Tournament Games

DEAR CAL -- We were in a tournament game that ended in a tie. Obviously, with other games behind us, we couldn't have played until someone won. But other tournaments we've played in had a tiebreaker system where you start an extra inning with a runner at second, then each batter has a full count. It moves quickly, and usually within no more than a couple of quick innings, there's some resolution to the game. What do you think of games ending in ties, and of the tiebreaker system? Todd Pratt, Bethesda DEAR TODD -- As we've experienced at our tournaments in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and in Aberdeen, it is important to stay on schedule as much possible to make sure that everyone gets to play in an equal amount of complete games - especially during pool play.

In the latest in a series of stunning television rights negotiations, CBS yesterday agreed to an extension of the network's contract to carry the men's college basketball tournament that will pay the NCAA $6 billion over 11 years.The whopping contract will pay the NCAA more than $545 million annually, more than doubling CBS' current $247 million annual fee.CBS, which has held exclusive over-the-air rights to the tournament since 1982, beat back bids from Fox and Disney's ABC and ESPN to retain one of sports television's most valuable properties.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Gary Fedorochko isn't a fan who paints his body in team colors, wears zany wigs or cheers while shirtless in freezing weather.He's way beyond that.This from a guy who calls March a holy month, gives up dating, and drives and flies 15,000 miles cross country just to catch nearly two dozen college tournament basketball games in person.Last week Fedorochko went back and forth in North Carolina for the NCAA championships. This week he is bouncing from coast to coast for more.

College basketball's dominant conference was slighted yesterday when the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed.The 64-team field includes only four from the Atlantic Coast Conference, a 12-year low for a league that has produced more Final Four teams (10) and won more NCAA Tournament games (114) since 1985 than any other conference.Meanwhile, the Metro Atlantic received its first-ever at-large bid in the form of 25-4 Manhattan, which played only three teams from the field of 64: Colgate, Florida International and St. Peter's, lowly seeds all.Georgia Tech was the odd ACC team out. The Yellow Jackets (18-12)

Oakland, Calif. -- Slump.The word is not part of his vocabulary, or even part of his always-confident mind-set. But it's a word Maryland forward Keith Booth had heard often over the second half of the regular season."

Wake Forest, Oklahoma State, UMBC and downtown businesses were the big winners in the NCAA tournament's first visit to Baltimore.The Demon Deacons and Cowboys came out of the subregional and will meet in a Sweet 16 game Friday.The Baltimore Arena was converted back for an indoor soccer game last night, while UMBC assessed an effort that began four years ago, one that might get the Retrievers some attention in their attempt to find a better conference for an athletic program that has been in Division I for less than a decade.

Say this for the NCAA Division I women's basketball committee: It knows how to seed a tournament.Last year, 14 of the 16 teams to receive national seeds advanced to the regional semifinals. As Sweet 16 play opens tomorrow at four sites, 15 of 16 have cleared the first and second rounds.Looking for an answer? One plausible theory is that true parity still hasn't made its way to the women's game. The power conferences in women's basketball, the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences and the Pac-10, have nine of the Sweet 16 teams, and only one school, George Washington, is boldly going where it has never gone before, the regional semifinals.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Finally, Arkansas gets an opponent that feels even more unappreciated than the Razorbacks.Tired of the expectations that accompanied bringing back every starter from last year's champion, it's an ornery bunch of Razorbacks that will face Virginia in the Midwest Regional final at Kemper Arena today.The Razorbacks have been under the microscope all season, and the scrutiny has increased with three close calls in the NCAA tournament.The Cavaliers, meanwhile, lost their top player to a broken ankle five weeks ago, and have been hanging off to the side since the NCAA basketball committee seeded them fourth and thus deemed them the weakest of the four teams that shared first in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Call it Gary and Joe's Great NCAA Tournament Adventure. It's heading farther west to Oakland, Calif., for Thursday's West Regional semifinal against Connecticut.The return of Maryland coach Gary Williams to the sidelines here at the Huntsman Center, and the return of sophomore center Joe Smith to All-America form proved to be a rousing, if not routine, success for the third-seeded, 10th-ranked Terrapins.With Saturday night's 82-68 victory over Texas, Williams is now 2-0 since coming back from a bout with pneumonia.

SEATTLE -- It hadn't been a pleasurable tournament for Jalen Rose. Michigan's second-leading scorer a year ago and a huge reason why the Wolverines made it to the Final Four, Rose came to Seattle having been yanked in overtime of the team's second-round win over UCLA."

There needs to be a memo from the athletic director's office pronto. To: Gary, Brenda From: Debbie Re: Meeting in my office Let's get together this week and exchange some notes on coaching. I'll provide bagels. What an odd turn of events in College Park. These past several months, a hot spotlight has shone on the recruiting efforts surrounding Gary Williams and the Maryland men's basketball team. His in-game coaching abilities, however, were never in question. He's among the best in the nation.

In case you missed the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament games last weekend -- and most of you did miss them, because you don't get ESPNU -- Johns Hopkins, Navy and Maryland advanced to the quarterfinals. UMBC almost upset Virginia before falling, and Loyola hung tough before succumbing to No. 1 Duke. One of the questions we received upon arriving in the office this morning was: Why, with five area teams in the tournament, didn't any local stations carry games this weekend? The answer: They couldn't.

SPOKANE, Wash.-- --In March, every senior feels it. By this point, it's as much a fear as it is a reality. But Crystal Langhorne never even let on. Sure, it crossed her mind before the game, but there wasn't a single second last night anyone in Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena could have thought that Langhorne might be playing her final game. Langhorne was prepared to single-handedly carry the Maryland women's basketball team to victory over Vanderbilt, even though she didn't really have to. There were plenty of willing contributors in last night's win in the NCAA tournament's regional semifinal.

While the Coppin men were finding out yesterday who their opponent would be in their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1997, the women's team must wait until tonight to learn who and where they will be playing in their third trip to the tournament in four years. If recent history is any indication, that trip will most likely be as a No. 15 or 16 seed and include a first-round game against one of the nation's elite programs. The women's selection show is at 7 tonight on ESPN. Since the women's field expanded to 64 teams in 1994, first-round upsets have been hard to come by. Only one team seeded 14 or lower has advanced past the first round (Harvard, 1998.

DEAR CAL -- We were in a tournament game that ended in a tie. Obviously, with other games behind us, we couldn't have played until someone won. But other tournaments we've played in had a tiebreaker system where you start an extra inning with a runner at second, then each batter has a full count. It moves quickly, and usually within no more than a couple of quick innings, there's some resolution to the game. What do you think of games ending in ties, and of the tiebreaker system? Todd Pratt, Bethesda DEAR TODD -- As we've experienced at our tournaments in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and in Aberdeen, it is important to stay on schedule as much possible to make sure that everyone gets to play in an equal amount of complete games - especially during pool play.

ST. LOUIS -- A year ago, on a similar Sunday afternoon in a similar Midwestern domed arena, there was dancing and singing and jubilation. The Florida Gators had vanquished Villanova to reach the Final Four for the first time, and the midcourt scene came straight out of New Year's Eve. When it happened again yesterday, when the top-seeded Gators held off No. 3 seed Oregon, 85-77, in the Midwest Region final to earn a second consecutive trip to college basketball's...

COLLEGE PARK -- Practice for the Maryland men's basketball team doesn't officially begin until 10 tonight, but the campaign to return to the NCAA tournament after a two-year hiatus began yesterday. The verbal campaign, that is. "There's a lot of lobbying going on out there right now for the NCAA tournament that wasn't there before and we have to be part of that," Maryland coach Gary Williams said at his first preseason gathering with the media at Comcast Center. "We can't rest on the fact that the ACC has won more NCAA tournament games in the last 20 years than anyone else or that we have won more national championships than anyone else.

SECOND GAME No. 1 seed Virginia (15-0) vs. No. 5 Syracuse (10-4), 2 p.m. THREE THINGS TO WATCH Fans should watch the time during the break between games and make sure to be seated by the opening faceoff, since this has all the makings of an old-fashioned, high-scoring duel. Both teams love to run, and both are loaded with scoring weapons. Goalie play could go a long way toward deciding the winner. Virginia junior Kip Turner plays under the radar often, with the Cavaliers' offense grabbing so much attention, but he is one of the top goalkeepers in the game.

Are you taking time away from work to watch the NCAA tournament? We prefer the term "productivity enhancement breaks" to refer to our time Webcasting tournament games during business hours. Production goes up exponentially when our 14 seed selection wins on the 1 o'clock feed. Michael S. Herman Sr. Baldwin No way! It's sunny and 50, and it's time to play golf. I will watch the tournament games after golf and while I'm playing Texas Hold 'em with my buddies! Bob Mulreaney Timonium

It happens every March. It's early afternoon on a Thursday and one of the first batch of NCAA tournament games comes down to the final seconds. A crowd gathers around the office's lone TV, hanging from the wall in the corner. More cautious souls crane their necks to watch the action from their desks. Keyboards stop clicking. Phones ring unanswered. And college basketball has again halted the wheels of American commerce. Bosses beware, because it's about to get worse. For the first time this year, CBS Sports will offer free, live Internet streams of all tournament games.