Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503090003
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The 10th year of ``Championship Week'' on ESPN begins today with three conference tournament title games that will send teams into the NCAA field. CBS might have exclusive rights to the NCAA's 63 games, but ESPN is where the games that count really begin, this weekend.
The promotional name is registered. Now, ``Championship Week2'' is about to blossom on ESPN2. How much more of the Trans-America, Patriot and Mid-Continent can we take? It seems like Championship Week has been everywhere. One year, it even went to a game with no fans.
That was the famous ``Measles Game,'' the ECAC North Atlantic title game between Boston University and Siena in 1989. The Hartford Civic Center game was quarantined because of a measles epidemic on the Siena campus, but ESPN was there. Championship Week started as ``Conference Tournament Central, Championship Week'' in 1986, but now the schedule of games is longer and the title is shorter.
The first Championship Week game was a Sun Belt quarterfinal won by Old Dominion over UNC Charlotte, two teams no longer in that league. The first conference tournament championship game aired by ESPN was six years earlier, as Virginia Commonwealth defeated Alabama-Birmingham to win the 1980 Sun Belt title. Neither of those schools is in that league anymore, either.
By 1988, Championship Week included 30 games, with 20 live championship telecasts. There were 35 telecasts last year. This year, 61 games will be shown, including the ESPN2 schedule, over the next eight days. ``The Deuce'' has five women's championship games. In a 44-hour span (March 10-11), the two cable networks will show 22 games.
On ESPN, 29 NCAA automatic bids will be determined.
``If you're a fan, as I am now, there's nothing like the excitement of a conference tournament,'' said Digger Phelps, who will spend more than a few hours next week in the ESPN studio. ``You see teams you maybe haven't seen before. For a lot of these teams and conferences, this is their shot.
``That's what makes it so much fun. It's real. You sit down to watch and you ask yourself questions. How good is Manhattan? How good is Coppin State? A lot of teams have known they'll be in the NCAA Tournament for a month. A lot of these teams don't know, like the people at my alma mater, Rider College.''
FIGHT TIME: Boxing will begin its increased telecast exposure this spring, and not just because former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson is scheduled for release from an Indiana prison on March 25. Home Box Office has cable bouts scheduled the next three Saturdays, and then CBS Sports starts a series of 15 to 20 bouts on its ``Eye on Sports'' anthology series next month.
Tonight at 10 on HBO, Norfolk's Pernell Whitaker will fight at the fifth weight class of his pro career, going for the junior middleweight title against champ Julio Cesar Vasquez (52-1) in Atlantic City, N.J. Whitaker (34-1-1), a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, is moving up a class as the welterweight champ.
Next Saturday on HBO, former champ Riddick Bowe meets unbeaten Herbie Hyde in a heavyweight bout from Las Vegas, then on March 18, IBF super middleweight champ Roy Jones Jr. (27-0) returns home to Pensacola, Fla., for a title defense against top contender Antoine Byrd.
The CBS boxing series begins April 30 with the James Toney-Anthony Hembrick light heavyweight rematch. Toney won their first bout in a seventh-round technical knockout 14 months ago.
HOOP MOVES: Because of conflicting programming the next two Sundays on WSLS (Channel 10), NBC's NBA coverage will air in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market on Danville's WDRB (Channel 24 or 54, UHF, depending on location). WSLS is pre-empting Sunday's NBA doubleheader for the Easter Seal Telethon, and next Sunday's NBA game will be bumped for the Metro Conference tournament championship game.
BIG SOUTH: Radford may not reach the Big South Conference men's tournament final Sunday, but viewers in Radford and Christiansburg will be able to view the 1 p.m. title game from Lynchburg even though ESPN2 is not available on cable. American Cable Entertainment has arranged for a preview day of ESPN2 Sunday, so the game will air on ACE's Channel 1. ACE will add ``The Deuce'' to its lineup in late May.
BALLPARKS: Whether the majors play this season or not, ESPN2 will televise minor-league games on its ``Baseball Across America Tour.'' That series may stop at Salem's new ballpark later in the season, too. The first ESPN2 game in the series is May 4, with Omaha at Nashville, where Michael Jordan is likely to play for the Class AAA Sounds. As many as 20 live telecast games from different levels of the minors will fill the four-month package.
AROUND THE DIAL: Staunton's Dan Bonner will work early-rounds coverage of the NCAA Tournament for CBS with play-by-play man Dave Sims. Longtime hockey announcer Mike Emrick will team with former Southern Cal coach George Raveling, too. The four top CBS teams that will advance to the regionals are Jim Nantz-Billy Packer, Sean McDonough-Bill Raftery, Tim Ryan-Al McGuire and Verne Lundquist-Quinn Buckner. ... Appearances by Virginia Tech and Virginia on ESPN's Thursday night college football schedule have been no secret for months, but the eight-game schedule announced this week includes five ACC team appearances - Florida State-UVa, Maryland-Georgia Tech and North Carolina-Louisville. ... John McEnroe in the March ``Tennis'' magazine on NBC keeping Wimbledon rights away from the Fox Network: ``The person who owns Fox [Rupert Murdoch] is single-handedly responsible for a lot of what I find despicable. It's all about some kind of power play. I'm sure he doesn't even know he's getting tennis - if he gets it. He's a low life.'' ... ESPN is expanding its NFL Draft coverage next month, adding three hours on Day 2 in addition to the first seven hours on April 22.
by CNB