SI View The Week in TV Sports
Highlights
SATURDAY 3/25
Galaxy at United
ABC 2 PM Bobby Convey may already have sewed up next year's Most
Likely to Succeed award at Philadelphia's William Penn Charter
High School. Last month Convey, a 16-year-old junior, signed
with the three-time MLS champion D.C. United and became the
youngest player in league history. The precocious midfielder,
who doesn't have a driver's license yet, is living at the home
of team president Kevin Payne and, we assume, goes to bed at
whatever hour the president of the United states. Today's game
is a rematch of last autumn's MLS Cup, in which D.C. beat Los
Angeles 2-0.
NCAA Men's Regional Finals
CBS 4:30 PM and 7 PM UConn? You gone! Buckeyes, bye-bye.
Cincinnati, WRIP. Sayo-najera, Oklahoma. Purdue's Brian Cardinal
survived, but the Stanford Cardinal didn't, while in Tucson
folks now know that there's another seven-letter word for a West
region Sweet 16 school containing the letters A, Z, O, N and A.
(Gonzaga, of course.) A tornado of upsets ravaged Bracketville
last weekend, sweeping away much of its upper crust and leaving
only a few bluebloods--Duke, North Carolina and UCLA--standing.
After play today and on Sunday (CBS, 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.), the
field will be winnowed down to the Final Four.
WEDNESDAY 3/29
McDonald's All-American Game
ESPN 8 PM Tonight at Boston's Fleet Center, Neil Fingleton will
be one All-American who is not American. Fingleton, 7'6" and
22.14 stone (that's 310 pounds), is a native of Great Britain
who took up basketball four years ago. This season at Holy Name
Central Catholic in Worcester, Mass., the North Carolina-bound
center averaged 23.0 points and 13.0 rebounds. This pilgrim's
game may flower in Chapel Hill, which is cruel irony for Duke
fans: Fingleton's hometown in England is Durham.
FRIDAY 3/31
NCAA Women's Final Four
ESPN 7 PM Katie Couric's colonoscopy notwithstanding, tonight's
doubleheader from Philadelphia provides the toughest televised
distaff gut check of the season. Like Today's unsinkable anchor,
two schools, Connecticut and Tennessee, ruled during the 1990s.
However, for all the Huskies' success, only once--in '95--did
they advance to the final. At week's end UConn, with its stellar
backcourt of Sue Bird and Shea Ralph, was expected to reach the
semis. The real question: Would the top-ranked Huskies have not
only the talent but also the intestinal fortitude to make it to
the April 2 final (ESPN, 9 p.m.)?
ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
COLOR PHOTO: STEPHEN GREEN
Don't Miss
WEDNESDAY 3/29
Cubs vs. Mets from Japan
Fox SPORTS NET 5 AM A misfit band of ursine ballplayers travel
to the Far East for a game or two? Wait, we've seen this before:
The Bad News Bears Go to Japan. That was 1978; this time,
Samurai Sammy (above) and the Cubs, with Don Baylor reprising
the Tony Curtis role as the team's new manager, trek to Tokyo
and incite Japandemonium by opening the 2000 major league season
against the Mets. The thrill of the major leagues' first
official game outside the Americas will be diluted by its being
played indoors (the Tokyo Dome) and on artificial turf. New York
is the "home" team today; Chicago gets that honor on Thursday
(same time, same network).
the zapper
CART's season-opening Marlboro Grand Prix begins at 2 p.m. on
Sunday, but ESPN will telecast it on tape delay at 4:30 p.m.
Why? Well, the network also has the rights to the NASCAR Food
City 500, for which the green flag drops at 1 p.m.--and stock
cars grab bigger ratings than Indy Cars. CART driver Dario
Franchitti can empathize with his association's also-ran status.
His girlfriend, Ashley Judd, will miss the Marlboro Grand Prix
because of a commitment 2,338 miles away: that evening's Academy
Awards, where she's a presenter. Talk about double jeopardy....
ESPN will show the NIT (Not Interested Tournament) semifinals
(Tuesday, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.) and final (Thursday, 7 p.m.).