Kiely in March often balances work on TNT's "Inside The NBA" and NCAA Tourney coverageTURNER SPORTS
Turner Sports VP/Production and Exec Producer TIM KIELY is off to San Antonio this weekend for the Final Four, where he'll help set the stage for the studio shows leading up to and following Loyola-Chicago-Michigan and Kansas-Villanova at the Alamodome. The veteran "Inside the NBA" producer took some time ahead of the tip-offs to give THE DAILY a preview of the weekend's programming, conversations behind the scenes and how he'll kick back when all the work is said and done.
MEETING OF THE MINDS: I flew out Thursday to do shows Saturday and Monday in conjunction with CBS. Saturday we’ll have a three-hour pregame, with two at the Riverwalk with GREG GUMBEL and the other hour inside the arena with ERNIE JOHNSON, KENNY SMITH, CHARLES BARKLEY and CLARK KELLOGG. For the Gumbel show we’ll also have CANDACE PARKER, CHRISTIAN LAETTNER, DANNY MANNING and former Villanova G KRIS JENKINS (who hit the title-winning shot over UNC in '16). We’ll go through the Final Four in their eyes -- what was it like, what did it taste like, what did it smell like -- any angle we can go with. We put them in a comfortable situation to hopefully get some good stuff out of them. Then further along into the show Greg, Candace, SETH DAVIS and BRENDAN HAYWOOD will get a visit from KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR where we’ll have a nice long piece on the “Game of the Century” -- the '68 National Championship between Houston and UCLA.
CINDERELLA STORY: In the third hour on Saturday I believe you’ll see SISTER JEAN. It’s funny, a couple months ago I was looking up ideas for features. I stumbled on how 55 years ago Loyola-Chicago actually won the '63 Championship (then the NCAA D-I Basketball Tournament.) There was this amazing backstory of racial tension surrounding the game and we’ll be doing a piece on that team. Sister Jean was actually at the school back then and we’ll get her reaction to that story. There’s a lot there. As a producer by trade, I love the underdog. I understand why sales and the other folks would rather have a Kentucky or another blue blood, but I don’t do shows on how well they’re going to be rated. I try to do the best show I can do and to me the best story is often the unknown. Pardon the pun but I pray for a story like Sister Jean.
VETERAN EYES: It’s gone away a little bit in recent years, but the initial criticism of our show during the tournament was that "oh, Kenny and Chuck don’t know anything about the NCAA." My response to that was always this. Last time I checked they both played college hoops, they both played in the tournament and they know what it’s like. Anybody who says they know the top six players on UMBC are full of shit. The toughest show for them is the first preview, because there’s no games yet. But if Kenny or Chuck sits in a room and watches Purdue, believe me they’ll have six opinions on what they do and don’t do well pretty quickly. They’re basketball savants, just like Kellogg. Anyone that thinks that they can’t recognize tendencies and X’s and O’s is full of beans. Give them a chance to watch a little of each team and they'll know what they're looking at.
ALL IN A DAY'S WORK: I grew up in Pittsburgh and you’d hear about coaches sleeping in the office and working 23 hours a day. A hero of mine was CHUCK NOLL, who used to send assistant coaches home at 6:00pm and say "if you can’t get it done in 9 hours, you can’t get it done." At the end of a long day like Saturday, we’ll have a quick look ahead to Monday for sure, but then when it's all over we basically just follow Chuck to the nearest saloon.
