Presenting this week's sports media notes while assuring you, dear reader, that at those rates, I was not Client 8:
Your boss doesn't want you watching the NCAA basketball tournament at work. I know this because USA Today featured the news - use of computer blocking technology - on its front page yesterday. Blame CBS for making the games even more available.
For the first time, every game - no blackouts - is available for free via March Madness on Demand (cbssports.com/mmod). And you could sign up (also free) for a "VIP Pass" that enables you to go to the front of the line when you log on, rather than waiting with all the other schlubs queued up to watch games on their computers. (By the time you read this, though, there might not be many passes left - it was 75 percent full by late yesterday afternoon.)
And just like all roads lead to Rome, all Web sites - some big ones, anyway - are leading to CBSSports.com. ESPN.com, SI.com, Yahoo, YouTube and Facebook are installing links to March Madness on Demand.
DirecTV customers get expanded coverage - four NCAA tournament channels. For highlights, cable TV subscribers can go to On Demand, which will be updated throughout the tournament.
Oh, and you can watch games on CBS television.
Sunday's NCAA selection show airs on CBS (WJZ/Channel 13 and WUSA/Channel 9) at 6 p.m., with the usual suspects. But just think how much more interesting it might be to make that The Usual Suspects, with Kevin Spacey debating Villanova's fate with Clark Kellogg and Billy Packer.
Bob Knight's initial appearance on ESPN Wednesday didn't create any headlines. His deskmates - Digger Phelps and Rece Davis - were deferential, and Knight often spoke in general terms about getting teams ready for the postseason. The Hall of Fame coach is no fan of conference tournaments, and in one segment he talked about giving bench players a lot of playing time in a first-round tournament game. (The Big Ten had a tournament during only his last three years at Indiana.)
Knight said (according to highlights from ESPN): "I voted against [a Big Ten tournament] every year that we had it, so maybe that's why we didn't play very well in it. I've never been in favor of the postseason tournaments because I've always felt that the conference championship over whatever it is - 16 or 18 games - is a tremendous accomplishment for a team, and why put them through something else?"
