Chris Russo erupts over March Madness gripe: ‘Absolute disgrace’

College Basketball

By Ryan Glasspiegel

Chris Russo has long been a crusader against sporting events that start way too late at night.

After all, in the introduction of his SiriusXM radio show, he can be heard barking, “Give us a chance to watch the damn thing, will you please?”

With that as the backdrop, it was an inevitability that he would be riled up about the March Madness start times in the Sweet 16, with games starting after 10 p.m ET on Thursday and Friday night.

In his weekly “What are you mad about?” segment on ESPN’s “First Take,” the Mad Dog let it rip over the tip times.

“College basketball’s not big enough to go 12 consecutive hours, and have two-and-a-half-hour games, because they’re LOOKING AT A REPLAY with flagrant fouls or if the ball was slapped out of bounds by somebody,” he argued.

He then lamented on the “holy” Easter week that Illinois vs. Iowa State and Creighton vs. Tennessee are tipping off at 10:09 p.m.

“And add a half hour!” he yelled, of the belief that the games would not actually start on time.

“Friday is Good Friday! It’s Holy Thursday on Thursday! And I’ve gotta stay up until 1:45 in the morning to watch a two-hour-and-45-minute game?” he asked, with his voice progressively raising in volume.

“That is an absolute disgrace!”

Russo is certainly not wrong here, and it’s curious why the NCAA Tournament doesn’t spread these Sweet 16 games out more throughout the week as opposed to running them so late at night.

One would imagine that they would get greater audiences on Tuesday and Wednesday in primetime as compared to Thursday and Friday night at times when much of the country is asleep.