Okay, let`s get this right out front: The best one-day event in all of sports is the NCAA men`s basketball semifinals. Yes, better than the almighty Super Bowl.
And the best telecast of the year is CBS`s coverage of the Final Four.
The tournament show has it all, pathos, drama and the occasional touch of comedy. All that`s missing is sex, and that`s why they show the cheerleaders.
It`s no coincidence, for instance, that the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the Emmy folks) made ”NCAA Tournament” one of the five nominees for Outstanding Live Sports Series, an award CBS has taken two years running.
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Saturday`s five-hour program, produced by Bob Dekas, with a minimum of gimmicks and a maximum of excitement, was no exception. From the fine pictures of director Bob Fishman, using slo-mo replays to back up officials` calls, to Billy Packer`s analysis, breaking down the game to its simplest components.
It`s not that Packer, whose image is that of Mr. Conscience of College Basketball, doesn`t have his faults. He has a tendency to overlook some coaches` questionable conduct, whether it`s the boorish behavior of a Bobby Knight or the recruiting practices of a Jerry Tarkanian. And he`s not above shilling for such products as the ”Official Car for NCAA Championships.”
Nance, on the other hand, has become a smooth play-by-play partner at only 32, bearing the proper enthusiasm but not the overripe hype of his predecssor, Brent Musburger. You can forgive him his faults: Occasional terrible puns, such as saying of guards Nick Van Exel of Cincinnati and Jalen Rose of Michigan, ”It`s too bad these two couldn`t have played in the same backcourt-Exel Rose and Van Jalen.” Or after Duke took over its game against Indiana, ”You can make a reservation for Cherokee (Parks, Duke forward) for Monday night,” causing Packer to ask, ”Where do you come up with these things?”
Like all gems, however, Saturday`s telecast didn`t come without its flaws, not enough sideline reports, for instance. What caused Knight`s technical foul? And why no postgame interview with Knight when there was time and Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins had given one after the first game?
But those are minor quibbles about another wonderful Semifinal Saturday.
– The overnight Nielsen ratings for Saturday`s double-header: 11.5 for the Michigan-Cincinnati game, up 7 percent from last year`s 10.7 for Kansas-North Carolina; and 14.8 for Indiana-Duke, up 5 percent from last year`s 14.1 for Duke-UNLV.
– While CBS host Andea Joyce talked about ”a little earlier than normal”
starting time for Saturday`s Women`s Final Four semifinals, she never explained that her own network forced tipoff decisions. Of course, the women got their revenge when their foul-plagued games forced CBS to push back the starting times of the men`s semifinals by 20 minutes. . . . Best feature: Bill Geist on the 20th anniversary of Immaculata`s national championship. . . . Most pointed question: CBS` Mary Carillo asking a Southwest Missouri State fan, who happened to be an Iowa farmer, ”How many head of cattle gave their lives for you to make this trip?”
– Other weekend wanderings: Kudos to SportsChannel for carrying live (via the CBC) the Saturday afternoon press conference of NHL President John Ziegler concerning the league`s position on the players` strike. . . . NBC should do everything it can to keep Magic Johnson around, just for his outspoken opinions. Within minutes on Sunday`s Bulls-Celtics game, he knocked IOC boss Juan Antonio Samaranch`s statement that Johnson wouldn`t be in shape to play at Barcelona (”This is not an issue with me and should be an issue with anybody else”) and said the Bulls wouldn`t win 69 games (”There`s no incentive for them”). And Johnson`s opinions come without the microphone-grabbing shrillness of others. . . . NBC partners Marv Albert and Mike Fratello were strangely silent with Johnson, however, when the Bulls` John Paxson had to leave the game because of the league`s new ”bleeding” rule. A rule instituted specifically after Johnson announced his HIV-positive test results in November. . . . Maybe someone at NCAA headquarters can explain how the free plug Louisiana State`s basketball program received Sunday on CBS fits into all those tough recruiting guidelines.
– ESPN begins its regular-season major league baseball coverage with three games Monday, including the first of a Monday night series from April through early August that eliminates the early Tuesday night game. In early August, the network will return to Tuesday night double-headers. ESPN will have live baseball on five nights a week; single games Sunday through Wednesday and double-headers on Friday.
”There will be fewer local baseball telecasts opposite us on Mondays,”
explained Loren Matthews, ESPN programming boss, ”and we will have greater flexibility to show teams located in the Central time zone. . . . We`ve certainly been having our problems on Tuesday and Friday, primarily because of lack of exclusivity and the vast amount of local games on.”
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan return for their third year together on the Sunday night schedule, while former White Sox broadcaster Gary Thorne and Dave Campbell return for the Wednesday night contests (starting this week with the Cubs-Phllies), while Thorne and Chris Berman share play-by-play duties on Monday night games with analyst Tommy Hutton. There will be four new faces:
Tom Mees (play-by-play) and former major leaguers Buck Martinez, Lary Sorensen and John Stearns (analysts).
– Another former White Sox broadcaster, Del Crandall, and Rory Markas, a weekend sports anchor at CBS` Los Angeles affiliate, will handle Milwaukee Brewer telecasts this season. . . . CNN begins its weekly roundup, ”Baseball `92,” at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. . . . And WMAQ Radio`s ”Sox Sunday,”
hosted by Steve Olken, returns for a third season in a new one-hour format.