No amount of talking could save drab Final Four

Ohio State-Georgetown and Florida-UCLA on Saturday looked like the varsities playing the freshmen. And Monday’s Ohio State-Florida final was more of the same.

The Gators had essentially won their second straight NCAA basketball title late in the first half when Billy Packer, the commentator emeritus for CBS, said: "If Ohio State doesn’t make 3s they cannot win. Ron Lewis has to show up in the second half. If they’re going down tonight, he has to go down shooting."

Well, Lewis didn’t show up.

Saturday’s semifinals pulled a fairly decent rating of 9.3, but it was a bust as compelling television. Had it been a Broadway show, it would’ve closed overnight.

This is pathetic, but Saturday’s most memorable play might have been when Dick Vitale, wearing a thriving mane of gray hair, flew through the air like a young Julius Erving and dunked the ball in a special-effects DiGiorno pizza ad.

Packer and play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz should be credited for not trying to turn a sow’s ear of games into a silk purse. During the Ohio State-Georgetown semifinal, Packer was rightly critical of Hoyas sharpshooter Jeff Green for not getting involved.

"Young man," he said at one point, "you’ve got to come to the ball, get aggressive, want a shot." One half later: "I’m gonna go back to Green. He’s in a situation now where he’s got to start looking for some shots."

Nantz, talking late in the game about the Buckeyes’ Greg Oden and the Hoyas’ Roy Hibbert, asked who was better in the pivot.

"We were not looking at Bill Russell, Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on either end — not yet, not yet, not even close," Packer said.

"Do you see that potential yet?" Nantz replied almost plaintively.

"No, Jimmy, I do not," Packer said. "I think we’re talking about a different caliber of player."

The upside on Packer is his unparalleled candor and ability to make the essential point. The downside is he keeps banging you over the head with his stick. He takes himself too seriously. And Nantz won’t challenge him, probably because Packer would never allow it in the first place.

• FINAL FOUR GLEANINGS — Ohio State freshman guard Mike Conley Jr. instantly showed on national TV why he’s so confident under pressure. Sitting on a panel with Ohio State alumnus Clark Kellogg after the Buckeyes had beaten Georgetown, Conley said with only half a grin: "I was just wondering how you’re gonna pick against your own school." You heard it here. This kid’s going places. …

"Mother Love," Spike Lee’s superb film short in the Final Four pregame show about Ruth Lovelace, coach of the boy’s varsity basketball team at an inner-city high school in Brooklyn, deserves an Emmy. Without givers such as Lovelace this world would be hell. …

Bravo to CBS and reporter Seth Davis for raising the issue of whether it’s finally time for the NCAA to start paying its athletes stipends beyond their tuition, room and board. It’s not an easy question. But if Alabama can pay Nick Saban $32 million to coach its football team, a formula should be found to pay major college players small extra stipends.

• AROUND AND ABOUT — In case you’ve missed them, ESPN has been running a series of NFL team-by-team draft shorts on its late-afternoon "SportsCenter" telecasts leading up to the April 28-29 draft. Previews for the next week: Packers today, Steelers on Wednesday, Panthers on Thursday, Rams on Friday, Bills on Sunday and 49ers on Monday. … Storied teams remaining: Dolphins on April 11, Redskins on April 15 and Raiders on April 20.

• NASCAR DILEMMA — Many of you have been watching the Nextel Cup races and realizing, as I have, that caution flags inevitably seem to come out when Fox is in commercial. It’s uncanny — and maddening. Granted, NASCAR is unique in that race action is continuous. But no other sport repeatedly allows its most dramatic moments to occur during commercial breaks. NASCAR’s France family needs to explore minimizing on-screen spots when live action calls for it, or adjusting rates. Put my boy, "D.W." — as in Darrell Waltrip — in charge. As he says, it’s all about "co-opetition."

• BASEBALL’S BACK — Wasn’t it a pleasure to listen to ESPN’s superb Jon Miller and Joe Morgan again on the Mets-Cardinals opener Sunday night? Or would you rather have had the insufferable Chris Berman? It’s a long season, folks. Count your blessings for at least a night.

Bill Taaffe is a former award-winning TV-radio sports columnist for Sports Illustrated. His column is published Tuesday. He can be reached at taaffe-reviewjournal@earthlink.net.