They’ll Really Be Jumping Through Hoops All Day

News item: UCLA loses to Oregon State in the first round of the Pacific 10 Conference tournament, must sweat out two more days of other conference tournament results to see if it has an NCAA tournament future.

News item: CBS announces that its Sunday NCAA tournament selection show will feature fewer coach interviews and more Jim Nantz and Billy Packer.

Yes, it’s going to a long and agonizing weekend for local basketball fans.

It will be even longer for those fans with access to ESPN’s new college-only network, ESPNU, and an inclination to sit through the new kid’s over-eager desire to impress dad with its own six-hour NCAA selection show.

Six hours.

Or three times as long as UCLA lasted in the Pac-10 tournament.

Mike Hall, the guy who won ESPN’s first “Dream Job” competition, has been assigned to be host of all six hours. So, boys and girls and aspiring sports-anchor wannabes who’d rather not deal with the hassle of college journalism classes and books and all that stuff, let that be a lesson to you.

For those planning to carbo-load in preparation of the ESPNU marathon, here is the selection show menu (with excerpts from the

ESPNU news release):

* 10 a.m.-noon: Hall and analyst Doug Gottlieb take a “comprehensive look” at the “projected teams and brackets, including in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each team.” Or, in the behind-the-scenes parlance of network television, “We’re just killing time here.”

* Noon-3 p.m.: “A replay of key game action from the top conference tournament title games interspersed with three updates on ongoing actions and bracket projections by Hall and Gottlieb.” In case you need to update Hall’s and Gottlieb’s earlier bracket projections.

* 3-4 p.m.: “The studio program will continue with Hall and Gottlieb concentrating analysis on the NCAA women’s tournament brackets, announced live on ESPN” at 2-3 p.m. Translation: “They’re announcing the men’s brackets on CBS right now, so you’ll probably be watching that anyway.”

On ESPN, “SportsCenter” will handle the bracket news as it happens, from 3 to 4 p.m., followed by two hours of analysis by two sets of analysts, going seven-deep, all told.

On the main set, it will be Chris Fowler refereeing for Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Dick Vitale.

On the second set, Rece Davis will sit with Steve Lavin and Rick Majerus and maybe get them talking about the current state of Los Angeles college basketball and reminiscing about their head-coaching stints at UCLA and USC.

Majerus: “All told, I had five great days there.”

Lavin: “Showoff.”

Also available for viewing this weekend:

TODAY

* Pacific 10 tournament final (Channel 2, 3 p.m.)

How many Pac-10 teams deserve a shot at the 65-team NCAA field? Three? Four? On FSN’s “Southern California Sports Report” Thursday night, shortly after UCLA’s pratfall against Oregon State, there was even some brief, crazy talk about five Pac-10 teams moving on.

Thankfully, analyst Sean Farnham was able to get everybody to simmer down a bit.

“I just don’t think that there’s an opportunity to have five teams in the NCAA tournament coming from the Pac-10,” Farnham said. “I think that even though the conference RPI is second in the country, your eye tells you something different when you see the Big East, the Big 12 and the ACC -- three conferences I can name off the top of my head that are all stronger than the Pac-10.”

Farnham said he expected UCLA to make the cut despite the loss to Oregon State, but figured the Bruins’ seeding would not be great.

“It obviously hurts you when you lose to a team with an RPI rating of [118] and a strength-of-schedule that’s not very strong and hasn’t won a road game in three months,” he noted. “So the Bruins are probably looking at that eighth seed, maybe dropping down to a nine or 10 seed.

“The reason why is the [lack of] consistency, the quality wins on their schedule. The only one really is Washington. They did get that road win against Notre Dame, but let’s face it, the Notre Dame win has lost a little bit of luster

after that team has struggled and lost to Rutgers in the first round of the Big East tournament.

“So these are a couple things the Bruins have to just deal with, as the teams they need to win in their conference tournament to help them haven’t done so.”

* Big West tournament final (ESPN, 9 p.m.)

Also known as the “other ACC tournament final,” as in the one played at Anaheim Convention Center, the one that Packer and Vitale and the rest of America don’t really care about.

Wednesday night at Anaheim Convention Center, Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell was spotted in the media room at halftime watching “American Idol” on television. And why not? It could have been worse. It wasn’t as if Simon Cowell were there on press row, critiquing Farrell’s local basketball teams. “You’re not good enough, you have no talent, go play baseball.”

* Lakers at Charlotte Bobcats

(Channel 9, 4 p.m.)

Meanwhile, back on bubble-team watch, the Lakers need a victory over Charlotte to cling to eighth place in the NBA’s Western Conference.

SUNDAY

* Dallas Mavericks at Minnesota Timberwolves

(Channel 7, 10 a.m.)

One week Jim Gray gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the next Maverick owner Mark Cuban is lobbying to get Gray suspended by ABC. Cuban didn’t like the way Gray handled a live interview with Dirk Nowitzki, is so angry about it he has banned his players from talking to Gray and, you know, that’s the reality show Cuban should have made. Gray tries to schmooze his way onto the Walk of Fame and Cuban is the guy casting the deciding vote.