CBS' coverage of the first and second rounds of the
NCAA men's basketball tournament was up 6% over last year,
and, in Boston, Jim Baker writes that the "swarm of upsets"
in early games "enabled CBS to curb" last year's drop that
resulted in an "all-time low" Nielsen rating for the
tournament. Baker notes the "unpredictability" of the
tournament has also helped CBS combat the 10% ratings drop
in its regular season NCAA men's basketball coverage (BOSTON
HERALD, 3/21). In Dallas, Barry Horn notes that ratings for
CBS' NCAA men's regular season basketball coverage hit an
"all-time low" of a 1.9, translating into two million homes,
which is the kind of number "that gets most network shows
canceled." Horn: "Why the upswing in the post-season after
the regular season-blowout?" CBS execs contend that "early
departures" by underclassmen to the pros are "actually good
for the tournament." CBS Sports VP/Programing Mike Aresco:
"For the last few years, people were talking about players
leaving early. Now, they're talking about the great
competitiveness. We thought that would translate into
improved ratings, but the key was the exciting games and the
quality of play" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 3/21).
HURRICANE BREWING? USA TODAY's Martzke & Arace report
that CBS "is riling the waters" of south FL with its
decision to start Friday's NCAA regional semifinal games
involving the Univ. of FL and the Univ. of Miami "within 17
minutes of one another." CBS has "opted not to have
popular" ACC rivals Duke Univ. and UNC "play at the same
time," so it will tip-off the Univ. of FL-Duke game at
7:38pm ET, followed by the Tulsa-Univ. of Miami game at
7:55pm ET. The Miami game will be shown in the Miami, West
Palm Beach and Fort Myers markets (USA TODAY, 3/21).
GRADING CBS' COVERAGE: In Boston, Howard Manly writes
that CBS' coverage has been "comprehensive and outstanding,
and while nitpickers have criticized the network for not
instantly interrupting some games with hotter contests, CBS
did everything but split the screen to provide viewers with
breaking game information" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/21). But in
N.Y., Bob Raissman writes that CBS' "game score box, during
a variety of games, has provided the wrong score. One
second you think a team is behind, then -- flip-flip -- the
score is corrected. This has to be driving gamblers nuts"
(N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/21). NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay writes that
while CBS "generally does well in knowing when to cut away
from blowouts," it should "package commercials differently."
Zipay also adds, "With so many well-known teams out, and 90
percent of office-pool brackets demolished, will the
[ratings] hold up in the coming weeks?" (NEWSDAY, 3/21).
Meanwhile, former GA Tech men's basketball coach Bobby
Cremins will serve as a guest studio analyst and join CBS
studio host Greg Gumbel and analyst Clark Kellogg for the
remainder of the tournament (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 3/21).
WEB NOTES: Total Sports reported traffic for
Finalfour.net from Thursday, March 16 to Saturday, March 18
totaled 127,225,927 page views and 1.44 million unique
visitors, doubling entire tournament traffic totals from '99
(Total Sports)....USA TODAY's Chris Jenkins reviews various
sports Web sites covering the Tournament and writes that
graphics and text updates on CBS SportsLine's "Tournament
Live" "were a basket or two behind the audio feed Sunday."
Meanwhile, Yahoo!'s "Tournament Tracker" is "not as pretty
as SportsLine, but it's easy to flip back and forth between
games." Graphically, Total Sports' "TotalCast" ranks
"somewhere between Yahoo! and SportsLine." Jenkins: "The
stats are up to par, but there's no audio component, so you
have to get it from another site and synchronization is a
problem" (USA TODAY, 3/21). In Chicago, Tim Cronin reviews
Web coverage of the tournament and writes that "by and
large, the sites are up to par." Cronin notes that at some
sites, the "real-time scoring" isn't "quite instantaneous,"
but at both CBS SportsLine.com and ESPN.com, the updates
"came every minute" (DAILY SOUTHTOWN, 3/21).
