YAHOO SPORTS' Jeff Eisenberg noted TNT NBA analyst Reggie Miller "will broadcast his first-ever college game Sunday on CBS" when he calls the Kentucky-Tennessee game. Miller will call games during the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and "one of the major questions about the new partnership between CBS and Turner Sports is how TNT's NBA-centric analysts will fare calling college games." But Miller "insists he's looking forward to the challenge." He said the "volume of players, coaches and teams is the biggest difference." Miller: "You know all 30 teams in the NBA and out of those 30 teams, you can probably name 10 guys on each roster. Obviously that's a little different when you're dealing with so many college teams, but that's the challenging part of it. Having a chance to work with Kevin Harlan, who I think is in his 15th or 16th year doing this, I think my transition will be smooth" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 3/1).
TEAMING UP AGAIN: The MLS Colorado Rapids and Altitude Sports & Entertainment said that the team's games "will return to the cable network this season, with the bulk scheduled to broadcast" in HD. Altitude said that it will "air 25 of the Rapids' MLS games, with a rotating cast of play-by-play announcers." Rapids games had been "shown on Altitude in previous seasons, before moving to" KWGN-CW last year (DENVERPOST.com, 3/1).
BECOMING AN EVENT: SI.com's Darren Eliot wrote NHL trade deadline day, "once a day shrouded in secrecy has, with the advances of technology, become a very public discourse involving GMs, media, players and fans." Eliot: "Not that this is a bad thing. It now sets up as another event for the NHL to connect with fans, which is always a positive." In Canada, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet "carried over eight hours of coverage, with analysts, former players and writers ... weighing in," and in the U.S., the NHL Network "aired TSN's coverage in its entirety as trades were sent to the league office with nearly simultaneous reports on-air." Some players "first heard on TV that they'd been traded before they got the news from agents and GMs" (SI.com, 3/1).
MARCH SADNESS: In Indianapolis, Will Higgins notes LIN Media, the owner of Indianapolis' WISH-CBS, said that its retransmission consent contract with Dish Network "ends Friday, and it's not likely a new agreement will be reached." Dish said that the dispute "primarily centers on the rate it pays LIN, and negotiations were continuing." Higgins notes losing WISH "would hurt fans of the NCAA college basketball tournament" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 3/2).
