Posted by Andy Knobel at 12:02 PM in College basketball | Permalink
                       

Posted by Andy Knobel at 11:13 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

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Posted by Ray Frager at 12:37 PM in College basketball | Permalink
                       

Thursday

7:27:  Xavier–Pittsburgh

9:57: Villanova–Duke

Friday

7:27: Syracuse–Oklahoma

9:57: Gonzaga–North Carolina

Posted by Ray Frager at 6:29 PM in College basketball | Permalink
                       

CBS said its ratings for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament were up 6 percent over last year in the top 55 TV markets. The telecasts averaged 5.4 percent of the audience.

In Baltimore, NCAA games -- boosted by two Maryland games and one Morgan State appearance -- averaged an 8.0 rating. The Terps-California first-rounder drew an 8.5 on Channel 13, whose usual programming on a Thursday afternoon could be expected to get about a 5.0. Thursday night, Morgan-Oklahoma rated a 9.6. Saturday's Maryland-Memphis telecast got a 12.1.

(As always, thanks to WBAL's Ratings Diva, Kouri Mitchell, for her help.)

Posted by Ray Frager at 8:00 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

So you can adjust the volume for any games being called by Gus Johnson, below are the announcing assignments for the next set of NCAA tournament telecasts:

Thursday

Connecticut-Purdue, Memphis-Missouri (Glendale, Ariz.): Dick Enberg, Jay Bilas 

Pittsburgh-Xavier, Duke-Villanova (Boston): Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery

Friday

Louisville-Arizona, Kansas-Michigan State (Indianapolis): Gus Johnson, Len Elmore

Oklahoma-Syracuse, North Carolina-Gonzaga (Memphis): Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:33 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
                       

See whether Pittsburgh rebounds from what the analysts said was a subpar effort in the first game.

12:10:  Arizona State vs. Syracuse

2:50:  Oklahoma State vs. Pittsburgh

4:50:  Marquette vs. Missouri

Posted by Ray Frager at 2:23 PM in College basketball | Permalink
                       

 If you were hiring CBS' NCAA announcers to do play-by-play and analysis on your life, here are some suggestions:

Narrating the video from your wedding reception: Dick Enberg ("The bride cuts the cake, the bride cuts the cake, oh my!")

Announcing your arrival at work on a Monday: Verne Lundquist

Announcing your departure from work on a Friday: Gus Johnson 

Explaining to your boss why you were two hours late: Tim Brando ("He was cruising along when he suddenly had to start singing the 'Flat Tire Blues.' ")

Providing a persuasive argument to management for why you deserve a raise: Jay Bilas 

Recounting your date with the cute girl from Accounting for the benefit of your buddies: Bill Raftery ("And when it came time to take her home, he stood at the door and got the kiss!") 

Handling the family introductions at your daughter's bat mitzvah reception: Ian Eagle ("Look up kugel in the dictionary, and you'll see a picture of her taking one out of the oven. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Bubbe Rose!")

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:07 PM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (3)
                       

As told to us by the fine folks at WJZ: 

1:05:   UCLA vs. Villanova

3:20:   Maryland vs. Memphis

5:45:  LSU vs. North Carolina

8:15:  Texas vs. Duke

Posted by Ray Frager at 2:30 PM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

In addition to hearing Maryland and Morgan State on their radio outlets, you can listen to NCAA tournament games on WBAL. The station will pick up the Westwood One broadcasts starting at about 2:40 p.m. Thursday, running through the last game of the night. On Friday, the coverage begins at about 6:45 p.m. Saturday (noon) and Sunday (11 a.m.), the network broadcasts go all day.

Thursday's games include Maryland-California, for those who might be able to pick up 1090 AM better than 105.7 FM or 1300 AM or, for some reason, don't want to hear Johnny Holliday and Chris Knoche. But then what kind of Terps fan are you?

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:30 AM in College basketball | Permalink
                       

Friday NCAA games on Channel 13:

Stephen F. Austin-Syracuse (12:15 start)

Temple-Arizona State (approximately 2:45)

Southern California-Boston College (7:20)

Cleveland State-Wake Forest (approximately 9:40)

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:30 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
                       

CBS has set this lineup for Thursday NCAA games in Baltimore and Washington:

Butler-LSU (starts 12:20), chs. 13, 9

Maryland-California (approximately 2:55), chs. 13, 9

American-Villanova (7:20), chs. 13, 9

Morgan State-Oklahoma (approximately 9:40), ch. 13

Duke-Binghamton (approximately 9:40), ch. 9

In addition, CBS College Sports Network (available via sports packages on cable and satellite) will televise Mississippi State-Washington Thursday at 4:45 and Louisville vs. the play-in game winner Friday at 7:10.

Posted by Ray Frager at 11:28 AM in College basketball | Permalink
                       

That was a wonderfully testy exchange between Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale during ESPN's NCAA selection show Sunday night. Vitale was arguing for St. Mary's inclusion in the tournament over Arizona, and Bilas was having none of it. Vitale was sticking up for the little guy over the power conferences, saying how St. Mary's tried to do the right thing by scheduling nonconference opponents that would help boost its profile and it wasn't St. Mary's fault that some of those teams turned out not to be so impressive. Bilas said basically that wasn't good enough, and a team like St. Mary's has to show itself beyond the confines of its relatively weak conference, even if it needs to schedule by taking two road games in exchange for one home game. Vitale eventually gave up.

Advantage, Bilas.

Posted by Ray Frager at 8:00 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (5)
                       

With Maryland and Morgan State both in Kansas City for Thursday's NCAA opening round, they also get the same CBS announcing pair: Tim Brando and Mike Gminski. Terps fans have heard plenty of Gminski on ACC telecasts. On the list of ex-Dukies calling games, he falls somewhere far below Jay Bilas at around Jim Spanarkel level.

Have you figured out how you're going to get out of work to watch the Terps in the middle of the afternoon (approximately 2:55)? This is kind of an extreme idea (warning: This link is a bit crude, especially in the comments) -- schedule a vasectomy Wednesday so you need to be home recovering during the NCAA tournament.

OK, but what do you do next year? Schedule a reversal? 

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:00 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Here are CBS' announcer pairings for the NCAA tournament (for those of you who haven't paid attention since last March, Billy Packer retired):

Jim Nantz/Clark Kellogg

Dick Enberg/Carter Blackburn/Jay Bilas

Verne Lundquist/Bill Raftery 

Gus Johnson/Len Elmore

Kevin Harlan/Dan Bonner

Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel

Craig Bolerjack/Bob Wenzel

Tim Brando/Mike Gminski

Our favorite? It has to be Johnson and Elmore. Johnson is so hyper, so ready to yell at the drop of a dunk, he's absolutely perfect for the NCAA tournament. And Elmore is so coolly analytical at all times, he serves as a terrific counterbalance.

By the way, do you think that when Raftery goes into a sub shop and orders his sandwich, he yells out how he wants "Onions!"? 

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:30 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (5)
                       

In my entry earlier this week about the ratings for the Maryland-Wake Forest game, I neglected to take into account the game was simulcast on two Comcast SportsNet channels -- the overflow Plus channel and the regular one after the Caps game ended. Therefore, the audience actually was larger. On the regular channel, the telecast averaged 27,000 households, and there were 17,000 homes watching on Plus. Still, the combined 44,000 homes were far short of the 74,000 for the Duke game.

However, I apologize for the mistake. To quote the great golfer Roberto De Vicenzo, "What a stupid I am."

Posted by Ray Frager at 2:26 PM in College basketball | Permalink
                       

Whatever sense of urgency the Terps and the Comcast Center fans might have felt last night obviously didn't translate to the Baltimore TV audience. The Maryland-Wake Forest game, on Comcast SportsNet-Plus, drew 2.5 percent of the market, or 27,000 homes. Last week, the Terps' game against Duke had an audience of 74,000 households.

The big winner of the night was NCIS on Channel 13, with 13.6/150,000 homes, though the show was over before Maryland tipped off. American Idol on Channel 45 and The Mentalist on Channel 13, which both aired during the basketball game, each received a 13.0/143,000.

Maybe some viewers had trouble finding Comcast SportsNet's overflow channel and just gave up and watched some guy pretend to read minds and other people pretend to sing.

(Thanks to WBAL's Ratings Diva, Kouri Mitchell, for providing -- as the kids say -- the 411.)

Update: I committed an error in the numbers of the Maryland-Wake Forest audience. The correction is here.

Posted by Ray Frager at 12:04 PM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
                       

It seems every year we get a new video of Digger Phelps dancing with some cheerleaders. The lucky young women are from University of California this time.

And I am so proud Digger and I share the alma mater of Rider College. But, no, I don't dance with cheerleaders like that. Well, OK, my ex-wife was a cheerleader, but that's a different story.

Just one question: When teams talk about going to the Big Dance, is this what they're thinking of?

Posted by Ray Frager at 7:30 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Maryland-Duke drew an average of 74,000 households to the ESPN telecast last night, a pretty good showing. (It translates to a 6.7 rating.) The game got a bit less than half the audience of American Idol and a bit more than half of Criminal Minds' audience. Those were the highest-rated shows of the night in Baltimore.

(As always, ratings information from WBAL's Ratings Diva, Kouri Mitchell.)

Posted by Ray Frager at 1:56 PM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Hearing Jay Bilas working last night's Maryland-Duke game on ESPN reminded me of something I observed a few years back.

I spent most of the day at Comcast Center for a story on College GameDay's visit to College Park. This was on the day of another Terps-Blue Devils game.

The student section was filling up far in advance of tip-off time. Bilas walked across the court toward the students, hearing some hoots on his way over, as you might expect for a former Dukie.

Then he stayed there and chatted with them for a good while. By the time Bilas walked back to the broadcast set, he had won them over. He exited the student section to rousing cheers.

Posted by Ray Frager at 10:54 AM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (13)
                       

HBO's latest sports documentary, Battle for Tobacco Road: Duke vs. Carolina, debuts tonight at 9. (It will re-air multiple times and be available via On Demand starting tomorrow.) The program won't break any ground for most ACC fans, but HBO has interviews with most of the important figures in the rivalry, including Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Grant Hill and Christian Laettner, and lots of great footage. Former Duke star Art Heyman sounds just as feisty more than 40 years later recalling a brawl against Larry Brown's Tar Heels.

There's no appearance or mention of Dick Vitale, however.

Posted by Ray Frager at 12:22 PM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
                       

Posted by Ray Frager at 1:42 PM in College basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)