The Media Learning Curve: More stuff to read, not for two quarters

One quarter of the year nearly down. OK, not nearly, but we're in the area code. April 1, you fool, would be the one-quarter mark.

Today's newspaper column on Seth Davis' new book on the 1979 NCAA title game (linked here) still doesn't cost you anything if you read it online. It's part of the 50 cent package on the newstand.

You know this, yet you continue to read it for free. Why not? It's free. Not even one quarter's worth of pleasure.

Here's more stuff you can get without clipping a coupon, polished up for your coin collection:

== More on Seth, from last Saturday, after he and Greg Gumbel agreed to disagree on the Jim Calhoun tantrum:

== Paul Sunderland, Sean Farnham and John Jackson are on the Prime Ticket call of the Mater Dei-Martin Luther King Jr. CIF-SS boys Div. I-AA championship basketball game from the Honda Center in Anaheim (Saturday, 6:30 p.m.).

== As part of a series called "Her Story," ESPN's attempt to celebrate women's athletics with a series of vignettes on all its networks, a piece on Sparks star Candace Parker, with her relationship with Nera White, starts it off Sunday. On Wednesday, Jamie Dixon, men's basketball coach at PItt, remembers his late sister, Army women's basketball coach Maggie Dixon. Both are North Hollywood natives and Notre Dame High of Sherman Oaks basketball players. More background (linked here).

== ESPN announced it will have its first live title fight broadcast -- Saturday, March 21, 2 p.m., when WBC champ Vitali Klitschko attempts to defend his WBC title against Juan Carlos Gomez from Stuttgart, Germany. It's Klitschko's first title defense since coming out of retirement last October. Brian Kenny and analyst Teddy Atlas will call it.

== Terry Gannon and Steve Lavin call the ABC coverage of UCLA's home game against Oregon (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7). Gannon and Lavin then do the West Coast Conference tournament semifinals (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., ESPN2) which, by some fluke, could include Pepperdine and/or Loyola Marymount.

That UCLA-Oregon game follows CBS' coverage of No. 1 UConn facing No. 3 Pitt (Saturday, 9 a.m., Channel 2) with Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. A far more interesting Pac-10 matchup, California at No. 21 Arizona State, goes to CBS at 11 a.m. Saturday (with Craig Bolerjack and Jim Spanarkel) followed by Texas at Kansas (1 p.m., Channel 2, with Tim Brando and Mike Gminski). Sunday, CBS has Purdue at Michigan State (9 a.m., with Gus Johnson and Raftery), the Missouri Valley Conference title game (11 a.m., with Dick Enberg and Bob Wenzel) and No. 7 Duke at No. 2 North Carolina (1 p.m., with Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg).

== Ted Robinson and Justin Gimelstob call the U.S.-Switzerland Davis Cup event from Birmingham, Ala., this weekend for Tennis Channel, starting today with the first singles match at 11 a.m. (and the second at 2 p.m., with replays at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.). Camarillo's Bryan brothers play in the doubles competition on Saturday (11 a.m., repeated at 6 and 9 p.m.). Sunday's reverse singles schedule is the same 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. (replayed at 6 and 9 p.m.). They're also available on demand at www.TennisChannel.com.

== Some preview material to the next season of FSN's "Sports Science," which starts at 9 p.m. on March 22:

Some of the participants include the Dodgers' Matt Kemp and James Loney, former UCLA star Kevin Love, the Lakers' Luke Walton, the NBA's Stephon Marbury, Amare Stoudemire and Greg Oden, the NFL's Ray Lewis, Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Vernon Davis, Tank Johnson and TJ Houshmanzadeh, plus golf's Padraig Harrington and race car drivers Kyle Busch and Marco Andretti.

== And from Onion Sports:

Trey Wingo: Is He The Tim Meadows of 'SportsCenter'?