Just about everything CBS Sports president Sean McManus has touched in 2 1/2 years at the helm has turned to gold, but it's time that he made one more change: getting college basketball analyst Billy Packer some help.
As college basketball ratings have slipped over the past few years, CBS officials have pointed to a variety of factors, from the glut of games on the air, to stronger competition, to a large viewing of games at bars and in college dorms.
But, sooner or later, CBS is going to have to acknowledge that its presentation has something to do with the drop and act accordingly.
In the past, in this space, we have advocated Packer's removal, but his dizzying blend of statistical and historical minutiae and strategy could work -- if he and earnest play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz, who was solid last night, were teamed with someone with entertainment value.
No one can doubt that Packer, who called his 25th consecutive championship game last night, is a master of analysis. He probably has forgotten more college basketball than the common man may ever know.
He smartly recognized in the first half, with nice illustration from the brilliant producer Bob Dekas that Connecticut players were coming to double-team Duke's Elton Brand on the entry pass, not after he caught it, and that Brand would have to pass the ball back out in the direction that it came from.
And in the second half, Packer quickly noted the first instance that Brand was not double-teamed, with the result that the All-America center got an easy basket and was fouled on the play.
But while Packer, who won the 1993 Sports Emmy but was not nominated this year, clearly has a passion for what happens on the floor, he has a tin ear when it comes to the surroundings of college basketball. He has no feel for the emotion of the sport -- its chief selling point -- or for the crowd.
For instance, throughout the game, as the Huskies mounted a serious challenge to the mighty Blue Devils, the home viewer could hear that the Tropicana Dome crowd was lining up behind underdog Connecticut. Yet neither Packer nor Nantz, for that matter, barely considered how much of a factor the crowd's energy was.
Back in the production truck, Dekas and director Bob Fishman were stellar as always. The only noticeable gaffe of the night was a timeout and clock graphic in the second half that read Duke and Michigan State, not Connecticut, but Fishman's call for a shot of the students in Cameron Indoor Stadium after Trajan Langdon's three-pointer with about 1: 30 to go was inspired.
But, in many respects, it's what's up front that counts, and maybe Bill Raftery or Clark Kellogg, who starred with Utah coach Rick Majerus on the studio portions of the telecast last night, could help bring some magic -- ratings and otherwise -- to CBS' telecasts.
The Cuban connection
ESPN has every right to be proud of the work it did covering Sunday's historic game between the Orioles and a Cuban all-star team from Havana.
Not only did the regular announcing team of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan turn in another splendid performance, with prescient comments, as in when Miller set the scene for Charles Johnson's home run, but the baseball production team also covered the game as a news event.
The squared circle
The booming business of professional wrestling falls into the cross-hairs of the latest "Outside the Lines" tonight at 7: 30 on ESPN.
The special, whose host as always is the venerable Bob Ley, will feature interviews from members and officials of both the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling, the two major circuits, as well as such high-profile fans as Regis Philbin, Reggie White and Karl Malone.
An Eye on winning
The latest batch of Sports Emmy Award nominees is out, and the big winner is CBS, which stormed its way to 30 nominations, 11 more than any other broadcast network or cable operation. NBC and the ESPN cable family were next with 19 each, followed by HBO and the combined Fox and Fox Sports Net's operation, which had 14.
In the major personality categories, the Gumbel brothers, Bryant at HBO and Greg at CBS, were vying for best studio host, along with Chris Berman and Dan Patrick of ESPN, James Brown of Fox and Jim Nantz of CBS.
The nominees for best play-by-play announcer are ABC's Al Michaels and Keith Jackson, NBC's Bob Costas and Dick Enberg and Fox's Joe Buck. Best studio analyst nominations went to CBS' Clark Kellogg and Craig James, Cris Collinsworth, for his work on Fox and HBO, Howie Long, Collinsworth's Fox colleague, and, inexplicably, NBC's Peter Vecsey, whose nomination proves that if you sling enough mud, someone will notice.
Finally, the best game analyst nominees are Fox's John Madden and Tim McCarver, John McEnroe, who ranted for CBS, NBC and USA, NBC's Johnny Miller and Doug Collins. Shockingly omitted is ESPN's Joe Morgan, who, to these ears, is easily the best baseball analyst working.
Pub Date: 3/30/99