Jim Nantz, who'll be handling the play-by-play, was, of course, a KSL-Channel 5 sportscaster before he joined CBS in 1985. He's been the network's lead college basketball guy since 1990 and remains one of the best sportscasters in the business.

And this year he'll be teamed with Clark Kellogg, whose younger brother, Eric, played basketball at BYU in 1985.

OK, I know that's a ridiculously tenuous tie to Utah. But the point of interest here is that Kellogg will be sitting next to Nantz, and Billy Packer won't.

Packer was both extremely popular and extremely unpopular. It wasn't so much his performance during games that made him enemies, it was his other comments.

Some of that was simply because fans are fans. And they didn't like Packer expressing his opinions. Like when he criticized teams, conferences, the NCAA Selection Committee and so on.

Some of it was rather ridiculous, like an out-of-left field charge of racism.

And part of it was because Packer could, at times, come off as an obnoxious know-it-all.