TV-RADIO : Loyola Quickly Becoming Star of NCAA Show

How big is Loyola Marymount basketball these days?

Consider:

--The Lions will make their third consecutive live appearance on CBS Friday night when they play Alabama in an NCAA West Regional semifinal. Tipoff is 5:25 p.m., PST.

--CBS has assigned its top announcing team, Brent Musburger and Billy Packer, to this game.

--Bo Kimble, who was on radio station KFI for 45 minutes Sunday night, also made a live appearance on KTLA at 10:40, then went a few blocks down Sunset Boulevard to KCBS for another live appearance with Keith Olbermann. Kimble was on “AM Los Angeles” Monday morning, and later in the day a CNN crew was filming him at the Loyola campus.

--Jeff Fryer and Per Stumer were on live with KABC’s Jim Hill Sunday night.

--The Lions’ amazing 149-115 victory over Michigan drew an impressive 8.2 Nielsen rating in Los Angeles, compared to a 7.9 for UCLA’s one-point win over Kansas. On Friday, UCLA-Alabama Birmingham at 4 p.m. got a 4.1 rating, Loyola-New Mexico State at 8:30 a 7.2. Did you ever think you’d see the day when Loyola basketball outdrew UCLA?

Add ratings: KCBS does make a sacrifice when it preempts “Dallas” and “Falcon Crest” in favor of college basketball. The previous week, those shows drew ratings of 9.4 and 8.3, respectively.

The Loyola-Alabama game is one of the four regional semifinals on KCBS Thursday and Friday.

The Thursday lineup will be North Carolina-Arkansas at 5:10 p.m., followed by UCLA-Duke. James Brown and Bill Raftery will announce the first game and Dick Stockton and Hubie Brown the second.

Following Loyola-Alabama Friday night will be Nevada Las Vegas-Ball State, with Musburger and Packer also announcing that game.

ESPN is now out of the NCAA tournament picture. After 11 years, it ended last week.

CBS handles all the coverage from here on out, and, under a new seven-year contract that goes into effect next season, CBS will be the only outlet for NCAA tournament games.

That’s good news only for those who don’t have cable.

Although CBS says it will cover everything, there’s no way it can do the job ESPN has done.

CBS just doesn’t have switching down pat the way ESPN does.

On Saturday, CBS should have left the Michigan State-UC Santa Barbara game for North Carolina’s stunning upset of Oklahoma.

A spokeswoman for CBS said that the switch wasn’t made in Southern California because CBS considers UCSB a home team.

“We would have angered UCSB fans had we left that game,” the spokeswoman said. “It’s a no-win situation.”

However, there’s no question the vast majority of viewers would have preferred seeing at least the end of North Carolina-Oklahoma.

Also on Saturday, viewers were yearning to see the end of Arkansas-Dayton, as well as other highlights.

Sunday, you didn’t expect CBS to leave Loyola’s memorable game for long, but just a peek at the end of Xavier’s upset of Georgetown would have been a big plus.

CBS needs to pick ESPN’s brains and see how ESPN is able to make so many switches, keeping viewers on top of everything.

ESPN has spoiled viewers and now they won’t accept anything less.

Also, CBS, as crazy as this might sound, should consider stealing Dick Vitale away from ESPN to work the studio during the NCAA tournament.

Mike Francesa seems somewhat knowledgeable, but he’s simply too bland.

Nobody will ever accuse Vitale of being bland. Other things, yes, but never bland. And the time confinements of studio work tone down Vitale just enough.

TV-Radio Notes

If it was a great weekend for college basketball, it was not a bad one for boxing, either. The Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor bout on HBO lived up to its billing and then some. But HBO will not have a replay. ABC owns those rights, and will show it as part of “Wide World of Sports” on March 31. ABC will show a John Mugabi-Terry Norris fight on the same program, but hopefully the network will block out as much time as possible for Chavez-Taylor.

Fred Roggin showed the end of the fight on his Sunday night wrapup show, and, according to HBO executive producer Ross Greenburg, that was permissible since HBO doesn’t own the replay rights. “I sure wish we did,” Greenburg said. “I was thinking we did until I looked over and saw (ABC’s) Dan Dierdorf and Alex Wallau at ringside, which reminded me we didn’t.” . . . HBO is on a boxing hot streak, having brought you Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson last month. The pay-cable network’s next fight is Michael Nunn-Marlon Starling April 14 at the Mirage in Las Vegas. And they say things happen in threes.

Greg Gumbel will interview Pete Rose this morning live on “CBS This Morning.” The interview is scheduled for shortly after 7:30 a.m. . . . Speaking of Gumbel, one thing he needs to improve on as a play-by-play announcer is giving the score more. Of course, that is a common flaw. Also, keeping up with Loyola isn’t easy. . . . Quotebook: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, asked by Channel 7’s Jim Hill why he continues with his yoga classes, quipped: “When I get as old as you Jim, I want to be as good-looking as you.”