War alters local TV coverage

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 10:24 a.m.

Thursday's first-round scores

West Region

Illinois 65, Western Kentucky 60

Notre Dame 70, Wisc.-Milw. 69

Gonzaga 74, Cincinnati 69

Arizona 80, Vermont 51

Central Michigan 79, Creighton 73

Duke 67, Colorado State 57

Arizona State 84, Memphis 71

Kansas 64, Utah State 61

East Region

California 76, N.C. State 74, OT

Oklahoma 71, S. Carolina State 54

South Region

Connecticut 58, Brigham Young 53

Stanford 77, San Diego 69

Midwest Region

Marquette 72, Holy Cross 68

Missouri 72, Southern Illinois 71

Wisconsin 81, Weber State 74

Tulsa 84, Dayton 71

Local fans seeking temporary escape from the real world discovered March Madness on Thursday. Or contracted it.

The attack on Iraq that broke out late Wednesday resulted in CBS switching to a contingency plan for its NCAA basketball tournament coverage. It shipped its morning and afternoon games to ESPN in order to cover developments in the Middle East.

Because ESPN considers Las Vegas part of the West Coast market, both games that local CBS affiliate KLAS Channel 8 planned to show its Las Vegas audience were not televised.

Instead of Gonzaga-Cincinnati and Brigham Young-Connecticut, Las Vegas received the California-North Carolina State and Arizona-Vermont first-round games.

Thursday's evening games were televised by CBS as originally scheduled, with Channel 8 airing Memphis-Arizona State and Colorado State-Duke.

"That was part of the deal when ESPN assumed control," said KLAS sports director Dave McCann about the switch that upset many local viewers. "They think we are on the West Coast. There was no argument we could make."

McCann said CBS made the decision to switch the tournament to ESPN around 8:30 a.m. local time Thursday. It appears all of today's games will air on CBS as scheduled, although viewers are encouraged to check Channel 8's website at KLASTV.com for the tournament schedule and programming changes as they occur.

In addition to Channel 8's primary coverage, Cox Cable is providing additional games to its digital customers on channels 333-NCAA1, 334-NCAA2 and 335-NCAA3 at no cost. Cox also will air today's games from Birmingham, Ala., in high definition on channel 730 to viewers with HD receivers.

Although Channel 8 cautioned viewers Wednesday night that the war could alter its basketball coverage, the station still received complaints, especially during the BYU game. The Cougars have a huge following in Las Vegas.

McCann, a BYU graduate, was miffed along with the majority of Las Vegas viewers when ESPN remained with the Arizona game, a 29-point blowout, even when BYU pulled to within 50-48 of Connecticut with about two minutes to play. UConn won, 58-53.

"When that happened, I just switched channels and watched the war," he said.