Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992 TAG: 9203280044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
No, the shockers have come from the office of Ted Shaker, the CBS Sports executive producer who pared the network's field of telecast announcers for this weekend's four regionals.
The surviving analysts included Quinn Buckner and Al McGuire, and, to no one's surprise who recalls his complaints after being cut a year ago, Len Elmore.
Gone is Bill Raftery, who not only is a superb analyst, but with play-by-play partner James Brown, treats the game as a game. Staunton resident Dan Bonner, the former Virginia player, also was cut after having a good two days with Mel Proctor in Greensboro, N.C., last weekend.
Bonner's exit is no shock, because he's only worked the tournament for CBS, and he isn't a "name." Brown and Raftery, who will work today's Division II final (2 p.m., WDBJ), may be the network's most knowledgeable and entertaining duo, however.
CBS likely brought Buckner back because when he took an NBC job for "NBA Showtime" it was with the understanding he could still work the '92 NCAA for CBS and would get more than one week's exposure. Having hired McGuire after his NBC hoop days dwindled, CBS went with the former Marquette coach for his color.
Last year, when Verne Lundquist and Elmore were dropped after the first weekend and got the Division II assignment, Elmore, the former Maryland star who works ACC telecasts, complained publicly.
Shaker's call was a good one then and, if you're talking CBS' best four analysts, Elmore remains a borderline choice. Also dropped were the Sean McDonough-Bill Walton and Tim Ryan-Digger Phelps teams. Brad Nessler and Ann Meyers will call the women's Final Four next weekend.
After the network's top team of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, Brown-Raftery should be back, along with Proctor-Bonner and Lundquist-Elmore. Greg Gumbel, an excellent play-by-play man who has worked with Buckner, would be preferable to Pat O'Brien as a studio host.
As always on these events, the courtside reporter's role isn't worth the personnel. In the studio, will Shaker please listen to the overwhelming audience reaction and de-Mike Francesa?
If CBS tells the media and viewers it is going to pick the best announcing teams to advance in the tournament, then it should pick the best teams, not those with the names or personalities.
\ The NCAA Basketball Committee is being criticized - and deservedly so - for giving in to CBS on the network's request to begin regional semifinal games after 10 p.m. local time.
The Duke-Seton Hall and Michigan-Oklahoma State games, Thursday and Friday night, respectively, each began after 10, to help CBS fill its 4 1/2-hour time slots and show as much of entire games as possible.
NCAA committee chairman Roy Kramer, the Southeastern Conference commissioner, gave CBS the OK to schedule those late games. Yes, it is CBS, not the NCAA, which establishes game times.
When a game tips off after 10:30 p.m., as Friday's Southeast Regional semifinal did, it's too late for fans, whether in the arena or at home watching the tube.
\ Today's NCAA women's East Regional final at University Hall is at the other end of the clock. Virginia and Vanderbilt will tip-off on cable's ESPN at 11:07 a.m.
If you think that's early, consider next Saturday's NCAA women's Final Four semifinals at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. CBS will air those starting at 12:30 p.m. EST, so they will be completed by the men's Final Four air time for 5:30 p.m.
The first women's semifinal will tip off at 9:40 a.m., PST.
"That's a Catch-22 for us," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "I'm not an advocate of starting a game at 9:30, but it's on CBS, a major network, and we're getting needed national exposure for women's basketball.
"It's going to be very difficult. I would say that one day we'll be to the point where we'll say, `No, that's not good for our game.' "
\ CBS' loss is ESPN's gain on its National Invitation Tournament coverage next week, when Raftery and McDonough will team for the telecast coverage of the Monday semifinal and Wednesday's championship game from Madison Square Garden.
by CNB