What Your Television Is Doing This Weekend

By Brian Powell
Elitism:
By the end of the day, we will only have eight teams left in the NCAA Tournament and we’ll move onto the Regional Finals for the weekend. CBS has had a few technical issues through the first rounds including no HD service, and switching to games that hadn’t even started yet (it’s always fun to see a stunned Dick Enberg), but overall the network has put on a great Tourney.
Fan favorite Gus Johnson is back on the call of a Regional once again tonight, and according to the Detroit Free Press, he won’t be alone at Ford Field. As of Wednesday, the arena had sold over 60,000 of the possible 72,000 seats. The court will sit in the middle of the turf field and will provide viewers and attendees an interesting look at a pair of great basketball games.
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Also, if the Tournament games aren’t giving you the basketball fix you’re looking for, you can check out the NCAA Division II Championship between Augusta State and Winona this Saturday at 2:30pm on CBS.
Here are the announcers for this weekend’s games:
Saturday:
Phoenix: Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery; Xavier (3) vs. UCLA (1)- 6:40pm
Charlotte: Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas; Louisville (4) vs. UNC (1)- 9:05pm
Sunday:
Detroit: Gus Johnson and Len Elmore; Davison-Wisconsin vs. Villanova-Kansas
Houston: Jim Nantz and Bill Packer; Stanford-Texas vs. Michigan State-Memphis
Baseball’s Opening Night:
I guess it isn’t exactly Opening Day because that was technically earlier in the week when the Red Sox took on the A’s in Japan, but the Nationals and Braves will kick off the American version of the baseball season Sunday night on ESPN (8pm). Washington is opening their new ballpark that evening and Baseball Tonight will preview the game and show off the stadium starting at 7pm. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan have the call kicking off their 19th season together in the booth.
NBA and NHL:
Lost in all of the Tourney talk going on are the great finishes to the NHL and NBA seasons. ABC has the Rockets and Spurs on Sunday at 1pm in a game that could shake up the Western Conference, where playoff spots one through nine are only six games apart.
The NHL is also in the same boat in regards to playoff spots. Eight teams in both the Western and Eastern Conferences that are currently out of the postseason could still make it in. Rangers vs. Penguins is your weekend game on NBC this Sunday at 12:30pm.
Other Options:
Women’s College Tournament (ESPN, Saturday/Sunday starting at Noon), NASCAR: The Goody’s Cool Orange 500 from Martinsville (FOX, Sunday 1:30pm)↵