Call Bill Raftery the Road Warrior of basketball.

There probably isn't a big-time college team that Raftery, who does college basketball games for both CBS and ESPN, hasn't seen by the end of the year, and when you add in his duties as analyst on New Jersey Nets games, you get the feeling that the word ubiquitous was made for Raftery.

And this season is nuttier than most, since the NBA season, dormant from November to February, will be accelerated to the point of ridiculousness.

"When you put [an] 82 [game schedule] in the mix and it's spread out over a normal season, it works out," said Raftery the other day. "When you put 50 into the mix in a few months, it gets crazy. But we get treated so nicely. The hardest part of this is making sure you're there."

Raftery, a former basketball coach at Seton Hall, who also coached hoops and golf at Fairleigh Dickinson, will be in Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend to call South Regional games with Sean McDonough, and like a lot of people, especially around here, his eyes will be on tonight's Maryland-St. John's semifinal.

And like a lot of people, Raftery thinks that the team that controls the game's tempo will obviously have the upper hand, but beyond that, Raftery will be watching to see how Maryland attempts to seize control.

Specifically, he'll be looking for the Maryland defense to create scoring opportunities by forcing turnovers, the formula that got the Terps to the best record in school history.

"They're so quick, and they gamble on defense, and they can do that because they can recover and move as well as anyone out there," said Raftery. "How well this team explodes to the other goal is going to be important. [St. John's coach] Mike [Jarvis]' biggest concerns are going to be reversing the ball and playing the half court well enough so that they don't speed it up for Maryland."

Raftery says one of the more interesting matchups of the evening could be Maryland wonder Steve Francis vs. 6-foot-6 swingman Lavor Postell of St. John's. The two may not spend a lot of time guarding each other, Raftery says, but their styles are so similar that they'll bear watching.

"Postell doesn't get much ink, but his ability to create instant offense and do damage to the defense is really special. He's the closest thing to Francis St. John's has, and that's saying a mouthful," said Raftery. "He probably can't handle as well as Francis, but his other assets, being quick to the basket, playing the pick and roll, are fine. He's a really tough player."

Raftery and McDonough will also call the Auburn-Ohio State game from Knoxville, though Baltimore-area viewers will see the Connecticut-Iowa West Regional semifinal from Phoenix (Channel 13, approximately 10: 15 p.m.), with Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner on the call.

Proving P. T. right

The total number of households that bought last weekend's Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight fight on pay-per-view were released, and even they are up for dispute.

TVKO, Time Warner's pay-per-view wing, and Paul Kagan Associates, a media consulting firm, both say that 1.2 million homes bought the fight. At $49.95 per house, that's a gross of $60 million, while Barry Gould, another respected media analyst, puts the buy rate at closer to 1.1 million, bringing the gross closer to $50 million.

No matter whose figures you believe, the fight still ended up eighth on the all-time pay-per-view fight list, well behind the all-time champion, the June 1997 Holyfield-Mike Tyson rematch.

Todd's tale

Six years ago, then 28-year-old Todd Bozeman seemingly had it all, as his California Bears eliminated two-time national champion Duke from the NCAA tournament in the second round, advancing to the regional semifinals, with talent on the order of Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray.

But four years later, Bozeman was out at Berkeley, forced to resign under the weight of a recruiting scandal. The Maryland native has largely kept quiet since then, but he granted an interview this week to Robyn Marks for her "SportsView" cable program.

In the 15-minute segment, Bozeman, now an advance scout for the Toronto Raptors, does not go into great detail about the scandal that cost him his job, but calls it a "mistake" and an "aberration," and declares that he wants to coach again.

"I've proved that I'm a winner and that I can build a program," said Bozeman, who says that like Marv Albert, Tyson and former Miss America Vanessa Williams, he deserves another chance.

"SportsView" deserves the effort it will take to find it, as it airs throughout the week at unscheduled times on the Baltimore City and Harford and Baltimore county cable systems.

Week's ratings

The ratings for the top 10 most-watched sporting events on broadcast television in Baltimore during the past week (R-Rating; S-Share):

Event Day Ch. R/S

Md.-Creighton Sat. 13 11.7/25

Kentucky-Kansas Sun. 13 9.3/14

Arkansas-Iowa Sat. 13 7.4/14

Ohio St.-Detroit Sat. 13 7.4/12

Cinn.-Temple Sun. 13 7.2/12

Florida-Penn Thu. 13 6.9/10

Duke-Tulsa Sun. 13 6.5/13

Villanova-Miss. Fri. 13 6.4/12

Md.-Valparaiso Thu. 13 6.0/20

St. John's-Ind. Sat. 13 6.0/17

Pub Date: 3/18/99