March Madness Can Be Just Maddening Online

One advantage of writing this column is that if anyone complains I’m watching too much television, I can say, “But it’s my job.”

So if the boss had been in the office on Thursday and noticed I was watching NCAA basketball on my computer, I could have said, “But it’s my job.”

I did check out the heavily ballyhooed video streaming, and it was kind of neat -- for a minute or two. You’d have to be a real fan of one of the participating teams to stick with it for very long.

I didn’t have any trouble getting online because, as a member of the media, I had a VIP reservation via ncaasports.com/mmod.

It wasn’t so easy for a colleague who did not have a VIP reservation. Every time the countdown got to zero, it would start again. He finally gave up and went back to work.

One problem I found was, for a while, there was no audio on the Wichita State-Seton Hall game. There was music instead of play-by-play.

Just for the fun of it, I tried the “boss button.” Up came a fake spread sheet that included this piece of advice: “Cheering in the office gives you away.”

Nice to know the organizers of this have a sense of humor.

That wasn’t the case at some businesses. There were reports Thursday that some companies were banning access to the video streaming. That seems a bit extreme. The feeling here is most people wouldn’t spend much time online.

But then maybe that’s just me, and I had a deadline to meet.

A Marathon Task

In addition to all the basketball this weekend, there is Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon, which for the fourth straight year will be televised by Channel 4 and its Spanish-language sister station Channel 52. The coverage on both begins at 7:30 a.m.

The Channel 4 announcing team remains the same, headed by Fred Roggin, Toni Reavis and Nancy Ditz. What’s new this year is the $100,000 prize for the winner of “The Challenge” between the men’s winner and the women’s winner. That’s a $25,000 increase from last year.

The challenge for the broadcasters, according to Roggin, “is finding the right balance between covering the race as a competition among the elite runners and covering the stories of the local people in the race.”

Phil Olsman, a veteran at handling such live events, is again producing the television coverage. This will be his 12th L.A. Marathon.

A field of 25,000 runners from 50 states and 100 countries is expected.

“You could say covering a marathon is like covering a football game,” Olsman said, “except we’re dealing with 25,000 players at a field more than 26 miles long.”

NBA Studio Show Retooled

ABC’s NBA studio show will have some new faces beginning Sunday, when the Lakers’ game at Cleveland will be one of two split-national games. Dan Patrick is replacing Mike Tirico as the host, with Tirico moving over to play-by-play. Mark Jackson and Michael Wilbon have been added and Scottie Pippen remains on the show.

Tirico and analysts Bill Walton and Steve Jones will work Dallas-New Jersey, which will be shown in the East and in Texas. Most of the country will get the Lakers and Cleveland, with Mike Breen and Hubie Brown.