ESPN launched their new college basketball scorebug a couple weeks ago and the response was almost universally negative. My own first impression was that like Twitter’s new 280 character limit, everything seemed too wordy to fit in that cramped space of ESPN’s new bug. Not to mention, there was a black extension above their bottom line that stretched on both sides of the bug that just looked unnecessary.
Anyway, many people haven’t liked this new scorebug and ESPN has been making changes. Recent improvements like eliminating the black extensions and the “Fouls” stat in the cluttered end of the bug were great changes but we were treated with a new bug to this scorebug. There was no room to show the shot clock during the second overtime of last night’s Florida-Gonzaga game.
Here’s what the bug looks like during regulation and in the first OT period:
And this is what it looks like during the second OT period:
Even though there have been issues with ESPN’s scorebug, at least the network had all the pertinent info on the screen. That wasn’t the case here and not having the shot clock included in the bug is a rather important detail that many noticed.
@awfulannouncing ESPN was not ready for double OT, no room for shot clock on score bug.
— go_ners (@Go_Baseball) November 25, 2017
Small flaw in ESPN's score bug, 2 OT = no shot clock. It's annoying. pic.twitter.com/QeiYiBDjoq
— Dar (@Dar_Gar) November 25, 2017
Only thing wrong with ESPN’s new hoops graphic is doesn’t have shotclock .. fix I️t morons @espn
— Rico Bo$co (@Return_Of_RB) November 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/yun/status/934321334477139968
https://twitter.com/kama_sue/status/934322520198647808
Florida/Gonzaga are in double overtime and because of the '2' in '2 OT' there's no room for the shot clock on the ESPN score chyron so it just doesn't show the shot clock anymore. This is the worst scoreboard chyron.
— Jack (@HeyGuysJackHere) November 25, 2017
Certainly this was a rather large oversight. Maybe a temporary fix could be to add a shot clock on the side of the bug. Games going into double OT are going to be rare anyway. Instead of redoing the bug to fix an issue that will only happen a few times a year, put a shot clock elsewhere on the screen.
Or, if there was enough room to put “1st” or “2nd” in there, surely it would work to have the shot clock and then “2OT.” It may look cramped and some may complain but it’s better to get those complaints than to deal with complaints about not having all the info in the scorebug like what happened last night.
