An NCAA Stream Come True at Work

CBS is offering video streaming of the first 56 NCAA tournament games -- all the games up to the Elite Eight. And it’s free.

That’s good news for basketball junkies who have access to a computer at work, and bad news for employers.

A national outplacement consulting firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, says 41% of the nation’s workers follow college basketball, or 58.5 million of 142.8 million.

The company figures if those fans spend an average of 13 1/2 minutes a day watching the tournament on their computers at work, the cost to the nation’s employers in lost productivity will be $237 million a day.

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Trivia time: What year did the NCAA men’s tournament expand to 64 teams?

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Computer cover-up: CBS realizes that people are at work to work, not watch basketball. So it has designed the site with a so-called “boss button” on the video players that displays a ready-made spreadsheet when pressed -- in case the boss walks by.

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Maverick idea: Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is in favor of making gambling legal throughout the nation.

“It’s something just about everyone does, particularly this time of year,” Cuban said on his blog. “Rather than wasting millions on fruitless enforcement efforts, we gain billions in tax revenue.... It’s about time that the tens of millions of us who put up our $5 or $10 for the office March Madness pool be allowed to do so legally.”

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Multi-talented: There’s no question Duke guard J.J. Redick is adept at shooting. He made seven three-point shots against Boston College on Sunday.

He also is adept at speaking. Redick was recently asked by radio talk show host Jim Rome if his rivalry with Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison is comparable to the 1979 rivalry between Michigan State’s Magic Johnson and Indiana State’s Larry Bird.

“That rivalry will never be replicated,” Redick said.

How many star athletes use the word replicated?

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A bad sign: The New York Daily News reported the Yankees took down a sign at their spring training camp that read “Yankess.” Wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “The sign painter hopes to put it back up, however, just as soon as the official scorer gives him an ‘E.’ ”

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For what it’s worth: The NFL says more women are interested in the Super Bowl than in the Academy Awards. The league sent out a news release last week that said, according to figures obtained from Nielsen Media Research, 40 million women watched this year’s Super Bowl and 23 million women watched this year’s Academy Awards show.

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Trivia answer: 1985.

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And finally: New Dodger radio announcer Jerry Reuss said on the air Saturday that he is no fan of a radar gun -- on a baseball field or a highway.

He said the problem with the use of a radar gun on a baseball field is that it measures only one attribute of a pitcher.

And his problem with a radar gun on a highway?

“I drive too fast,” Reuss said.

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.