SI View The Week in TV Sports
Highlights
SATURDAY 3/18
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament
CBS 1 PM, 3 PM, 5:30 PM and 8 PM Center Kenyon Martin's broken
fibula should sideline pretournament favorite Cincinnati before
the field is winnowed to eight schools by Friday night. With
Martin gone, we can only agree even more emphatically with Dickie
V that superb guard play is the indispensable ingredient in
March. That's why schools such as Arizona, with Gilbert Arenas
and Jason Gardner, and Temple, with Pepe Sanchez, are penciled in
on so many experts' fourth-round brackets. CBS's telecasts
continue on Sunday (noon, 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.) and on Thursday
and Friday (7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m each night).
NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament
ESPN2 10 PM; ESPN Midnight Chez Ralph? Shea Stadium? ACL U.?
Which pseudonym best fits Gampel Pavilion, home of the
Connecticut women's team and the most determined player in
college hoops, junior guard Shea Ralph? Having overcome two
anterior cruciate ligament operations, Ralph, the Big East
Player of the Year, will lead the top-ranked Huskies as they
play at home in the first and (barring a huge upset) second
round, which continues on ESPN and ESPN2 on Sunday and Monday.
MONDAY 3/20
Investigative Reports: Playing to Extremes
A&E 9 PM I HAVE NO LIFE--MY DAUGHTER PLAYS AAU BASKETBALL reads
the inscription on the back of a T-shirt worn by the mother of a
teenage athlete. This somewhat simplistic hourlong documentary,
hosted by Bill Kurtis, explores the question, Do parents have no
lives because of their children's year-round sports involvement,
or are kids devoting too much time to sports because their
parents have no lives? If only someone had posed that query to,
say, Stefano Capriati or Jim Pierce.
THURSDAY 3/23
Avalanche at Coyotes
ESPN2 10 PM Shazbat! Now Colorado boasts Mork and Bourque. Last
week five-time Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Ray Bourque, who
broke in with the Bruins in 1979--just a year after Mindy
McConnell of Boulder took in a stray Orkan--was sent to Denver in
hopes of at last winning a Stanley Cup. The former Bruin said
na-noo, na-noo to the Avalanche on March 8 in a win over the
Flames in which (not coincidentally) Colorado scored a
season-high eight goals. Through Sunday the Avalanche had 77
points in the standings and the Coyotes 78, lending urgency to
tonight's game in the Western Conference playoff picture.
ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Don't Miss
SUNDAY 3/19
Lakers at Knicks
NBC Noon In a recent three-day span Los Angeles dis-Smits'ed the
Pacers and sent the Heat into mourning--and through Sunday those
clubs were the best in the East. Meanwhile, in hopes of
maximizing media coverage, Oscar De La Hoya was thinking about
fighting at the Staples Center on June 17, the day between Games
6 and 7 of the NBA Finals--which assumes that an East team would
extend a series against the Lakers that far. Well, if anyone
could, it's New York. With Patrick Ewing (above) guarding
Shaquille O'Neal, and Latrell Sprewell D'ing up Kobe Bryant, we
love New York in June. Besides, at home the Knicks were 6-1 this
season against likely West playoff teams.
the zapper
On HBO's Real Sports (Monday, 10 p.m.) correspondent Bernard
Goldberg reports on Texas high school basketball player Tony
Limon, who was sentenced to five years in prison for elbowing an
opponent, breaking his nose. More disturbing, Limon alleges (and
an assistant coach substantiates) that his coach, Gary Durbon,
reacted to the hit by saying, "It's about time someone shed
blood."...Home Run Derby is back, back, back--only now it's
called Big League Challenge. Beginning on Monday (ESPN2, 5:30
p.m.) and continuing for the next nine weekdays, 12 top power
hitters will slug it out in taped shows. First up: Jose Canseco
versus Mike Piazza.
COLOR PHOTO: MANNY MILLAN