The NCAA News - News and Features

March 24, 1997

Final Four site makes big splash

Hits exceed a million an hour during men's first-round games

Millions of fans tapped into live cybercasts, statistics, broadcasts and up-to-the-minute photographs of the opening rounds of the men's and women's Division I basketball championships through the NCAA's new Web site dedicated to the tournaments.

Activity on www.finalfour.net was especially heavy during the work days of March 13 and 14 when the first games of the men's tournament were played, said Timothy Campbell, vice-president for broadcasting at Host Communications, Inc., which is producing the Web site along with Total Sports of Raleigh, North Carolina.

"We had a great amount of activity," he said. "We had 1 million hits an hour during the afternoons. It coincided with when the men's tournament started, which was during the work day."

Over the first week of the tournament, the Final Four Web site dispatched 3.7 terabytes of information -- enough to fill up the hard drives of 3,700 personal computers. "There is great interest and great demand," Campbell said. A total of 20 million "hits" was recorded.

The site provided up-to-the-minute individual and team shot charts plus individual and team statistics through its cybercasts. Still-action photographs of games in progress were available every 30 seconds. Fans could choose from any of the games in action at that particular time to receive constantly updated information.

Broadcasts of the games through AudioNet also were available during the first and second rounds, and fans could check scores of other games being played while they listened to a particular broadcast through a scoreboard running at the bottom of their computer screen.

Although separate statistics are not yet available on how visitors used the different features of the Web site, Campbell said he believed that the Java Desktop Scoreboard is proving to be a particularly popular element. A scoreboard, which is available for both the men's and women's tournaments, allows a user to move from the Web site's main page to the scoreboard. The user can then close out the Netscape page, leaving only the small scoreboard active. The scoreboard constantly updates the scores of games in progress and gives starting times for games scheduled for later in the day.

The scoreboard involves a relatively new technology using Java (a computer language) to create a mini-Internet site on an individual's computer screen. An individual does not have to reload the scoreboard to keep information current.

"You can close out your large Netscape page and go on doing other things like writing letters," Campbell said. "You still are connected to the Internet, but you don't have to have a full screen to keep updated.

"It involves a push technology -- we are pushing information to you. With a Web browser, you are pulling information in. It is fairly cutting-edge technology."

Through the scoreboard, an individual also can select a particular game and go to the more detailed cybercast of that game where statistics and photographs are available.

Initial coverage of the women's tournament was sparse in comparison to men's coverage, which Campbell said was the result of first- and second-round women's game sites not being preselected. The games were played at the competing institutions, some of which were not known until all 64 teams were selected March 9.

"With the schedule of games and because part of the women's sites weren't preselected, it was harder to plan," he said. "But the Java scoreboard for the women's games was already there, and we were posting a lot of information."

He said the site provided more information on the women's tournament than any other source.

"This is the most extensive coverage of the women's tournament," he said. "Nearly every women's game is on the Internet if we have a radio feed."

All games in both tournaments through the championship games March 30 and 31 will be cybercast, Campbell said.

Brackets of the tournaments are available on the site and are updated as games conclude, providing the most recent information available.

For games that have concluded, archival information on statistics and shot charts is available. Campbell said all of the statistical information from the tournament will remain accessible through the NCAA's home page (www.ncaa.org) throughout the year.

Coverage of the games has not been affected by vandalism of the Web site that occurred March 9, he said. The vandalism still is under investigation.