CBS Finishes With Flourish

If Monday's men's NCAA championship game marked the end of CBS' 29-year run with the tournament, let it be said that the network gave viewers one shining moment of a broadcast.

Of course, it didn't hurt that Duke and Butler played a game for the ages, the ball in the air at the horn with the title on the line, but CBS was up for the challenge from start to finish.

This may have been play-by-play man Jim Nantz's best championship game call, and it came, ironically, in a year where he did his fewest games, essentially getting a bye from doing regular-season telecasts and parachuting in for the tournament.

Unlike Saturday, when he muffed the score late in the Butler-Michigan State semifinal, Nantz was in command, and never attempted to make himself larger than the moment.

Meanwhile, Nantz's partner (and we know that because they kept calling each other that all night) Clark Kellogg was spectacular, identifying the need for Butler to stay within hailing distance of Duke. Kellogg brings an analyst's wisdom as well as a fan's wonder, the latter a quality his predecessor, Billy Packer, could only dream of possessing.

The CBS studio crew -- host Greg Gumbel and analysts Greg Anthony and Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated -- is awfully good. Gumbel is a consummate traffic cop, while Davis and Anthony are sharp.

In the production truck, director Bob Fishman and producer Bob Dekas, who have been together now for 25 years, were on the money with timely shots and replays, especially at least five different looks at Gordon Hayward's last-second heave.

One complaint, though: the overhead camera adds little for the viewer used for live action. Here's hoping, should the NCAA come to its senses and keep the tournament at CBS that Dekas and Fishman will restrict the use of that camera to telestrator work for Kellogg.

Also, it's astounding that CBS had two shots at Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, once before the game with reporter Tracy Wolfson and then postgame with Nantz on the podium, and didn't ask him about reports that the incoming owner of the New Jersey Nets was gearing up to offer him a coach/general manager contract worth $12-15 million per year.

Though Krzyzewski denied interest in the Nets job through a spokesman, CBS should have asked him, even if he channeled Roy Williams with his response.

And while Jennifer Hudson's ballyhooed rendition of "One Shining Moment" was powerful and all, we really could have stood more highlights and less music video moments of Hudson.


Andrews Won't Back Down

ESPN reporter Erin Andrews is vowing to remain as a contestant on "Dancing With The Stars," despite the revelation of death threats that were made against her last fall.

Andrews told People magazine Monday that she wanted to continue on because to do otherwise would hurt others in her life as well as herself.

"I'm glad I'm here," Andrews said. "I have a dance on Monday and I don't want to let Maks (partner Maksiom Chmerkovskiy) down, I don't want to let my family down, and I don't want to let myself down. I'm not going to stop living my life."

While you certainly have to respect Andrews' pluck, you do also have to wonder if it wouldn't be prudent for her to take some time off away from the media spotlight to let things cool down before resuming her duties in the fall when the college football season starts up.

Given the public stalking incident she endured, added, now, to ongoing death threats, no reasonable person would begrudge Erin Andrews for wanting to have a nice quiet spring and summer.

Tiger Rules

What we learned from Tiger Woods' 30-or-so minute press conference was precious little, beyond what he had to say about his use of HGH and PEDs.

We also learned that, with the enabling help of his friends at Augusta National, Woods has passed a critical juncture in the story of his return.

Specifically, from this point forward, virtually any attempt on the part of the media to question Woods about not only the events of last Thanksgiving night, but issues arising from it will likely backfire on the questioner and the media in general.

In other words, Woods has become, to a certain degree, a sympathetic figure. In the perception of many, he has now stood before cameras three times -- once to issue a statement, the second time to talk to ESPN and the Golf Channel, and the third at Augusta.

It doesn't matter to the public that access to each of those settings was remarkably controlled, and thus, Woods didn't face tough questioning. In golf parlance, Woods got a par on 17 and is heading for 18 for the win.