Losing focus should be ‘band’

TV ALWAYS saves the best for never. CBS/Turner continues to shortchange shots of Tournament postgame handshake lines, instead cutting to useless crowd shots and updated brackets graphics, which could wait.

Sunday, at the end of Louisville-Michigan, CBS hit us with five crowd shots and four Michigan band shots — file footage and audio, for all they were worth — rather than show players and coaches after a riveting game.

And while video packages en route to commercials continue to be stuffed with immodest demonstrations — players pounding their chests or making ugly, three-to-the-head gestures after hitting a 3 — three times during Notre Dame-West Virginia opposing players helped each other to their feet. Those didn’t make the cut; they never do.

CBS’s Allie LaForce is another sideline reporter who can expect curt answers from intemperate coaches — twice, Saturday, from WVU’s Bob Huggins — until she learns how to ask decent questions.

Silly questions provoke silly answers, thus at halftime of Villanova-Wisconsin, she asked Jay Wright “what do you have to do” to prevent Wisconsin from going on another 8-0 or 9-0 run. Wright smiled and said, “Make baskets.”

Questions prefaced with “How hard is it to ... ?” are invites to swap nothing for nothing. Best halftime question: “What will you/did you tell your team at the half ?”

Hear for yourself on RN’s Funhouse: Tuesday, a caller suggested Princeton could upset Notre Dame. Mike Francesa stomped him before he could give a reason, essentially calling him a dope, then, “I will be stunned if Princeton beats Notre Dame!”

Francesa, Wednesday: “If Princeton beats Notre Dame will I be stunned? No.”

Francesa also said Vanderbilt could beat Northwestern because Vandy’s “a good shooting team.” In order of fieldgoal percentages among 347 D-1 teams, Vandy was 248th. Francesa stayed hot; he also picked Louisville to win it all.