Your comment is 100 percent accurate based on what the TV announcers said. I would argue that what they are paid to be is cheerleaders for the IHSA and not inclined to say a negative word on a telecast and what they say is a fact but not necessarily the whole truth. Two examples:
1) Yes, the start of the Class 4A semifinal between Benet and New Trier was delayed so that the fans could get into the gym. That is a fact. The rest of the story ... The two Class 3A semifinals that were played on Friday afternoon both were long games that saw basically all timeouts being used, a lot of fouls being committed, and just a lot of legit reasons to stop the action in both games.
In this tournament, after the two Class 3A semifinals were done, the entire gym had to be emptied, and the cleanup crew then picks up all the trash in the stands so that the fans coming in are entering a clean arena. That takes time. And since the Class 3A semis took so long to play, the Class 4A semifinal with Benet and New Trier HAD to start late and, yes, the fans weren't let into the arena until it was cleaned up, and so the IHSA held the start of the game up. until everyone got to their seat. That is very likely result of the early-afternoon games taking so long and not the result of an SRO crowd at the arena.
I mean, there are like 17,000 seats in the gym and there aren't 10,000 people in the stands, but the announcers can spin it any way they want.
2) Last weekend, during the girls state finals in Class 4A at Illinois State, the TV announcer made a point about the unbelievable excitement of the O'Fallon High students, as their team was playing (and eventually winning) the state title.
He said the students from O'Fallon were so energized for Saturday's finale that they arrived at the ISU arena an hour before the gym even opened for the the Class 3A championship game.
I wasn't there but I would say that what the announcer said is a fact, but again there is a rest of the story....
That part of the story is that school busses brought the O'Fallon students from the high school to the game at ISU, and wisely opted to arrive early rather than late. Good decision. The fact that the busses arrived at ISU before the arena opened after it was closed for cleanup after the 2A state game and awards presentation, resulted in O'Fallon students being in the parking lot long before game time.
The announcer chose the fact that the O'Fallon students were fired up and yelling an hour before the doors even opened as an indication of their high-energy level for the championship game. That said, they were at the arena early because the bus drivers got them to the arena early. If the busses had arrived two hours later, the O'Fallon kids could have been praised on TV for pouring into the arena en masse while the 3A title game was going on.
The TV announcers are never going to say that there are 852 people in the building for a Class 4A third-place game that starts at 8 p.m. and gets done with the trophy presentation at 10:30 for fans looking at a 3-plus hour drive home.
Nor should they. But when you're old like me, and getting older by the minute, sometimes listening to what the announcer is taken, not with a grain of salt, but with 50-percent belief.
