By Rodney Page, Times Staff Writer
Sunday, March 6, 2011
St. Petersburg Times staff writer Rodney Page looks back at the best and worst from a weekend of televised sports.
Choices, choices, choices
Remember the days when there were three television stations and one or two nationally televised games per week? Those were not the best of days for avid sports fans. It was great when cable television started offering sports options (so that's what Fulton County Stadium looks like!), but now the televised sports buffet has gotten too big. Take Saturday, for example. There were 33 college basketball games to choose from, including women's tournament games. Don't like college basketball? How about some high school hoops? No? Then maybe some college hockey or lacrosse, or perhaps an NBA or NHL game? Or how about some golf? If you're a soccer fan, there were 10 televised games to choose from. And if that didn't do it for you, how about some gymnastics or auto racing or tennis or boxing or motorcycles? Motorcycles! Are there really audiences for all those sports?
Big brother interjects without invitation
There was an interesting moment early in the Florida-Vanderbilt basketball game Saturday. During a TV timeout, ESPN producers pointed out to game officials that Scottie Wilbekin's shot should have been counted as a 3-pointer instead of two. Replays of the shot clearly showed the UF guard was behind the 3-point line. That made the score 17-16 Vandy, and Florida went on to win by 10. "We brought it to the officials' attention,'' announcer Brad Nessler said on the air. "It's nice that we got it straightened out." Is it? Is it ESPN's job to become officials? Granted, in this instance a wrong was righted. But this could open a door for television to intrude even more. If a player's foot is on the line and it's called a 3 and officials don't ask for a replay, should the broadcasting network point that out during a timeout? If a ball goes out of bounds off one player, but officials call it off the other team, should broadcasters stop play and point out the mistake? Replay is a tool for officials to get a call right. And in this case it was used even when the officials didn't ask for it.
Big weekend of prep work
CBS broke out college basketball tripleheaders on Saturday and Sunday, the last weekend of the regular season. It was good preparation for the NCAA Tournament, which the network once again has the rights to, along with Turner Sports. The highlight was Saturday night's Duke-North Carolina game, the gold standard for college basketball rivalries that warrants CBS's A-team of Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg.
Nantz and Kellogg work well together. They don't talk over each other, and they go with the flow of the game. Nantz has a little more enthusiasm than during his golf broadcasts, but he leaves the real emotion and analysis to Kellogg. The game itself was all North Carolina, but the duo provided enough information to keep fans on both sides of this bitter rivalry satisfied. They even showed former personality Phyllis George, who has a daughter at UNC.
Earlier Saturday, Pitt defeated Villanova in one of those Big East games where it looks like a fight could break out at any moment. Veterans Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery were solid, as always. "Good to see you again," Lundquist said to Raftery at one point. "Every March they say 'Put the Sunshine Boys back together again.' "
Passing of the week
The man credited for revolutionizing the way golf is shown on television, Frank Chirkinian, died Friday at the age of 84. Chirkinian produced 38 Masters tournaments and was called the "father of televised golf" by Jim Nantz. Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, said Chirkinian "set the industry standard for the way we watch golf on television. Frank has left a legacy of excellence and creativity in golf broadcasting that will never be equaled."
And Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News said on ESPN's Sports Reporters: "Chirkinian was more than just a director and producer for golf. He was both a genius and a visionary, one of the seminal figures in broadcast history. He was loud and profane and demanding, but always a storyteller. … They finally put him into the World Golf Hall of Fame a couple of weeks ago, much too late."
Aside from golf, Chirkinian was also credited for being the first producer to put cameras on blimps during college football games.
Analysis of the day
Golf fans mostly like Johnny Miller, right. Golf pros, not so much. After Rory Sabbatini chunked a chip shot in the final round of the Honda Classic on Sunday, Miller said: "That's something that most pros aren't good at. They open up that blade and then there's just not enough metal at the end of the face, and it pops the ball up." I'm sure pros loooove to hear there is something they are not good at.
Keeping it interesting
Got to give it to Fox for its NASCAR coverage. Let's face it, a race is just cars going around and around, but Fox tries to make it interesting to a variety of fans. Not only are there constant updates of positions and lap counts, but cameras placed on the track and in the cars put viewers right in the race. Perhaps the best feature is the eavesdropping on the radio talk between drivers and their pit crews. It caught Kyle Busch admitting to a wreck that dropped him out of the race, and it caught Greg Biffle, right, spatting with his crew about how long it took to fuel his car. Add the on-track reporting and interviews with racers eliminated from the field, and viewers couldn't ask for much more.
Three things that would have popped into Tom Jones' head if he didn't take the weekend off:
1. If you are a Tampa Bay area sports fan, March is the best month of the year. Not only is there spring training all around us, but in the coming weeks we will have NCAA Tournament basketball games, a PGA Tour event and a Grand Prix race all in our back yard.
2. It's a good thing Vanderbilt didn't use the architect of its basketball gym for its other sports venues. Otherwise, the football benches would be in the end zones and the dugouts would be in the outfield.
3. As bad as it is for Cavaliers fans this season, it must make it a little easier watching LeBron James and the Heat struggle.
Storming the court
There are times to storm the court in college basketball, and there are times to play it cool. For example, if you are a fan of small schools such as Belmont, Indiana State or UNC-Asheville, then by all means, storm the court. The only way those schools can earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament is by winning their conference tournaments. However, if you are Iowa and you just won your 11th game of the season by beating sixth-ranked Purdue, don't storm the court. Big win, yes. But it's been a forgettable season, and there's still at least one more tournament game to play. And then there's the Tar Heels. You would think a school with as much tradition as North Carolina would reserve its court storming for national championships. But UNC fans filled the court after Saturday's win over Duke. UNC gets a pass on this one because the win clinched an ACC regular-season championship and it ended a three-game losing streak to the hated Blue Devils.