What Your Television Is Doing This Weekend

By Brian Powell
NCAA Hoops Championship Week:
It’s the last week for games on ESPN and your last chance to see Erin Andrews get creepy attention on the sidelines. EA, along with Brent Musburger and Steve Lavin, will be at Duke for the second meeting between the No. 5 Blue Devils and the No. 1 UNC Tar Heels (ESPN Saturday, 9PM).
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Gameday will be at Cameron starting at 11AM and if the hype hasn’t been unbearable yet this week, it will almost certainly be too much as you wait all day Saturday for the game.
While Duke and UNC will be battling for the regular season ACC Title, there will be a ton of other teams in the midst of their conference tourneys. ESPN is covering an amazing 63 games, including 24 championship games, over the next week-and-a-half, and it all got underway last night. Here’s a list of which announcers are covering which conference:
-- Dan Shulman, Len Elmore and Doris Burke: Big East (four games)
-- Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas: Big East (five games), Metro Atlantic Final
-- Mike Patrick, Dick Vitale and Stacey Dales: ACC (three games - semis, final)
-- Brad Nessler and Jimmy Dykes: ACC (five games), Colonial Final
-- Ron Franklin, Fran Fraschilla and Holly Rowe: Summit, Big XII (five games)
-- Brent Musburger, Steve Lavin and Erin Andrews: Big Ten
-- Mark Adams and Jon Sciambi: Ohio Valley, MAC
-- Mark Adams and Eric Collins: Southern, Northeast
-- Dave Kaplan and Eric Collins: Big West
-- Charlie Neal and Stan Lewter: MEAC
NHL’s Flex Game:
The NHL on NBC is actually allowed to Flex games much like they do for football coverage late in the season. This weekend’s game should be a great one as both teams feature young stars and both are battling for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Pittsburgh Penguins travel to Washington, DC to take on the Capitals bright and early (as far as sports goes) at 12:30PM. The Pens lead the season series 2-1.
Other Options:
NASCAR’s Kobalt Tools 500 from Atlanta (FOX, Sunday 3:30PM); PGA PODS Championship (NBC, Saturday/Sunday 3PM); NBA: Any one of the 19 Bulls or Spurs games that networks seem to be showing this week/weekend.↵