ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603250029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
DATELINE: LEXINGTON, KY.
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Jim Nantz is having trouble focusing on what might happen at next weekend's NCAA Final Four.
Forget the teams, it's the location that has the CBS Sports play-by-play man scratching his head. For the first time, basketball's NCAA Final Four will be played in Nantz's native state, New Jersey.
``We're only a week away from the Final Four, and usually, long before now, I have a feel for what the atmosphere will be,'' Nantz said Friday before calling the Southeast Regional semifinals. ``This time, I'm having a hard time deciding what it will be like.''
The games will be played at Continental Airlines Arena - formerly the Meadowlands. It has been the site of eight East Regionals in the past 11 years. However, most of the Final Four functions will be held a Lincoln Tunnel trip away, in New York City.
``Maybe it will be a great Final Four, and I hope it is, but where will be the gathering of hoop fans away from the court?'' Nantz wondered. ``In Indianapolis, for example, that plaza outside the RCA Dome, connecting several hotels, you know that's going to be where Final Four fans share an experience.
``In Seattle last year, the Kingdome is downtown, and you walk down the streets, and it feels like a Final Four. If you drop 20,000 people into Manhattan, you're not necessarily going to be able to say, `They're here for the Final Four.'''
Nantz said he knows the Meadowlands organizing committee has worked hard to deal with concerns about the first Final Four in metropolitan New York since 1950, after which it didn't return because of game-fixing scandals.
``I don't want to take a swipe at them,'' said Nantz, in his sixth year as CBS' top hoops voice. ``I just don't know about what sort of atmosphere. I think it's a reward from the [NCAA] basketball committee after they hosted all of those regionals.''
The 1996 Final Four also is the last that will be played in a ``traditional'' basketball arena. Starting with the '97 Final Four at the RCA - formerly Hoosier - Dome, all of the selected Final Four sites are domed stadiums.
``I really think the championship setting should be a dome,'' said Nantz, who will team with Billy Packer on Sunday's Southeast Regional final before heading to Jersey. ``I know some people say, `What about all of those terrible seats.'
``Well, a lot of people would love to have one of those seats. They just want to be part of the atmosphere, to feel what the Final Four is like.
``As for the regionals, Billy and I were talking [Thursday night] while we watched the games, and he said he wasn't so sure if it's necessary to play the regionals in domes. Maybe it would be better if those were kept in smaller arenas.
``This year, you have two in domes [the Georgia Dome and Metrodome] and one in Denver and the one here [Rupp Arena]. I like where we are.''
In 1997, the regionals are split between domes and arenas again, with the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., and San Antonio's Alamodome joining the San Jose Arena and Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center as sites.
Nantz said that from his seat, the 1996 tournament has been more compelling than last year's Big Dance, although most of the top eight seeds have advanced to regional finals.
``I've always believed the tournament was kind of two tournaments in one,'' said Nantz, 36, who also is CBS' lead announcer on golf and college football. ``You start with a Princeton or Drexel, or, in the past a Siena.
``Their odds of winning four straight and getting to the Final Four are astronomical. To those schools, the tournament is made by them winning a game or two. It's an added bonus if they even get to the Sweet Sixteen.
``Then, at the Sweet Sixteen, it's pretty much reduced to the giants who are battling, the real serious contenders for the championship. You get to this point these days, and there's really no Cinderella.
``You go back to N.C. State in '83, or Villanova in '85 or even Kansas in '88, those teams weren't Princetons or Drexels. They may have been low seeds, but they are teams from major conferences who just didn't have great regular seasons.
``They're accustomed to playing the kind of competition you have to play from at this point. They aren't going to be intimidated. They aren't Cinderellas.''
HOOP DE DO: The Final Four semifinal doubleheader on March 30 begins at 5:30 p.m. (WDBJ, Channel 7). The regional finals doubleheader (Midwest, then East) starts at 3:30, with the West-Southeast twin bill Sunday beginning at 2:30 p.m. ... Virginia graduate and longtime ACC hoops analyst Dan Bonner finishes his season today down I-64 in Louisville, working the CBS telecast of the Division II men's championship game between unbeaten Fort Hays (Kan.) State and Northern Kentucky (12:30 p.m., WDBJ). ... ESPN's first year of exclusive coverage of the NCAA Division I women's tournament offers the longest day in ladies' hoops history today, with eight regional semifinals spread over 14 hours with Robin Roberts as studio host. The shooting starts at 11:30 a.m. ESPN will air the last 15 games of the women's tournament beginning with today's play.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB