Courtesy San Francisco Examiner

(March 16, 2009) With the NCAA men’s basketball tournament around the corner, that means it’s CBS Final Four time on your dial. CBS, which will broadcast the tournament for the 28th consecutive year, begins its live coverage Thursday and it will conclude on April 6 with the national championship game from Ford Field in Detroit.

Yes, that is the same Ford Field that houses the hapless Lions.

The broadcast and the presentation have gone through some significant changes of late. Gone is the opinionated, and at times controversial, Billy Packer. His contract was not renewed in the offseason after calling an unprecedented 27 straight championship games.

His Final Four gig now is a Fox SportsNet show (which is broadcast on Comcast SportsNet locally) called “Survive and Advance.”

This will be a series of hoops shows live from Las Vegas, commenting and breaking down the tournament. He will rely on many of his coaching and ex-coaching friends to be guests. This will probably be horrible, because Packer is an analyst, not a host.

Clark Kellogg, the articulate, bright, well-spoken studio analyst for many years at CBS, will take over for Packer as the CBS’ lead analyst. Kellogg will not be as critical or opinionated as Packer, but viewers will enjoy his comments and technical knowledge of the game. Jim Nantz will once again be the lead play-by-play man. This will be Nantz’s 24th Final Four.

The versatile and likeable Gregg Gumbel will host the studio show along with Seth Davis and newcomer, former NBA player Greg Anthony. The studio show during the tournament is a major part of the broadcast. It keeps the action moving for the audience as they segue from game to game.

Bob Dekas is the co-coordinating producer of CBS’ NCAA basketball coverage, while Bob Fishman is the lead director. Eric Mann is the senior producer and the head honcho over the studio show. Dekas and Fishman prepare years in advance for these telecasts.

The entire CBS on-air team is quite deep. Dick Enberg, Verne Lundquist, Kevin Harlan and Ian Eagle are all top level play-by-play announcers. Gus Johnson, who is a great talent not only on hoops, but also for CBS football, is also in that group. Jay Bilas and veteran Bill Raftery lead the team of analysts along with Kellogg. CBS has a wonderful stable of announcers that is first rate from top to bottom. I really enjoy listening to Nantz and am looking forward to hearing Kellogg create his own niche.

This is a great time of year for the sports fan and basketball junkie. Hopefully Cal, and maybe St. Mary’s, can get in the tournament, but neither will go very far. Although it is too early to predict an eventual winner, it is hard to bet against North Carolina not being in the Final Four. The other three entries are anybody’s guess. Sit back, listen, watch and enjoy this fun time of year.