Of all the Sports Illustrated issues my dad has given me, I've never seen a college hockey cover. I'm not even sure SI writes college hockey articles, yet the magazine decided on three college basketball stories for its March 17 week issue. The only positive comments I can muster about this issue include the clever recreation of Larry Bird's cover and feature on a star player I'd never heard of.
This throwback cover is cleverly remade with Doug McDermott, a dude who made himself known when he started breaking records and passing legends on the list of all-time scorers. It's especially nice to see the more quiet stars get their time in the spotlight. Obviously McDermott is a huge part of his team, but I've heard more about Jabari Parker, Shabazz Napier, Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Rodney Hood and Tyler Ennis. I guess that's why he's dubbed a secret weapon.
I searched "Doug McDermott" on YouTube for fun, and I found a video made by Fox Sports. It features McDermott discussing how he mastered the art of scoring, which is patience. The other videos from my search results include those by CBS Sports, the NBA, Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, Creighton Athletics, the Big East Conference and Dan Patrick. Cool, he's getting recognized. My issue still lies in the lack of college hockey coverage across all forms of media, especially magazines.
Johnny Gaudreau of Boston College was the face of college hockey. I couldn't tell you any other star players because I haven't heard any. I searched YouTube for Johnny Gaudreau videos and found they were made from random accounts, not companies like ESPN or CBS. McDermott hasn't been drafted yet, but Gaudreau scored a goal in his first NHL game. His Boston College Eagles were knocked out in the semifinal game by the eventual NCAA champions, Union College. Not many players go straight from a college hockey national semifinal game to playing in their first NHL game, and even fewer score their first goal in that first game. Why didn't this get more coverage? I'm simply assuming there was a lack of coverage based on past experience and the fact that SI doesn't have a NCAA hockey tab on its website. So, I can only guess that Sportscenter mentioned it in passing before moving on to something about basketball while SI skipped over it. As I'm still behind on my stack of SI, I can only speculate the actual coverage. Hockey fans are lucky SI featured Marty St.Louis within this NCAA basketball issue.
Luckily for hockey fans, John Buccigross of Sportscenter brings as much hockey to the table as possible, even if magazines don't do the same. Buccigross covered the Frozen Four, a tournament that saw record viewership, with Barry Melrose this year. If college basketball and football receive the royal treatment in terms of coverage, there should be more emphasis on college puck across the board as well.
How is that not exciting? A team wins its first NCAA championship with authority. I think sports fans as a whole don't understand hockey well enough to convince magazines to expand coverage. Then again, watching college sports itself should warrant extensive coverage. College athletes play with pride and heart for themselves and their team because they only get four years. Pro athletes, on the other hand, get paid either way for the duration of their contracts, which usually last several years.
College sports can be just as exciting or even more exciting than professionals. It makes sense to cover college hoops and football, but what about hockey? That's all I want to know. Don't leave these gritty kids out.
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