will likely depend on how many people are willing to tune in online, and how many who are willing to do so even know that ESPN3 exists.

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