Working her 18th NCAA tournament as a CBS director, Suzanne Smith wields the ultimate TV remote as she sits alongside producer Bob Mansbach. On a second-by-second basis, the only woman serving as a director or producer on CBS' NCAA coverage cuts between camera shots.

After graduating in 1980 from Temple, where she had its first female volleyball scholarship and studied broadcasting, Smith joined CBS as a production assistant. At her first CBS NCAA tournament, she did things such as round up out-of-town newspaper clips for announcers to peruse. Her success, she says, "has been more about hard work than gender. … If you watch games, you won't be able to tell if the director was male or female."

CBS airs plenty of NCAA sideline shots — showing longtime coaches that might be more recognizable to casual fans than the players are — and crowd shots of face-painted fanatics. "You want to get the correct balance of on-court and off. There's all that emotion in the NCAA; that's what you want to show," she says.

Like maybe staying on a heartbroken player who misses a buzzer-beater rather than immediately cutting to cheering winners. "They'll still be cheering in 10 seconds, or even 10 minutes," she says.