DAVID BARRON
Texans teams get short shrift with NCAA times.
The NCAA men’s selection committee showed what it thought of Texas basketball by selecting only three teams — Baylor, SMU and Texas Southern — for the NCAA Tournament, and CBS and Turner reflected that attitude by the manner in which they scheduled the Bears, Mustangs and Tigers.
The three Texas teams are all squeezed into Friday afternoon matinee time slots — Baylor-New Mexico State at 11:40 a.m., SMU against the Providence-USC winner at 2:10 p.m. and TSU-North Carolina at 3 p.m. No prime-time players in the bunch, it would seem.
The very fact that you have the only teams from the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston markets (No. 5 and No. 8 in the country, respectively) playing at essentially the same time (and both on truTV, the junior partner in the CBS/Turner lineup) indicates the importance of the Texas markets to the Tournament’s Nielsen ratings — not much, in short. It’s probably an accurate assessment, but a bit depressing nonetheless.
Sunday, however, could be a showcase day if Baylor and SMU advance to play each other in Tulsa for a spot in the round of 16 in what would be a Southwest Conference reunion match of sorts.
That’s a game that Dan Bonner, who will call the games in Tulsa with Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller, would like to see.
“That’s the most intriguing possibility in this pod in Tulsa,” Bonner said. “You also could have Kansas against Miami or Michigan State. That would be dynamite if those games could happen.”
Bonner doesn’t expect New Mexico State to put up much of a fight against Baylor but said the tournament experience of First Four winner USC could pose more of a problem for SMU.
“Baylor is a team, with its size, built to be a real factor in the tournament,” Bonner said. “SMU had a coaching change (Larry Brown departing, to be replaced by Tim Jankovich) and lost some key guys, but they had one of the best seasons in the country.
“Both are interesting stories, and we’ll have chance to talk about them during the broadcast.”
Baylor had a brief run at No. 1 early in the season after not getting any Top 25 points in the preseason poll and had aspirations of a No. 2 seed. SMU followers, meanwhile, think the Mustangs were shafted by a No. 6 seed despite a 30-win regular season.
Bonner, however, doesn’t place much importance on where the teams are bracketed.
“Unless you’re a No. 1, you’re going to play a really good team in the first game, and even if you’re a No. 1, you’re playing a good team in the second game,” he said. “So I don’t put much interest in seeding.
“The key is to get in, and once you do, you can show what kind of team you are. SMU will be a difficult matchup for anybody.”
Three isn’t a crowd
The Kevin Harlan-Dan BonnerReggie Miller threesome is one of the few three-person telecast teams on the CBS/Turner roster but one of the best-regarded as one of the four that will call games during next weekend’s regionals.
Bonner, who has called games in the Tournament for 27 years in addition to his regular job with the Big Ten Network and on the ESPN/Raycom over-the-air ACC Network, has worked alongside Harlan for several years, with Miller coming on board when Turner partnered with CBS on the Tournament.
“If you could watch Kevin during the broadcast, he’s is always pointing and poking us to ensure that we don’t step on each other,” Bonner said. “Reggie has the desire to do a good job. There’s no prima donna about him. He doesn’t try to assert himself.
“We have a good personal relationship and work together well on the air, and most of the credit goes to Kevin. He runs who should talk and when we should talk. He’s the conductor.”
As for Texas Southern, the third Texas team in the tournament, Brian Anderson and Chris Webber will call the Tigers’ opening-round game Friday afternoon against top-seeded North Carolina on TNT.
Carr: Osweiler needed time
A few days after Brock Osweiler became the latest member of the Texans Quarterbacks Alumni Association, he met up in Arizona with the charter member of the group, NFL Network analyst David Carr, at Kurt Warner’s benefit touch football game.
Even though their career arcs in Houston had some similarities, the main difference was time. Carr had five years to sink, swim and run for his life behind the Texans’ patchwork offensive line. Osweiler had less than a year to absorb an offensive system with which he was not familiar, and that wasn’t enough time.
“Gary Kubiak’s system in Denver was so different,” Carr said. “It was completely different than what Bill (O’Brien) was asking him to do in Houston with the option routes and young receivers. There wasn’t enough time.
“I look at the guys they’ve had in Houston (during O’Brien’s tenure) and they haven’t been given a lot of time. I don’t know how you get much continuity at the positon by rotating guys in so much, especially with the offense you’re running. There is a comfort level involved, and you can’t
match that in 10 months.”
Carr declined to go into word-forword details of his conversation with Osweiler but said it matched his perceptions of what happened.
“It was a short stint, and Brock didn’t play his best,” Carr said. “And there was not a lot of flexibility for Bill to change or adapt to what Brock was comfortable with. A lot of coaches are like that. They won’t change their system. But when you pay somebody that much money, you want to have an open conversation, and that wasn’t going to be the case.”
And so now it’s time for another quarterback in Houston who will face the same challenges as Osweiler. But, as Carr noted, coaches and other players must step it up as well.
“There is nothing wrong with Bill’s system. The Patriots have been successful using it,” Carr said. “But what the Patriots have that the Texans don’t have is a quarterback with a ton of experience. And the guys who play wide receiver for the Patriots, they get it.
“If you took the Texans’ wide receivers and the Patriots’ wide receivers to a park and picked teams based on speed and ability and athleticism, I would pick every one of the Texans’ receivers. But for whatever reason, the Patriots’ receivers get it. There is a continuity and an understanding of the offense, and that is what Bill is trying to get in Houston.
“Bill’s system works, and I don’t think he’s coaching it poorly. But in the times we live, it’s going to be difficult for him to have enough patience to stick with one guy. And it’s not just the quarterback. It’s the combination of quarterback and receiver. Julian Edelman practically lives with (Brady) during the offseason. They go through game situations three times a week. How many times did Brock do that? Probably never.”
As was the case with Carr, Houston fans celebrated when Osweiler came to town, and they probably celebrated even harder when he left. That’s not an easy thing to take, Carr said, but it’s part of the job.
“We’re mercenaries at this point,” he said. “The age when I grew up and my grandfather was watching Roger Staubach play with the Cowboys or I watched Troy Aikman play for the Cowboys, you don’t do that anymore unless you’re Tom Brady. You’re moving around,” he said. ”It’s the day and age in which we live. You don’t get a lot of time to prove yourself.”
Remembering Buz Webb
The last time KHOU (Channel 11) sports reporter Matt Musil saw Buz Webb, the longtime Houston TV cameraman who died last week, they shared a laugh about what both agree was the best stand-up report in sports TV history.
Musil said he and Webb were in Cocoa, Fla., the Astros’ spring training site from the mid-1960s through the mid-80s, when they came up with the idea to do a standup with a rocket launch in the background.
They talked their way onto the viewing stand at nearby Cape Canaveral for a military payload launch, charmed the military brass on hand into thinking they were there to cover the launch, did their standup extolling the Astros’ plans for the next season as the rocket was talking off and then scurried away before anyone could question them further.
“They could hear what we were saying, and you could see these generals wondering ‘What are these guys doing up here talking about baseball?’” Musil said. “The last time I saw Buz, he laughed and said, ‘Best stand-up ever.”
A memorial service for Webb, who also worked at KTRK (Channel 13), will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Cypress United Methodist Church, 13403 Cypress North Houston Road.
“Few people worked harder than Buz,” former Channel 13 reporter Tim Melton said. “He could get upset at times, but he always was trying to make the product better, and that made him special to work with.”
Four DVRs, no waiting
There was a Charlie Pallilo sighting Tuesday night at Toyota Center, where the former KBME (790 AM) talk show host took part in a panel discussion after the first showing of “When Amazing Happened: The Story of the 07-08 Rockets,” a documentary by the team’s in-house Red Studios on the Rockets squad that won 22 games in a row. Pallilo joined former Rockets player Rafer Alston, team broadcast Craig Ackerman and Rockets executive Gersson Rosas in discussing the film. Other than the standard pleasantries afterward, however, he offered no hint on his future career plans. … Astros spring training telecasts resume Friday with the Braves at noon. … For those on the move, the NCAA March Madness Live app is available at bleacherreport.com and CBSSports.com. Games are available on 15 platforms, including Amazon Alexa devices and Xbox for the first time. … On the women’s front, meanwhile, ESPN has assigned Roy Philpott/Brooke Weisbrod to Austin and Lowell Galindo/Sue Bird to Waco. Former Texas coach Gail Goestenkors will join Pam Ward in Seattle and will be in Oklahoma City for one of the four regionals. … Meanwhile, Broadcast LawBlog.com warned broadcasters (and publishers, for that matter), to be careful not to use the NCAA’s trademarked terms in NCAA Tournament coverage, including “March Madness,” “The Big Dance,” “Final Four” and “Elite Eight.” Wait: Am I on probation now? … Bill Worrell got off a couple of good lines during the Cavaliers-Rockets game Sunday. When a spectator ran onto the court, Worrell said, “I don’t know if they get (Root Sports Southwest) in jail or not.” When an errant pass landed near Houston attorney Rusty Hardin’s courtside seat, Worrell said, “He’s the only Hardin who can’t shoot.” By the way, Worrell and broadcast partners Clyde Drexler and Matt Bullard have been kicked off the courtside table so the Rockets can sell more high-dollar seats. They are among no more than a half-dozen NBA teams whose local broadcasters have been banished from courtside to a more elevated vantage point. … Bob Barker, Gene Rayburn, Bob Eubanks, Art Flemming … Trey Wingo??? The Baylor alumnus and ESPN anchor will host “Bracket Genius,” a college quiz show beginning March 15 on ESPN2.