Title game has NBA overtones
A big-picture story line you might not hear much about on CBS’ NCAA hoops tonight: Would Kentucky winning be good or bad for college basketball?
CBS, understandably, sells the tournament as sort of a Hoosiers, but with lots of talking heads and commercials. But casual fans who don’t otherwise watch the sport will tune in today for the final chapter of what seems a simpler story: The NCAA championship mainly seems about which institution of higher learning can sell itself as the best waiting room for the NBA, which requires players wait one year after their high school class graduates before going pro. “It is what it is,” CBS’
Clark Kellogg said in a phone interview Sunday. “I can understand the thinking, but to say it’s good or bad is overanalysis. There are only certain places that can do what Kentucky does — like North Carolina, Kansas — and that’s not changing. Elite programs are still elite. But that doesn’t mean other teams can’t win.”
Kellogg, who’ll call the title game between Kentucky and Kansas with Steve Kerr and Jim Nantz, notes tournament upstarts have had plenty of success, such as Butler making the title game the last two years: “College basketball continues to have that potential every year. It’s not predictable.”
And winning an NCAA title by being an NBA farm team maybe isn’t as easy as it sounds. In a joint taped interview with CBS’ Jim Rome on Saturday’s NCAA coverage, Kentucky coach John Calipari said he didn’t like the NBA’S one-year rule — “I’d like it to go two years minimum” — while Louisville coach Rick Pitino said he couldn’t deal with having to rely on the “emotional immaturity” of freshmen.
For Kerr, who ran the Phoenix Suns’ basketball operations from 2007 to 2010, there’s “nothing wrong with this. The more NBA prospects in the Final Four, the better. We want to see the best basketball, the best players.”
And for Kerr, a Kentucky title tonight wouldn’t be about NBA prospects — just Wildcats freshman star Anthony Davis. “The only reason they’ve dominated is Anthony Davis,” Kerr said in a phone interview Sunday. “You take him off that team, and they’re like Carolina or Kansas. It’s not like Kentucky is cornering the market on talent. They just happened to get probably the best player of his generation.
“Five or 10 years down the road, I think he’s an NBA MVP,” Kerr said. “He’s a once-in-a-decade prospect. . . . He’s one of those guys who’ll be an NBA All-star every year.”
Kellogg says Davis is the rare college player — such as Tim Duncan or Shaquille O’neal — whose prospects might include induction ceremonies. “Those types, barring injury, are potential Hall of Fame pros. Davis is in that category. He’s as close to a can’t-miss prospect as I’ve seen in 15-20 years.”
Historic dreaded glitch:
For aspiring TV production types, the final seconds of CBS’ Kansas-ohio State game offered a textbook example of why you always focus on staying with (even confusing) live action first — and get in the replays later. CBS didn’t after a Buckeyes lane violation, which it replayed as it missed live action when the game was on the line. For CBS, this was a cardinal rule violation.
Spice rack:
TNT’S Charles Barkley obviously didn’t get Rome’s marketing memo. Rome was on David Letterman’s CBS show Thursday and NCAA hoops Saturday to hype his weekday talk show premiering Tuesday on CBS Sports Network — where he’s supposed to give that asyet unrated cable channel a regular with some public name recognition. But Barkley, after Rome’s Calipari/ pitino interview focused on whether the rival coaches get along, offered: “Watching TV all week, that was some of the silliest stuff. . . . Who cares if they don’t like each other?” Rome’s response: “Thanks, Charles.” . . . CBS’ Kellogg, an Ohio State alum who’s on the school’s board of trustees, on calling the Buckeyes in the Final Four: “It was hard. Harder than I would have thought, from an emotional standpoint.” Kellogg was objective on-air, although he often called Buckeyes players by their first names. . . . CBS drew the highest TV ratings since 2005 for a Final Four Saturday — though ratings were up just 1% from last year. In fast national ratings, CBS’ Kansas-ohio State late game drew 9.6% of U.S. TV households — up 1% from Connecticut-Kentucky last year — while the earlier Kentucky-louisville game drew 8.4% of U.S. households — up 1% from the Butler-vcu game.