TV MONITOR: Last night's 10:00pm ET edition of FSN's
"Fox Sports News" led with Lakers-Wizards, followed by the
St. Bonaventure Univ.-Univ. of KY first round NCAA men's
college basketball game. "Fox Sports News" had 20:02 of
college basketball coverage during its 60-minute broadcast.
Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of CNN/SI's "Sports Tonight"
led with the St. Bonaventure Univ.-Univ. of KY game,
followed by the Samford Univ.-Syracuse Univ. first round
men's basketball game. "Sports Tonight" had 12:12 of
college basketball coverage during its 30-minute broadcast.
Last night's 11:00pm ET edition of ESPN's "SportsCenter"
also led with St. Bonaventure-KY, followed by the Samford-
Syracuse. "SportsCenter" had 18:37 of college basketball
coverage during its 60-minute broadcast (THE DAILY).
AFTER THE BOOM: In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes that
Boomer Esiason's "Captain Queegish response to being sacked
by ABC will make other networks swallow hard before he's
offered another shot. ... Esiason's ill-advised anti-ABC
spews are so ugly, childish, paranoid and transparent that
they're self-defeating." ABC's Al Michaels, on Esiason's
criticism: "I'll say one thing, and only one thing: I wish
Boomer the best" (N.Y. POST, 3/17). In Long Beach, Bob
Keisser writes, "Esiason entirely misses the reasons why he
was fired. He came into games unprepared, and it showed in
his shallow analysis." He calls Esiason's comments on
Michaels "cheap" (L.B. PRESS-TELEGRAM, 3/17).
NHL NOTES: The NHL's season-to-date ratings on ESPN are
up 7% through the same number of games as last year, from a
0.60 in '99 to a 0.65 in 2000. Among cities that have shown
a greatest growth in ESPN's NHL viewership from last season
are: Detroit (up 309% to 1.8 million viewers), Cleveland (up
+176% to 1.5 million viewers), Dallas (up +105% to 1.9
million viewers), Denver (up +126% to 1.2 million viewers)
and Boston (up +91% to 2.1 million viewers) (NHL)....ABC
begins its NHL game coverage on Saturday with three regional
games: Red Wings-Avalanche will go to the majority of the
country, while 33% will see Rangers-Flyers and 10% Penguins-
Bruins (THE DAILY)....In Chicago, Tim Cronin notes the
Blackhawks' drop in the standings led to last night's
Bruins-Blackhawks game being "booted" by ESPN2 "in favor of"
the Maple Leafs-Red Wings game (DAILY SOUTHTOWN, 3/17).
...Avalanche D Ray Bourque will participate in a live online
chat on ABCSports.com today at 2:15pm ET (NHL).
NOTES: In Toronto, Rob Longley cites sources as saying
"it seems doubtful" that the NBA will alter its broadcast
territorial restriction for NBA games in Canada "before
season's end" (TORONTO SUN, 3/17)....NC-based Sports Media
Challenge (SMC) has launched the Cyber Communication Coach,
a new Web-based tool for media coaching (SMC). In Charlotte,
Erik Spanberg profiles Cyber Coach and writes that SMC Owner
Kathleen Hessert invested $100,000 in the development of the
product. The program is priced from $4,000 to $50,000
annually after an initial licensing fee as high as $100,000
(BUSINESS JOURNAL OF CHARLOTTE, 3/10)....Braves P Tom
Glavine will serve as a regular call-in guest on Atlanta's
WNNX-FM each Wednesday during the MLB season (Woolf).
