Turner’s plans for NCAA selection show get panned
Just like teams in the NFL and NBA drafts, Turner Sports will be on the clock Sunday afternoon for the NCAA Tournament selection show.
In this case, the question is how long it will take Turner, which for the first time is producing and airing the show at 5 p.m. Sunday on TBS, to announce the full 68-team field and the first- and second-round matchups.
Turner is taking a considerably different tack for its first selection Sunday show, which will air before a studio audience in Atlanta. It will announce the full 68-team field at the top of the show and unveil the brackets during the balance of the first hour of the two-hour show.
Not surprisingly, the plan was greeted this week with considerable skepticism. I doubt viewers are going to be charmed by the inevitable audience applause and cheers delaying announcements, and the decision to announce teams separately from matchups seems like a way to drag out the proceedings through four extra commercial breaks. But we’ll see.
Ernie Johnson and Greg Gumbel will host the show from Atlanta alongside Clark Kellogg, Charles Barkley, Seth Davis and Kenny Smith, plus Adam Zucker in New York.
Turner will precede the 5 p.m. show with a three-hour pre-selection show on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, NCAA.com and Turner’s Bleacher Report sites. Andy Katz will host with Davis and NBA TV voices Steve Smith, Brendan Haywood and Casey Stern.
Nessler in for Lundquist
As for the NCAA Tournament itself, the biggest change in the announcer lineup is the absence of Verne Lundquist, who is recovering from back surgery. Brad Nessler takes over that spot, and Ian Eagle will assume Lundquist’s second weekend spot through the regional finals.
The regional teams are Jim Nantz with Bill Raftery and Grant Hill, Brian Anderson with Chris Webber, Eagle with Jim Spanarkel, and Kevin Harlan with Reggie Miller and Dan Bonner.
First-weekend teams are Nessler with Steve Lavin, Spero Dedes with Steve Smith and Len Elmore, Andrew Catalon with Steve Lappas, and Carter Blackburn with Debbie Antonelli. Dedes, Smith and Elmore will call the Tuesday First Four games on truTV, and Eagle and Spanarkel will handle the Wednesday games.
Games will appear on the usual outlets — 21 games on CBS, including the two Sunday, March 25 regional finals; 21 games on TBS, including the Saturday, March 24 regional finals and the Final Four games plus the national championship; 13 on truTV and 12 on TNT. The other Turner channels also will have TeamCast shows during the Final Four.
Viewers who subscribe to a cable, satellite or streaming service also can stream games through any of 16 computer or mobile platforms, including the NCAA, Bleacher Report and CBS Sports websites and mobile apps.
New this year on the digital front is a “Fast Break” channel that will feature whip-around coverage for the opening two days.
Helping a friend in need
Dozens of readers, local media personalities, local athletes and coaches, including Texans coach Bill O’Brien and defensive end J.J. Watt, have contributed more than $19,000 to a GoFundMe site benefiting the family of Patrick D. Starr, the founder of the State of the Texans website.
Family members say Starr, known on Twitter as @PatDStat, suffered serious injuries in a Feb. 15 auto accident that killed his father, Emilio C. Colon, and remains hospitalized.
The GoFundMe site set a goal of $3,000 to assist with medical bills, funeral costs and other expenses, and more than 250 donors more than quadrupled that goal in just one week. Watt alone donated $5,000 on Thursday.
Legal updates
Comcast recently won a significant court victory over the Astros and Rockets in the seemingly endless legal dispute over the remains of the defunct Comcast SportsNet Houston network.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur, who has presided over the 4½-yearlong case, granted Comcast’s motion for partial summary judgment in a 2015 lawsuit filed against Comcast by Houston attorney Robert Ogle, trustee for the bankrupt network.
The ruling prevents Ogle, who represents the network’s creditors (primarily the teams), from seeking damages based on how much money the network failed to recoup in potential value when Comcast elected in 2014 not to submit a bid to buy CSN Houston out of bankruptcy.
In the wake of Comcast’s decision, AT&T was able to purchase the network for $1,000 plus the assumption of some but not all of the network’s liabilities, wiping out the Rockets’ and Astros’ equity in an enterprise that was valued before its launch at $700 million.
The teams hoped to be able to recoup those equity losses from Comcast, but Isgur’s ruling late last month eliminated that option.