Plenty of sports media personalities have their favorite teams that they root for. But perhaps none do so as adamantly as ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt when it comes to his alma mater, the Maryland Terrapins.
Maryland has been at the center of controversy over the past few days due to the drama-filled ending to their second round matchup in the NCAA Tournament against the Colorado State Rams. Particularly, fans took issue with Derik Queen’s game-winning layup, which appeared to be bordering on a potential travel.
While some media members, including CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore, and the CBS studio team consisting of Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, and Kenny Smith, believe that there was no travel on the play, just as many believe that Colorado State got a raw deal on the no-call.
As you may expect, given his bias for Maryland basketball, Scott Van Pelt believes that the officials got it right by not calling a travel. But Van Pelt took it a step further when Barstool Sports’ Dan Katz, better known as “Big Cat,” attempted to troll him over the missed travel call.
During an appearance on Pardon My Take on Wednesday, Van Pelt echoed the sentiments of college basketball broadcaster John Fanta, who called out fans for being hypocritical by complaining about the lack of drama in the NCAA Tournament while also complaining about Queen’s game-winner, which was undoubtedly one of the best moments of the tournament thus far.
“Scott, first of all, congrats, that was an awesome game,” said Big Cat. “Walk us through your range of emotions, knowing you maybe root for the Maryland Terrapins harder than anyone roots for any team.”
“Did you really just say walk us through your emotions? What are we doing with this? (John) Fanta nailed it the other night. This tournament has largely lacked those moments that make the tournament the tournament. Then we get one. But because we live in this space where we can’t exist unless we’re pissed at everything. ‘Oh, he walked.’ Okay, well, (Gene) Steratore said he didn’t. I could show you a video of a Colorado State guy that did the exact same thing. ‘Oh, that happened earlier in the game.’ Well, they got two points and nobody gave a s*** because that’s just basketball in the modern era.
“Anyway, the emotions were insane. Look, as I got older, I thought I would grow away from this. That has not been the case. I really, really like Maryland basketball. I have a lot of fun with it. This team’s been fun. (Derik) Queen was the kid that they hoped they’d keep in Maryland. And he stayed; he could have gone anywhere. Five-star guy, a lottery guy. And he had an incredible moment.”
.@notthefakeSVP walks us through his emotions of the Maryland Buzzer Beater pic.twitter.com/kjLr3498K5
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) March 26, 2025
As Van Pelt alluded to, there are countless instances every game where players travel and it goes uncalled. So, to be outraged over a no-call in the final seconds of the game is a tough position to defend.
The truth of the matter is that sports fans love to pick apart officiating any chance they get. If a travel were called on Queen, there likely would have been just as many fans outraged that a travel was called in such a key moment of the game as there were about the no-call.
Regardless, Van Pelt clearly isn’t feeding into the negativity around Maryland’s big win as he gets ready to watch his team take on the Florida Gators in their Sweet 16 matchup on Thursday night.
