What Your Television Is Doing This Weekend

By Brian Powell
- NCAA Basketball:
I don’t think that I have to mention that we’re still in the midst of Championship Week and that Selection Sunday is this weekend. It’s wall to wall Basketball this weekend on every channel you can imagine.
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ESPN is carrying the bulk of the conference tournaments this week with twelve games, while CBS counters with three. ESPN’s coverage is highlighted by three conference championship. Dan Shulman and Len Elmore are on the Big East Championship (ESPN, Saturday 9pm), Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale are calling the ACC Championship (ESPN, Sunday 1pm), and Ron Franklin and Fran Fraschilla are calling the Big XII Championship (ESPN, Saturday 3pm). Being in ACC Country I’ll get the pleasure of having Steve Martin (the announcer not the comedian) and Billy Packer, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to avoid Patrick and Vitale even if the deal comes with the curmudgeon Packer.
CBS counters with the Pac-10 Championship on Saturday (6pm) and the SEC (1pm) and Big Ten Championships on Sunday (3pm). Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner, Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery, and Jim Nantz and Billy Packer are on the calls respectively.
- The Selection Shows:
ESPN and CBS will also put on dueling Selection Shows this Sunday. CBS has the exclusive rights to revealing the brackets, so if you’re watching the ESPN show then you’ll probably be a bracket or so behind. CBS will have Greg Gumbel, Clark Kellogg, and Seth Davis in the studio and Nantz and Packer will chime in from time-to-time. ESPN has the advantage of a second network to get an early jump on CBS, but once the committee comes out of their dungeon they’ll be left playing catch-up. Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps, and Bob Knight are in-studio for the World Wide Leader starting at 5pm (ESPNU), and will work all the way through the brackets at 7pm (ESPN).
Oh, and if your team doesn’t make it into the Big Dance then you can flip it over to ESPN2 at 9pm for the N.I.T. Selection Show.
- NBA:
The Rockets look to extend their winning streak to 22 straight this weekend, with the second of two contests being televised nationally on ABC. Houston hosts the Charlotte Bobcats tonight, then head to the Staples Center for a game against the Lakers (ABC, Sunday 3:30). Regardless of whether the Rockets win or lose tonight, the game on Sunday will still be a showdown between the two top teams in the Western Conference.
- Other Options:
NASCAR’s Food City 500 from Bristol (FOX, Sunday 1:30pm), Arnold Palmer Championship (NBC, Saturday/Sunday 2:30pm), NHL: Flyers vs. Penguins (NBC, Sunday Noon), NBA: Hornets at Pistons (ABC, Sunday 1pm), Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Manny Pacquiao (HBO PPV, Saturday 9pm).↵