Watch full Midnight Madness replay action of seven top schools (and ESPNU)

This is kewl! The proliferation of the internets and the bandwidths have added another benefit for hard core hoops fans! You can watch the full Midnight Madness ceremonies at seven different top schools (Kentucky, North Carolina, UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, Puke, and Texas A&M) along with the ESPNU studio coverage! This is all for FREE, as long as your internet service provider is connected with the artist formerly known as ESPN3. Check them all out at ESPNwatch.com.

If you want to watch actual basketball action, the Louisville midnight madness includes a 40-minute full-action scrimmage, with three zebras too, and Pitino miked up and even analyzing the game on TV!

NCAA tries to "sell" opening round by using their "Elite" broadcasts

The NCAA and CBS/Turner are trying to "sell" the opening round games are "significant" and as a first round, not just an afterthought round sent to Dayton, Ohio. To stress this point, CBS/Turner have sent their top team of broadcasters, Clark Kellogg, Jim "Golf" Nantz, Steve Kerr and Traci Woofson.

Will it convince more people to tune in and "consider" it part of the "real" March Madness, and not "the game that used to be on ESPN" as a warm-up?

Needless to say, the media wants more expansion, so you bet they are taking special care of the opening round, now officially called the "1st round".

Shortcut for watching March Madness games online

If you are planning to watch March Madness online, live or replays of games you may have missed, be sure to bookmark this url that takes you directly to the March Madness On-Demand Console. From there you can begin watching games right away!

Already available for replay are the CBS Selection Show from Sunday, and the National Bracket Day from Monday with the one and only Marques Johnson. CBS, please add Marques Johnson to your West Coast/P10 coverage. Having that complete and total idiot (Bob Wenzel) doing Pac-10 games is completely ridiculous.

Mark your calendars: Midnight Madness on Friday October 15 on ESPNU

Where did all the time go? That is a very good question! Already the traditional college basketball season preview magazines are in the bookstores! And Midnight Madness is just around the corner, Friday October 15, 2010! ESPNU and ESPNU-HD (where available) are planning a four hour extravaganza, with Andy Katz, Lefty, and more of the usual suspects! If ESPNU is not available in your area, check ESPN3.com (formerly ESPN360). Currently their schedule does not have anything planned for Midnight Madness but you never know!

Big news: Every NCAA tourney game on TV!

You no longer have to beg, borrow or steal bandwidth and other people's laptops if you want to watch every single NCAA game! As part of the new TV deal, every single game will be on TV! This is because CBS is now joined by Turner Networks, and they plan to show every game live. ESPN would obviously have been a great candidate as well, since they have more channels and they specialize in college hoops, unlike the Turner Network which speacializes in the NBA and reruns ;-)

The deal runs from 2011 to 2014, and in addition to CBS, games will be shown on TBS, TNT, and TruTV (formerly CourtTV).

The shocker in this is that going forward (after 2016), yikes (!), the Final Four will be alternating between CBS and TBS. What the fuck is the right reaction here!

The games will continue to be available via online streaming as well!

ESPN tried to get the TV rights but unfortunately it did not win. Having the tourney on the ESPN family would have probably been better. Fans already know where to find ESPN, ESPN2, and many have access to either ESPU, ESPN Classic or ESPN News. Plus they could show games on ABC for a national TV audience. And if they needed more channels, they could put some games on the Disney Channel!

This means college hoops fans will need to make adjustments to their current cable, satellite and DVR plans if they want to watch everything. More on that as the details and scheduling becomes more clear!

Perhaps because of this deal, TBS/TNT may try to add some regular season or conference championship basketball games, so they can "warm up" before the actual tourney!

Petition CBS: Gus Johnson to do the Final Four!

Gus Johnson really represents the spirit of March Madness, the excitement, the energy, the rollercoaster ride. Please petition CBS to have Gus Johnson be the play-by-play guy at the Final Four!

Jim Nantz just doesn't scream college basketball. He's a boring old guy ideally suited for golf or other boring stuff. Jim Nantz does NOT belong at the Final Four!

Everyone email and call CBS and DEMAND that Gus Johnson become the play-by-play guy for the Final Four!

If you are an underdog and you see Gus Johnson, celebrate!

If you are an underdog taking a higher ranked opponent and you see Gus Johnson sitting at the broadcaster's table, then you know you are in for an exciting game, which means you are going to have a chance to win the game!

On the other hand, if you are the favorite or the higher-seed, then you know you are going to be in for a thrill ride, not a 30-point cakewalk!

Goodbye Gonzo, the TV awaits you?

Gonzo was probably not given a fair shake at Seton Hall, but in the busy and crowded Big East, patience is not a virtue. The good news for Gonzo is that he has the personality for TV. He is certainly more interesting than Tim Welsh or Mark Gottfried that for whatever reason ESPN decided to feature.

Speaking of which, is it time to start a Re-Hire Tom Brennan campaign? He brought a unique perspective and a breath of fresh air in the tired line-up of ESPN more-of-the-same analysts!

Watch ten years of NCAA action (Sweet 16 to Final) for free

If you are a hardcore college hoops fans, you may get hooked on the NCAA Vault (website requires Flash), it lets you watch Sweet 16 NCAA basketball games from the last ten years completely free. The video size is relatively small, but it is FREE :) This includes the games from the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Semifinal and Final of the last ten years.

Better yet, the video is commercial-free and you can JUMP to any point in the video just by moving the slider. It loads up really fast if you are on a broadband connection. They do show the final score and summary of each game so if you want to watch without seeing the final score ahead of time, cover those parts of the screen :-)

The collection starts with the 2000 Wisconsin vs LSU game, and ends with the 2009 North Carolina vs Michigan State NCAA championship game.

AT&T U-Verse DVR tempting for Hoops fans

If you are the gadget-type who like to plan ahead their gadget-powered college hoops season, please keep in mind that the new AT&T U-Verse video service that is making its way across the country is offering a much better DVR for college hoops fanatics: It can record FOUR programs at ONCE. So if UNC and Duke and Kentucky are playing at the same time, no problem! You can watch them all!

Also nice is that for an extra $7 a month, you can get DVR-players that feed off the main U-Verse DVR and can watch those games from different rooms. So if roommate A is a Dookie, he watches the Dooke game in his room. Roommate B watches the Kentucky game in his room, and roommate C throws a UNC watching party in the living room.

With more cable systems dropping analog channels and breaking your current recording situation (eg VHS records or DVRs with analog tuners), you will need to replace them.

Of course there's also online watching, but if you are a hardcore fan and want to save and analyze the games later on, you probably want to save them on disk or tape, since other than the NCAA tournament games, college hoops games are still not available for purchase :(

Games of the year: Cleveland State at Syracuse (Monday)

ESPN Classic has started a new series where they are showing some of the best games of the 2008-2009 season at the 9pm eastern (6pm pacific) time slot on Monday nights. Last week they showed Davidson at Oklahoma in the pre-season NIT semi-finals. This Monday they will be showing Cleveland State's dramatic game at the Carrier Dome against Syracuse. So be sure to set your timers, alarms, calendars, VCRs and DVRs since this game was not (as far as I recall) broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2 when it originally aired.

Isiah Thomas press conference tomorrow on ESPN-News

ESPN News will be carrying live the Florida International press conference tomorrow (Wednesday April 15, tax day) that introduces the former Indiana and Pistons great as their next men's college basketball coach.

After a failed career as an NBA head coach and executive, Isiah wants to get a fresh start at a program where there is potential, but there is no pressure, bright lights or expectations. In other words, just like Mike Jarvis and Rollie, he is going where coaches go to relax, or retire or escape the "microscope".

Best of 2008-2009 on ESPN Classic every Monday

ESPN Classic is launching a nice new series, they will be showing some of the best games of the 2008-2009 college basketball season every Monday at 9pm eastern (6pm pacific). Each game will be edited accordingly to fit into a 2-hour slot. Some of the games planned include the Cleveland State at Syracuse (April 20), and things like that. Check local listings or espn.com for more details.

It's always funny to watch clueless reporters debate college hoops

It's really fun to watch clueless reporters and sports generalists debate "college hoops" topics on TV and radio. People with barely basic knowledge of college hoops making big statements, and usually being off-center by a lot.

I'm talking about shows like Around the Horn, Cold Pizza, Sportscenter anchors, and people like that.

MLB Extra Innings free preview at Comcast

Comcast is offering a free preview of the MLB Extra Innings package from April 6 to April 12. The preview is totally free, but you need to have a cable box that is capable of receiving those channels. These depends on how the cable system is setup in your area. In many areas, these channels are available on digital cable only, so you would need a digital cable box in order to watch the free preview on TV.

We have not checked other cable providers, although usually the free previews are initiated by the sports package across the board, instead of the cable provider.

This free preview is no coincidence, it marks the start of the baseball season and tries to get fans hooked back into baseball, and once they get a full week of games from around the country, they hope that fans are going to want even more and subscribe for the annual package deal.

Final Four edition of OTL today

Don't miss today's Outside the Lines (3pm eastern), they will have an NCAA tourney doulbe-feature, evaluating the chances of UConn for winning both the men's and the women's national championship, and then taking a look at the wine-and-cheese program of UNC (North Carolina).

Check a preview and more at the OTL page at espn.com.

Calipari and big contracts on OTL

We still need to find some time to write about the Kentucky hire of Calipari, but for now, be sure to check Outside the Lines, today's edition will have a segment talking about big contracts. This segment of course inspired by the Calipari hire.

And don't forget the McDonald's All-American all-star game tonight on ESPN and ESPN-HD (8pm eastern, 5pm pacific).

Wednesday 930am eastern on ESPNNews: Calipari introduction

ESPN News will be carrying the John Calipari introduction to the Big Blue Nation tomorrow, Wednesday at 9:30am eastern time! Warm up your VCRs and DVRs if you are not going to be near a TV!

Grouchy old men and Old Timers unite

Grouchy old men, the two hosts, of the new show that breaks a record in the number of sponsors it has, Survive and Advance, coming to you from Vegas, featuring Billy "I got kicked out of CBS" Packer and Bob Knight.

That is why when you watch ESPN, Bob Knight is not in the studio, but instead, he is on satellite :) He is with his buddy-in-grounchiness Billy Packer ;-)

Best of College Basketball 2009

Don't forget to tune your DVRs, VCRs, and TVs to CBS on April 5, 2009 at 9am pacific for the one-hour special, "Best of College Basketball 2009". We assume this will be a show that will summarize and recap the 2008-2009 college basketball season, so if you are a historian or die-hard fan of the game, this might be something to watch or record! Check your local listings for exact airtime and channel number.

It is possible that it may get repeated later on CSTV (CBS College Sports), but as far as we can tell right now, the schedule is not showing it on CSTV yet. Usually TV schedules go about 10 to 15 weeks deep, so we'll know more next week.