FINAL FOUR: Valparaiso coach Homer Drew, UCLA coach
Steve Lavin and George Washington coach Mike Jarvis will be
in the studio for CBS's Final Four coverage of the men's
NCAA Tournament (CBS Sports)....CBS will devote a 15-minute
segment about the gambling in college sports, during its
"Road to the Final Four" show at 4:00pm ET Saturday (USA
TODAY, 3/27). ...ESPN's NCAA women's Tournament coverage is
now down 11% from last year, to 0.8, after being off more
than 20% a week ago. The 13 games on ESPN2 are up from 0.3
to 0.4. USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke writes that Robin Roberts,
Mimi Griffin and Rebecca Lobo "have proven to be an
effective ESPN studio team" (USA TODAY, 3/27)....CBS Sports
signed a three-year extension for Coach's Edge, a sports
media company specializing in animation for use by
broadcast, the Internet and coaches, to be its exclusive
supplier of animation for college basketball (Coach's Edge).
PROGRAMMING: Fox will televise about 1,400 MLB games
this season, including about 1,200 on its 22 Fox Sports Net
RSNs (L.A. TIMES, 3/27)....ESPN plans to unveil a new
graphic, "BatTrack," to determine how fast the bat is being
swung in relation to how fast the ball is being thrown (WALL
STREET JOURNAL, 3/27)....A's Manager Art Howe, 3B coach Ron
Washington and OF Jason Giambi will wear microphones today
for their game against the D'Backs, to air on Fox Sports Bay
Area (Fox Sports Bay Area)....Former Pistons coach Doug
Collins makes his NBC debut Sunday, joining Bob Costas and
Isiah Thomas for the Spurs-Pacers game (L.A. TIMES, 3/27).
...Fox Sports World and Fox Sports Americas have reached a
three-year deal with the Int'l Tennis Federation to air
exclusive coverage of all non-USA team Davis Cup matches in
the U.S., beginning in April (Fox Sports World)....In DC,
UPN affil WDCA-TV will televise six Sunday WNBA Mystics
games live this summer (Mystics).
NOTES: Casey Martin reached a collaborative agreement
with Craig Wolff, a Columbia Univ. journalism professor and
former N.Y. Times reporter, to write a book on Martin. The
target date for publication is spring '99 (USA TODAY, 3/27).
...Pending legislation that may outlaw online fantasy sports
leagues which charge an admission fee and award prizes is
expected to reach the floor of the Senate sometime this
spring. Opponents "are trying to get parts of the bill
rewritten before then" (AD AGE, 3/27)....Fastball.com added
new programming for the '98 MLB season, including All-Star
Game and World Series promos and the addition of live chat
sessions with MLB players (Fastball.com).
