==Highlights from this weekend's TV schedule of conference tournament games to monitor:

Today:
9 a.m. and 11 a.m., ESPN: Big Ten quarterfinals (Brent Musburger, Steve Lavin)
9 a.m. and 11 a.m., ESPN2: ACC quarterfinals (Mike Patrick, Jimmy Dykes)
1:45 p.m., ESPN2: Patriot League championship (Dave O'Brien, Bob Valvano)
4 p.m. and 6 p.m., ESPN: Big East semifinals (Dan Shulman, Len Elmore)
4 p.m., ESPN2: ACC quarterfinal (Brad Nessler, Dykes)
6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., FSN West: Pac-10 semifinals (Ted Robinson, Marques Johnson and Jim Watson)
8 p.m., ESPNU: Big West second semifinal (with Cal State Northridge) (Eric Collins and Dave Kaplan)
10 p.m., ESPNU: Big West first semifinal (tape delayed)

Saturday:
8:30 a.m., Channel 2: Conference USA semifinals (Dick Enberg and Bob Wenzel)
9 a.m., ESPN2: America East championship (Bob Wischusen and Mike Kelley)
10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., ESPN: ACC semifinals (Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale)
10:40 a.m. and 12:50 p.m., Channel 2: Big Ten semifinals (Jim Nantz and Billy Packer)
11 a.m., ESPN2: Big 12 championship (Ron Franklin and Fran Fraschilla)
3 p.m., Channel 2: Pac-10 championship (Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner)
3 p.m., ESPN: Atlantic 10 championship (Dave O'Brien and Stephen Bardo)
4 p.m., Versus: Moutain West championship (Tim Neverett and Tim McCormick)
4 p.m., ESPN2: Mid American Conference championship (Jon Sciambi and Mark Adams)
4 p.m., ESPNU: SWAC championship (Doug Greengard and Sedric Toney)
5 p.m., ESPN Classic: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship (Charlie Neal and Stan Lewter)
6 p.m., ESPN: Big East championship (Shulman, Elmore)
6 p.m., ESPN2: WAC championship (Dave Pasch and Michael Holton)
8 p.m., ESPN2: Big West championship (Collins and Kaplan)

Sunday:
10 a.m., Channel 2: SEC championship (Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery)
10 a.m., ESPN: ACC championship (Patrick and Vitale)
10 a.m., ESPN2: Southland championship (Dave Barnett and Bucky Waters)
Noon, ESPN: Big 12 championship (Franklin and Franchilla)
12:30 p.m., Channel 2: Big Ten championship (Nantz and Packer)

==CBS' video on demand customized highlight clips of the men's tournament will be available on many media outlets, including the Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and Verizon cable systems.
“Given the competitive landscape video providers face, they must ‘wow’ their subscribers. Virtually every major video distributor is participating in this offering and they agree NCAA March Madness Highlights is the perfect marriage of technology and content,” said Bob Rose, Executive Vice President, Distribution CBS College Sports Network. “There are millions of fans who only have five minutes of free time, and now have a chance to watch the highlights they crave when and how they want.”

==ESPN says its coverage of North Carolina's victory over Duke in the ACC regular-season final last Saturday set a record as the network's most-viewed men's college basketball game ever -- 3.83 million homes and 5.6 million viewers (a 4.0 rating). Two weeks ago, the game between then No. 1 Memphis and No. 2 Tennessee did 3.6 million homes and 5.2 million viewers (3.8 rating). CBS' coverage of Kansas-Kentucky (5.4 million viewers) in 2005 was the previous record of a regular-season game.

==It's our vow to avoid all Bob Knight appearances on ESPN, and let others do the critical analysis of his cottage cheese performance on Wedneday's opening night where he was wearing an actual ESPN sweater on the set.

==ABC has added the Lakers' game at Houston as a flex-schedule alternation (Sunday, 12:30 p.m.) with Mike Breen, Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy and Michele Tafoya. The first half of the doubleheader (10 a.m.) features New Orleans at Detroit (Mike Tirico, Hubie Brown and Lisa Salters).

==Check out the interview SI.com's Richard Deitsch does with Jason McIntyre, who has revealed himself as the co-creator and lead writer of TheBigLead.com. McIntyre, a former assistant news editor at US Weekly, freelanced for ESPN.com's Page 3 and ESPN The Magazine, as well as wrote sports for the Bergen Record and New Jersey Herald News. Asked if he considers himself a journalist, McIntyre: "In its traditional sense, I would say, yes. The Big Lead is journalism. We have some original reporting and other times we will just riff on a sporting event or a news story. But in the sense we don't have anyone looking over our shoulders -- we don't have any editors and there is no one to answer to -- that is not traditional journalism."

==Paul Sunderland and Brad Holland call the Division I and II boys high school state basketball championship games from Arco Arena in Sacramento on FSN Prime Ticket, starting with Mater Dei vs. Archbishop Mitty (tonight, 8 p.m. for Div II title) and then Dominguez vs. McClymonds (Saturday, 8 p.m., for the Div I title). Sunderland and Caren Horstmeyer do the girls' title games as well, with Mira Costa vs. Archbishop Mitty (tonight, 10 p.m. delayed, for Div. II title) and Long Beach Poly vs. Berkeley (Saturday, 6 p.m., live, for Div. I title). Christine Nubla is the sideline reporter for all four games. Steven Dorfman produces and Mark Wolfson directs the contests. KBCSports.com also has live audio of the games on the Internet.

==Not to confuse the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells with the Pacific Life Pac-10 Conference basketball tournament this weekend at Staples Center, but the insurance company (is that what it is, with that giant whale spouting off?) has this tennis thing going on for nine days of coveage on FSN West, starting Saturday at 11 a.m. (through 4 p.m.) with early round men's and women's play. ESPN had done this event, considered the biggest one outside the four Grand Slams, in the past, but FSN has planned for 52 hours of coverage through both finals on March 23 (noon to 5 p.m.). Former tour pros Justin Gimelstob and Chandra Rubin are the analysts for Barry Tompkins' play-by-play.

==Tiger Woods’ return to the golf course in a professional manner for his third and fourth tour event of the season is cause for celebration by NBC, which has counter programming for the college basketball junkie the next two weekends with the Arnold Palmer Invitational (Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.), followed by the WGC-CA Championship at Doral. Even better, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia are in the field this weekend.

Says NBC's Dan Hicks on the thought of Woods playing a "perfect season" -- that is, winning every event he plays in: "It's crazy that we're talking about a perfect season in golf. It's absolutely nuts. Is it going to happen? Probably not, and I think Tiger knows that. As long as he can keep this wave going, he'll ride it. He'll ride the possibility of that happening. He's the guy who alluded to it at the start of the season, that the Grand Slam was possible, and lo and behold look at where we are. The guy hasn't lost yet and has quite a streak going. If he wins at Bay Hill it's going to get ratcheted up even more. I think it really is silly to think about a perfect season, but Tiger has played so well and has done so many incredible things that here we are talking about it. We've probably all said something in our careers about something being impossible, and then Tiger has proved us wrong."

Adds NBC's Johnny Miller about Woods' game to this point: "As far as fire in the belly, there are some guys that definitely want it, it's just that Tiger not only wants it but he's got the talent to go with it and the hard work. There's about a six-part harmony that it takes to become a superstar. Tiger, unfortunately for the field, has more intelligence than any golfer ever, he's probably more fit than any golfer ever, he's probably got more talent than any golfer ever and the 'choke factor' is better than any golfer ever.
"If Sergio putted like Tiger, he would be almost as good as Tiger, but Sergio doesn't putt like Tiger. The same thing could be said for Adam Scott. He's got the game but he doesn't putt anywhere near like Tiger does. The only way you're going to beat Tiger is you're going to have to have somebody with some big power. I don't know who that is. It's like racing a regular Corvette versus a Z06 Corvette. You're just not going to beat the Z06 because it has 100 more horse power."

==The Sports Emmy nomination scoreboard, after the list was released Thursday:
ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN Classic/ESPN on ABC/ESPN.com: 37 (27 of them were credited to ESPN; 4 to ABC)
HBO: 31
NBC: 23
Fox: 18
CBS: 17
TNT: 12
NFL Network: 8
FSN: 6

In the Outstanding Sports Journalism category, HBO had four nominations, all from "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," that involved stories on the NFL's disabled players situation, NFL concussions, dogfighting and sports in Iraq.
The Sports Emmy Awards will be announced April 28 in New York. Here's a breakdown of the nominees.

==The Emmy nominations were announced at the World Congress of Sports gathering Thursday at the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point.
Among the news that came out of the gathering (via the blog posted by the Sports Business Daily):
-HBO's next documentary will chronicle the 1960 U.S. Open golf championship, where Arnold Palmer beat Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. It's scheduled to air June 11, before the '08 event begins.

==The two-part airing of "Black Magic," a film by Dan Klores ("The Boys of Second Street Park," "Viva Baseball," "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story"and "Crazy Love") that focuses on injustices faced by black athletes at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) during the Civil Rights Movement, airs Sunday and Monday on ESPN at 6 p.m. in two-hour sections. Part One airs after the bracket announcement replay; Part Two airs after the announcement of the NCAA women's tournament bracket. Samuel L. Jackson, Wynton Marsalis and Chris Paul share narration duties. Former NBA star Earl "The Pearl" Monroe is co-producer with Klores.
“This is a story that must be told. There is no better time to share it with our viewers than in the thick of college basketball’s biggest month,” said Keith Clinkscales, ESPN senior vice president, content development and enterprises. “As sports fans prepare to witness the year’s best college basketball players and teams in action, ‘Black Magic’ will present them with an unforgettable journey back to the players, coaches and schools that shaped the game, and in great part, society, as they know it today.”
From more than 200 hours of interviews and footage was collected, and subjects include Willis Reed, Avery Johnson, Ben Wallace, Charles Oakley, John Chaney, Bob Love, Al Attles, Bob Dandridge, Sonny Hill, and the widow of Clarence “Big House” Gaines .

==OnionSports media headline and story of the week:

==Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, Emanuel Steward and Harold Lederman will call Saturday night's pay-per-view bout between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao on HBO's telecast (going for $49.95) at 6 p.m..

==FSN has cranked out six more episodes of our favorite "Sports Science" series starting Sunday (9 p.m.):
According to the game plan:
Sunday: "Field Warriors" -- Host John Brenkus and his team of scientists examine the most dramatic injuries ever suffered in a sporting event and get first-person accounts of the athletes who survived the injuries that force people to look away. Guests include NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk (who had his jugular vein slashed by a skate), mixed-martial arts star Bas Rutten, Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter and Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone.
March 23: "Tricks of the Trade" -- With NBA players Jordan Farmar and Jason Kapono, Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski and Jacksonville Jags running back lyzes Maurice Jones-Drew.
March 30: "Gear Factor" -- Does protective gear actually protect? With Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, MMA star Quentin “Rampage” Jackson, former heavyweight boxing champion Chris Byrd and Chargers DB Quentin Jammer.
April 6: "Degree of Difficulty" -- What is the hardest thing to do in sports? With former Kings star Luc Robitaille, Raiders QB Josh McCown and USA soccer star Abby Wambach.
April 13: "Bet You Couldn’t Do That Again" -- Trying to recreate a once-in-a-lifetime play. With Cardinals QB Matt Leinart, Clippers guard Cuttino Mobley, MLS players Jason Jernandez, Jesse Marsch and Preston Burpo.
April 20: "Best of Sport Science" -- A look back at the best segments from the nearly 100 athletes who entered the Sport Science lab.

==And finally:
In the latest LA84 Foundation SportsLetter, the ever crafty Dan Davis does a Q-and-A with Deadspin.com editor Will Leitch, who continues to peddle his new book, "God Save The Fan," recently reviewed by the Onion's AV Club:

An excerpt from the SL to WL:

SL: You write in the book that the "current paradigm of sportswriting is dead, even if it doesn't know it yet." What do you mean by that?

WL: Well, think about the way that game coverage was originally set up. Literally, the only way people could find out what happened in the game the night before was if someone went to it and reported back to them. Clearly, that's not the way things work anymore. So, already, the beat reporters have to change dramatically what they're doing. That paradigm doesn't work anymore. I think some people realize that, and some people don't. Like, at the Super Bowl, I noticed reporters updating stuff on their sites non-stop throughout the game.

Then, you look at columnists. A lot of columnists have been the lone voice in their town for, like, 30 years. The ones that really shape the opinions — there was no challenge to them. There was nobody else that was able to get that wider readership. Now, those guys have to raise their game. They can't sit back and say, "This is what I've done for 30 years and this'll keep working." Because it won't. People have other options now.

You see some people reacting to blogs with the old "those guys writing in the basement in their pajamas" type of stereotype. People that say stuff like that are the ones that are threatened. The ones that are smart get it and have adjusted accordingly. Like, Peter Gammons wrote this column a couple of weeks ago saying, "Here are all the blogs I read every single day." This is Peter Gammons — and he gets it! He's paying attention and not missing anything. He understands that there are more voices, more competition, and that he needs to raise his game. He realizes that he can't just sit back and wait for stuff to come to him anymore.

SL: Will there no longer be a print publication called Sports Illustrated five years from now?

WL: Well, if it gets any thinner, it's going to evaporate. Look, I love reading magazines and I love reading newspapers. But I don't think my 13-year-old cousin feels that way. To me, that's the larger issue. I don't think print is going to die. I think there's always going to be an audience for that. It's never been a matter of blogs coming in and replacing print. It's recognizing that, you have to adjust. If you don't adjust, you will be left behind.

I found it amusing that, after the Super Bowl, what the newspapers did was to serve as instant mementoes of something that had happened, as opposed to something that was reporting any kind of news. They became tangible collectibles. Ultimately, that's a bad sign. They became a yearbook to remind you of something that happened, rather than something that's actively describing the recent event.

I, as well as other newspaper guys, will now go into further depression....