SI View The Week in TV Sports
Saturday 3/28
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Men's Final Four
The doubleheader from the San Antonio Alamodome features North
Carolina versus Utah followed by Kentucky versus Stanford--all
of which finished in the top 11 nationally in team rebounding.
Yet the first game's best matchup is between senior point
guards, Utah's Andre Miller and North Carolina's Shammond
Williams (left). In the nightcap watch the action in the paint
as junior centers Nazr Mohammed of Kentucky and Tim Young of
Stanford go pivot-to-pivot. The Wildcats and Tar Heels, who
between them have made 27 Final Four trips, have never met for
the NCAA championship.
CBS, 5:30 PM; TITLE GAME, MONDAY, 9 PM. WOMEN'S TITLE GAME,
ESPN, SUNDAY, 8:30 PM
BOXING
Lennox Lewis vs. Shannon Briggs
Meet the dreadheads. WBC heavyweight champion Lewis flaunts
black braids; challenger Briggs might be called Goldenlocks. In
October, Lewis (32-1) exhibited the firepower of a dreadnought
in knocking out Andrew Golota 95 seconds into their fight. The
next month Briggs (30-1) dreaded entering the ring with George
Foreman, saying, "I thought I was going into the death chair."
In the bout (below), Briggs won by questionable decision.
Something for Lewis's backers to dread: He might be looking past
this match to a belt-unifying bout with WBA and IBF champion
Evander Holyfield. Briggs fears taking too many punches:
"Sometimes I think to myself, Damn, I don't speak as well as I
used to."
HBO, 10 PM
Sunday 3/29
GOLF
Nabisco Dinah Shore
A quiz to prepare you for the final round of the first major of
the LPGA tour season. 1) Minnie Driver is a) a five-wood, b) the
love interest in Good Will Hunting. 2) True or false: Laura
Davies is the younger sister of British rockers Dave and Ray
Davies and often refers to herself as "the missing Kink." 3) The
Swede who's leading the tour in wins thus far in 1998 is a)
Annika Sorenstam, b) Helen Alfredsson, c) Is ABBA back? Answers:
1) b, 2) false, 3) b. Alfredsson, 32, who won this event five
years ago, has finally recovered from a chronic right hamstring
injury. In the last two months she has doubled her career
victory total to four, with wins at The Office Depot and the
Welch's/Circle K Championship.
ABC, 4 PM
Tuesday 3/31
BASEBALL
Opening Day
Holy cow! Break up the Marlins! The Brewers are playing out of
their league! (He what? They did? They are?) While baseball
mourns the loss of Harry Caray, Florida laments the breakup of
its World Series-winning nucleus, and American League teams
bemoan mediocre Milwaukee's move to the senior circuit, we cheer
a quintet of Opening Day games. ESPN's tripleheader has the
Royals at the Orioles (3 p.m.), the Indians visiting Ken Griffey
Jr. (right) and the Mariners (7 p.m.), and the Rockies at the
Diamondbacks (10 p.m.) in Arizona's inaugural game. TBS will
show the Brewers against the Braves (4 p.m.). On WGN, Harry's
grandson Chip carries on the Caray broadcasting line when
Chicago visits Florida (4:30 p.m.).
Thursday 4/2
FIGURE SKATING
World Championships
You say Lipinski, I say Lewinsky
You say Kwiatkowski, I say Lebowski
Lipinski, Lewinsky, Kwiatkowski, Lebowski
Let's call the whole thing off
Olympic gold medalist and reigning world champion Tara Lipinski,
who recently had two abscessed teeth pulled, pulled herself out
of the competition in Minneapolis. Compatriot Tonia Kwiatkowski
will replace Lipinski and bid to become the seventh skater to
win the worlds in as many years. Among the men expected to
compete in tonight's free skate, look for the U.S.'s Todd
Eldredge, a disappointing fourth in Japan, to be primed for
battle against gold medalist Ilia Kulik of Russia.
ABC, 8 PM; SATURDAY, 8 PM (LADIES' FREE SKATE)
COLOR PHOTO: MANNY MILLAN [Shammond Williams in game]
COLOR PHOTO: JOHN IACONO [Shannon Briggs and George Foreman boxing]
COLOR PHOTO: LENNY IGNELZI/AP [Ken Griffey Jr.]
THE ! ZAPPER
The final minute of the Utah-West Virginia nail-biter in the
NCAA regional semifinals last Thursday dragged on for nine
minutes in real time partly because it was saturated with 4 1/2
minutes of ads. A week earlier, the last minute of the
first-round game between Iona and Syracuse took 13:01, loaded as
it was with 6:45 of commercials. By contrast, Sunday's tight
Duke-Kentucky regional final had no spots in its last minute,
which may be why it provided some of the tournament's most
scintillating viewing.
ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.