SAUNDERS: CBS teams on top of games

Dusty Saunders, Special to the Rocky

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Couch potatoes heard a lot "Oh, my's!" from Dick Enberg.

And Bill Raftery, broadcasting's resident gym rat, got to yell "Send it down!" on numerous occasions.

Unfortunately, fans who enjoy the enthusiastic, high-energy style of Gus Johnson didn't hear much from him during NCAA Tournament coverage in Denver.

These were among the results of the broadcasting roulette game played by CBS Sports from Thursday through Sunday during the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament at eight sites.

There seemed to be less hop-scotching around the country compared to previous years, probably because the network, for the first time, offered all contests free through CBSSports.com.

Thus, if a game featuring high-profile teams was competitive, CBS stuck with it.

For example, Enberg and Jay Bilas, a well-coordinated team, got maximum exposure from Anaheim, Calif., Saturday night covering a wild doubleheader - Stanford's overtime win against Marquette and UCLA's come-from-behind victory over Texas A&M.

A familiar sports bromide was evident here: The better the game, the better the announcers, if they have the talent.

Raftery and Verne Lundquist (the self-styled Sunshine Boys) worked in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday and Sunday without the Anaheim allure.

But the two always are a broadcasting pleasure, particularly when Raftery unloads his special hoops lexicon. ("Back up on that dribble, big guy!")

He even renamed Oklahoma as "the Sooner Boomers."

Johnson and partner Len Elmore probably had less exposure than the eight other broadcast teams. Denver didn't have a No. 1 seed and most of the Thursday and Saturday games were anything but nail-biters.

GOLF DRAMA: NBC analyst Johnny Miller on Wednesday called Tiger Woods' five straight wins on the PGA Tour "one of the most amazing runs in sports history," thus setting up a potential Sunday afternoon audience ratings bonanza at the CA Championship.

Unfortunately, Woods' run turned into a trot as his mediocre (for him) play and bad weather destroyed the potential TV scenario.

Golf fans and the broadcasting sports world are well aware that a Tiger run on Sunday afternoon is a ratings magnet.

The audience ratings during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 16 were up 68 percent over NBC's 2007 coverage. That's the day Woods sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to claim the championship.

Meanwhile, HBO Sports is delving into golf history, producing a documentary with a Denver angle - the dramatic finish of the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills.

Premiering June 11 - the evening before the world's top players tee off in the 108th U.S. Open - the hour will document the dramatic events of the tourney, particularly on the final day when Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan battled for the title during a 36-hole marathon.

WINNING TIME: HBO Sports leads the 29th annual Sports Emmy Awards competition with 31 nominations. Included are five for the recently canceled Inside the NFL. Winners will be announced in June.

* 9News' Drew Soicher was named the best local TV sportscaster by the Colorado Broadcasters Association. Weren't CBS 4's Vic Lombardi and the other local guys entered in the competition?

AROUND THE DIALS: ESPN is regularly airing Remember the House That Ruth Built, a seasonlong series of vignettes commemorating the major events that have occurred at Yankee Stadium, which will be torn down at the end of the baseball season. It opened April 18, 1923.

* Charles Barkley has signed a long-term TNT contract to continue booth work during the NBA season. He'll also be involved in other programming at the network.

* FSN Rocky Mountain will air the first of six live Colorado Crush games at 2 p.m. Sunday when the home team plays the New Orleans VooDoo.

* Black Magic, the recent two-part program about black basketball players and coaches, was the most-watched documentary ever aired on ESPN. A repeat date has not been scheduled.

QUOTABLE: "Did you watch . . . ?"

That's the water cooler question of the day from fans who'll discuss losses by Duke and Georgetown during second-round action.

Dusty Saunders writes periodically about sports broadcasting. Contact him at tvtime@ Comcast.net.

• March 24, 2008

  4:14 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  troopermsu writes:

  I'm sorry but Lundquist and Raftery are annoying these days. They oftentimes talk over one another. This seems to be mostly because Raftery wants to analyze every second of the action leaving Lundquist less time for play-by-play. And Raftery's glossary has become trite.

  I find the CBS teams have declined in quality. They seem more interested in inventing cute phrases than giving quality play-by-play and analysis. Even the trusty Jim Nantz trotted out the David vs Goliath reference at the and of the Davidson-Georgetown game. I bet he'd say otherwise but that sounded as if he had written it beforehand.

  I generally like Johnson and Elmore but why does Johnson have to overly dramatize so much of the game? The game speaks for itself and I find that announcers who go overboard end up detracting from the on-court action.

  Also, CBS is taking far too many commercial breaks. Going to 30 seconds of commercials may be highly profitable but these breaks interrupt the dramatic flow of the action; especially close games. And nothing is worse than when a team calls timeout, CBS then takes 2 minutes of commercials and then 15 seconds later at the next whistle CBS takes the TV timeout.

  Enberg and Bilas have been first-rate. They have been my favorite team the last couple of years.

  Tim Brando should be let go. He is awful to listen to. Please just call the action and don't pontificate! Thank you.

  I hope the 3rd round coverage is better.