Duke-UCF game boosts TV ratings
CBS Sports and Turner Sports said television ratings for the NCAA men’s tournament across four networks that broadcast the first week of games were up 8 percent over a year ago.
Tournaments games drew an average Nielsen rating of 6.4, up from 5.9 in 2018. The rating got a boost Sunday from the dramatic DukeCentral Florida game. The Blue Devils’ one-point victory earned an 11.9 rating, up 35 percent from the game that aired in that same television window a year ago. The game had the secondhighest rating in that time slot in the 29 years since the tournament expanded to its current format. Ratings represent the percentage of U.S. television households tuned into a program.
CBS and Turner also announced that NCAA March Madness Live set a high for live streams and live hours of consumption, up more than 25 percent from 2018.
Alabama
Athletic director Greg Byrne said Monday he is looking for a new men’s coach with a clean record and a college background. Byrne outlined some of his criteria for the job, one day after announcing the ouster of Avery Johnson after four seasons. Johnson was a former NBA player and coach who hadn’t previously worked in the college ranks. Byrne declined to discuss specific candidates and said the next time he speaks publicly will be to announce a new coach.
Stanford
Shannon Coffee wanted to learn sign language in high school a home in Ohio, yet the timing never worked out and she focused first on getting through her Spanish studies as her mom suggested. Coffee found a class right away the moment she arrived at Stanford to play basketball four years ago.
“I was drawn to it,” she said.
Monday night, the senior signed the national anthem before her final home game against BYU late Monday night in the second round of the NCAA women’s tournament at Maples Pavilion.