For CBS, The Final Four Show Must Go On

They’ll still play the Final Four this weekend in Minneapolis. Legions of exuberant basketball fans, many experiencing the summit for the first time, will hope against hope that this is the year. CBS will dutifully televise it to millions of interested parties at home.

All this, even though Duke and Zion Williamson won’t be participating. After all, the show must go on.

“Zion was one of, if not the biggest, story of the college basketball year,” CBS President of Sports Sean McManus said during a conference call Tuesday afternoon, where the reverberations of Duke’s exit were on many reporters’ minds. “It would be great to have him in Minneapolis. Having said that, I think the momentum that we have going with this tournament will carry right through the Final Four games on Saturday and the championship game, so at this point in my life I’ve learned not to worry about things that I can’t control.”

Williamson has been an amazing aspect of this college basketball campaign. Through no fault of his own, though, he’s sucked the oxygen out of plenty of other rooms that could use exploring.

CBS’ challenge on Saturday and Monday night is to bring home one of the greatest casual-fan experiences without the biggest household name. That task will fall to the broadcast team of Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill, and Tracy Wolfson.

This is the fifth year they’ll work the Final Four together. Each spring is a bit of a crash-course requiring the crew to quickly acclimate and hit the ground running when the lights are the brightest.

“One of the most difficult things to establish in television broadcasting is chemistry,” McManus said. “You can’t define it, you can’t dictate it, and you can’t legislate it. Either it develops or it doesn’t develop. ”

After working the final three games of the Big Ten Tournament, the group handled six games the following weekend, then three more this past one, including Michigan State’s one-point victory in an instant classic and ratings bonanza.

“We do get the reps,” Nantz said. “That’s a misnomer. The fact that we’ve done 12 games in the past 2.5 weeks, you add it up it’s over a full day of being on the air straight through sharing stories, laughing, watching, analyzing.”

Hill, who stepped right into broadcasting at the highest level, is returning to the site of the 1992 Final Four. His Blue Devils rolled to a national title in a game called by Nantz.

“I’ve been in some good locker rooms and I’ve been in some bad locker rooms,” Hill said. “I think we all get along. We enjoy each other’s company and we have fun together. This is a wonderful three-four week period for us whether it’s on air or not.”

“There isn’t any ego,” Raftery said. “Anybody can contribute, feel a part of it, and has our mutual respect. It all starts there.”

The decision to employ a three-person booth has allowed Hill to bring a different element to the broadcast, but presents some difficulty.

Said Raftery: “Over the years, I’ve worked in three-men booths and the play-by-play man has to make it happen,. Jim brings us in and out, he sacrifices some of his hard work all week digging up information just to give us an opportunity to enjoy what we’re doing.”

Nantz, who is poised to call his 29th Final Four, returned the compliment with one of his own.

“I feel renewed in that my career came back full circle with the first analyst I ever worked the tournament with in Bill Raftery. That has been such a boost and a shot in the arm for me.”