Nantz

Just about everything CBS Sports president Sean McManus has touched in 2 1/2 years at the helm has turned to gold, but it's time that he made one more change: getting college basketball analyst Billy Packer some help.As college basketball ratings have slipped over the past few years, CBS officials have pointed to a variety of factors, from the glut of games on the air, to stronger competition, to a large viewing of games at bars and in college dorms.But, sooner or later, CBS is going to have to acknowledge that its presentation has something to do with the drop and act accordingly.

It's time for a quick quiz. Name the current broadcast network sportscasting duo that has been together the longest.The answer? Fox's Pat Summerall and John Madden, who have been teamed for 18 years now.OK, here's a little tougher one. Who's in second?Time's up, and the answer might surprise you. It's CBS' college basketball team of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, who will call their ninth Final Four together this weekend from St. Petersburg, Fla.In Nantz's mind, the secret of their longevity is in the listening.

If the American Olympic viewing audience was measuring the performance of prime-time anchor Jim Nantz against his CBS predecessors, Nantz would win hands down, for the people who have sat in his chair for the Eye were darn near indistinguishable.(In fact, without looking down further in this space, here's a challenge: Name two or even one of the three people who anchored CBS' Winter Olympics coverage in 1992 and 1994. Answer below.)Unfortunately for Nantz, his competition in the American consciousness is Jim McKay, who anchored ABC's Olympics coverage for 20 years with a warmth and charm that few broadcasters have ever captured.

If there's anyone who knows what a good Olympic television anchor is supposed to be, it's Jim McKay, whose warmth, sincerity and intelligence guided American audiences through two decades of coverage.And from his living room, both in his winter home in Florida and in his usual residence in Maryland, McKay says CBS' prime-time anchor, Jim Nantz, who has drawn some criticism for being a bit aloof, is doing just fine."He's one of the most sincere guys I've ever met in my life. He's really hit his stride, and he's hit it well," said McKay.

Admittedly, being grateful for having a network NFL telecast to work on doesn't quite stack up to the more profound currents that run through most of our lives, like home, health and family, but Jim Nantz is nonetheless thankful today to be back in the NFL game."

It's difficult, if not impossible, to run away from your past, and CBS didn't even try yesterday as it returned to the NFL after a four-year absence.At the top of the new "NFL Today" pre-game show, the network aired a montage of its storied football history with footage of Pat Summerall, John Madden, Jack Buck, Vin Scully, Brent Musburger, Phyllis George and Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, all parts -- good or bad -- of CBS' four decades of NFL telecasts.The...

When asked if CBS' new golf coordinating producer, Lance Barrow, will bring a noticeable change to the way the network televises the sport, anchor Jim Nantz turns the question on the questioner, giving a list of five sites from last season and asking him to pick the one Barrow didn't produce.The point of Nantz's exercise is that as Barrow eases into the producer's chair left vacant with the semiretirement of Frank Chirkinian, the golf viewer should notice no difference in the way CBS approaches the game as it begins its 1997 schedule this weekend with third- and fourth-round coverage of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Amid all the tumult, trials and tribulations that have swept over the CBS Sports operation in the past few years, the one rock of consistency has been Jim Nantz.And when Kentucky and Syracuse battle for the NCAA men's national basketball championship tonight (Channel 13, 9 p.m.), Nantz again will be at the core of what is the network's signature sports event as the symbol of CBS, in much the same fashion that Bob Costas is at NBC, or Al Michaels is at ABC."I'm very comfortable with that role or perception.

NEW YORK -- Like the groundhog, Rick Gentile, temporarily the most important man in America, only occasionally poked his head out of the mini-control room off to the side of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center here yesterday.And like the furry animal whose presence indicates an end to winter, the appearance of Gentile, with his curly salt-and-pepper hair stuffed inside a Final Four cap, meant all was well with CBS' NCAA tournament coverage."We had a good day. We just didn't have any buzzer-beaters," said Gentile, CBS Sports senior vice president of production, and the man who heads the team that decides when the Connecticut-Colgate blowout your local station has been assigned becomes the Stanford-Bradley game.

The TV Repairman:No matter what kind of a weekend Billy Packer and Jim Nantz have calling the NCAA tournament tomorrow and Monday night, an Emmy should be set aside immediately for the pair for an unwritten rule they have lived by since becoming the premier CBS college hoops voices."

Writing another week's sports media notes because management said I would be fired if I interviewed for a job as an American Idol judge: * On Showtime's Inside the NFL this week, Jim Nantz and his CBS partner, Phil Simms, debated the NFL's overtime rule. In the wake of the Indianapolis Colts-San Diego Chargers result - with the Chargers scoring on their initial possession of overtime - Nantz said it's unfair that both teams don't get a chance on offense. Simms disagreed, in fact citing the Ravens in his argument.

Heads turned when CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric, Orioles owner Peter Angelos and network sportscasters Bob Costas and Jim Nantz walked to their seats yesterday at the funeral service for Jim McKay. Also there, melting into a back pew, was Jeff Jerome. Who? "I'm nobody. I just wanted to pay my respects," said Jerome, of Annapolis, as he left the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. "There are a lot of big names here; I'm just part of the common folk who never met Jim McKay but who grew up watching him on TV. "I always felt like he was talking to me. He was a friend, and I wanted to be part of his going away.

Unfurling another week's sports media notes while trying to convince my wife that the plastic shopping bags lodged in our bushes and trees are just as aesthetically pleasing in their own way as the azaleas of Augusta National: If Ian Poulter earns himself a green jacket Sunday, you can count on Jim Nantz telling you something about Poulter that you didn't know. (Of course, being that I don't know Ian Poulter from Ian Hunter, it wouldn't be hard to tell me something I didn't know about the golfer.

Game coverage Grades Announcers: B, production: B+ It seemed Jim Nantz was in for a great Super Bowl at the start. With the opening kickoff by Indianapolis in the air, he told CBS' audience that the Colts have had trouble covering kicks all season. And, boom, there went Devin Hester zipping off for a Chicago Bears touchdown. "That's what happens when you're so worried about Devin Hester you don't react," analyst Phil Simms said. The pair didn't keep up with the fast start, but turned in a strong effort with a glitch or two. When Reggie Wayne got wide open for the Colts' first touchdown, it took forever until we got an explanation.

Jim Nantz has become such a ubiquitous presence over the 22 years he has been with CBS Sports that somehow it doesn't sound right to hear that Sunday marks his first Super Bowl play-by-play assignment. But Nantz apparently isn't approaching the task weighed down by the gravity of being the voice for television's most-watched show. "I'm going into this thinking one way," Nantz said in a conference call this week. "I'm going to watch a football game Sunday with one of my friends." In this case, his friend is analyst Phil Simms, and 130 million or so people will be listening in on their conversation.

Only the best teams make it into the NFL playoffs. And so the same should be said of the announcing teams assigned by the three networks - CBS, Fox and NBC - carrying the postseason. Just as the clubs are seeded, here are the rankings of the six broadcaster pairings. (For any sideline reporter fans out there, you may think I'm slighting them. You would be right. No offense to the likes of Pam Oliver and Tony Siragusa, but telecasts generally sound better the longer we go without word from down on the field - the reports interrupt the flow and usually add little that couldn't be handled in the booth.

Time to share a few thoughts after losing count of how many times Billy Packer called Florida's players "long" during CBS' Final Four telecasts: ESPN's Bonds on Bonds, in its first episode, ended up being as sympathetic toward embattled slugger Barry Bonds as one would expect of a production controlled by him. ESPN shouldn't be giving Bonds a forum nor have a business relationship with him for this show, and many inside the network apparently feel the...

CBS really does a brutal job with the post-game interviews at the NCAA title game. As we in the press work room gathered around the televisions to watch the interviews - unfortunately, because those are often the only quotes we can get into the paper by deadline - we saw and heard Jim Nantz and Billy Packer drone on with ultra-long questions to coach Billy Donovan and listened to his slow, deliberate answers. The players, meanwhile, were gathered around them, goofing off, making crazy exclamations and showing the kind of joy you'd expect the newly crowned college champs to make, the sort of thing you think America would enjoy seeing and hearing.

It's just a few minutes among the hours of NCAA tournament-related programming on CBS, but funny how much weight Selection Sunday comments can carry - even through the first weekend of play. During a conference call this week featuring the network's lead announcing team of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, much of the talk was about their reaction almost two weeks ago to the men's basketball field selected by the NCAA, in particular their questioning of four teams from the Missouri Valley Conference.

Jim Nantz had just a small reminder for the media gathered telephonically to talk about the AFC championship game. Hey, folks, there are two teams in this game. On Tuesday's conference call with CBS' No. 1 NFL announcing team, Nantz and Phil Simms, Nantz noted that, about a half-hour into the question session, no one had asked anything about the Denver Broncos. It was Pittsburgh Steelers this, Ben Roethlisberger that. "Denver doesn't seem to catch anybody's interest," Nantz said. Which raises the question about the attractiveness of Broncos-Steelers as opposed to the more easily hyped Indianapolis Colts-New England Patriots - if those teams had cooperated by winning last weekend.