Now that the NCAA tournament selections have been made, it’s time to speculate what games will be made available to our local television audience — this is a little game we TV writers like to play.
These are the games I expect WCBS-2 in New York will air on Thursday and Friday.
Thursday
Start with Florida-Brigham Young at 12:20 p.m., but we’ll likely be switched to Villanova-Robert Morris at 12:30. The second game is a real toss-up, so I will lean to Kansas State-North Texas at about 2:45 p.m. The Butler-Texas El Paso game will be aired on CBS College Sports shortly before 5 p.m.
On Thursday evening, my hope is we get Kentucky-East Tennessee State at 7:15, but my guess is we’ll get Georgetown-Ohio instead at 7:25. Frankly, the best game would be Marquette-Washington at 7:20. The second game will be Kansas-Lehigh at about 9:35, although I would expect the Jayhawks will run away with it so we should see plenty of Texas-Wake Forest.
Friday
On Friday afternoon, we’ll start with West Virginia-Morgan State at 12:15 and should stay with it, although there is appeal to Temple-Cornell at 12:30, especially with CBS’ top announce team of Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg on hand. The second game will likely be Pittsburgh-Oakland at about 2:50 p.m., though Clemson-Missouri would be fun to watch, and Purdue-Siena has local Metro Atlantic appeal. The Texas A&M-Utah State game at 5 p.m. will air on CBS College Sports.
On Friday evening, we’ll start with Gonzaga-Florida State at 7:10 but expect to see Duke against Winthrop or Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 7:25 — frankly, I’d rather see Oklahoma State-Georgia Tech or Michigan State-New Mexico State. The second telecast will be Syracuse-Vermont at 9:35, but if the Orange run away we may see more of California-Louisville and Maryland-Houston.
Here are the CBS announcer lineups for the eight regional sites:
Oklahoma City – Kevin Harland/Dan Bonner (Florida-BYU, Kansas State-North Texas, UNLV-Northern Iowa, Kansas-Lehigh)
New Orleans – Dick Enberg/Jay Bilas (Notre Dame-Old Dominion, Baylor-Sam Houston, Kentucky-East Tennessee State, Texas-Wake Forest)
Providence – Verne Lundquist/Bill Raftery (Villanova-Robert Morris, Richmond-Saint Mary’s, Georgetown-Ohio, Tennessee-San Diego State)
San Jose – Spero Dedes/Bob Wenzel (Vanderbilt-Murray State, Butler-UTEP, Marquette-Washington, New Mexico-Montana)
Buffalo – Gus Johnson/Len Elmore (West Virginia-Morgan State, Clemson-Missouri, Gonzaga-Florida State, Syracuse-Vermont)
Milwaukee – Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel (Xavier-Minnesota, Pittsburgh-Oakland, Oklahoma State-Georgia Tech, Ohio State-Cal Santa Barbara)
Jacksonville – Jim Nantz/Clark Kellogg (Temple-Cornell, Wisconsin-Wofford, Duke-Winthrop/Ark. Pine Bluff, California-Louisville)
Spokane – Tim Brando/Mike Gminski (Purdue-Siena, Texas A&M-Utah State, Michigan State-New Mexico State, Maryland-Houston)
