Love It or Hate It, Tournament Tips Off

The first two days of March Madness offered mostly March Drabness, at least until early Saturday morning when buzzer-beating was all the rage in Wisconsin's overtime victory over Florida State and Siena's double overtime triumph ended Ohio State's season -- both thrilling games finishing after midnight on Friday.

Still, over the first four days of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, there was much to relish and plenty to lament, especially after the elimination of any Washington area rooting interest when plucky American University and overachieving Maryland were bounced from the brackets.

And so, it's also a perfect opportunity to offer another love/hate list following our favorite winter sports weekend since the opening round of the NFL playoffs.

Love: Barack-etology, brought to us by ESPN, with the President of the United States filling in his NCAA bracket on national television. When Obama took a little poke at Duke, which did not make his Final Four, you also had to love Coach K's counter-needle¿that the commander in chief might be wiser to spend more time focusing on the economy.

Hate: The President picked North Carolina to beat Louisville in the championship game. Somehow, it just seemed like politics as usual, considering North Carolina went into Obama's column in November, and Kentucky favored John McCain. Then again, both teams advanced to the round of 16.

Love: Dick Vitale, worship him as the clown prince of college basketball or despise his terribly tiresome act, mercifully is not remotely involved in the CBS coverage and, so far, hasn't even shown up in a tournament-related commercial. On the other hand, Bob Knight is must-watch on ESPN, a natural born analyst with spot-on observations every time he talks.

Hate: Billy Packer has retired as CBS's lead game analyst after 27 years, and so far, has not been included in the network coverage. I hope that changes for the round of 16 and Final Four, when Packer cameo appearances would be a welcome addition.

Neutral: I always liked Clark Kellogg's work in the CBS studio at tournament time, but I'll wait until after the Final Four before making a definitive judgment on his replacing Packer as the lead game analyst. So far, he seems far less analytical than Packer, gets a tad too high-decibel excited at times and more than occasionally points out the obvious. Then again, Packer would be a very tough act to follow for anyone.

Love: The CBS tournament theme music, which never seems to get old even after all these years.

Hate: One shining moment. Enough already. And while we're at it, memo to every sports broadcaster on the planet: stop bellowing "are you kidding me?"

Love: The language of hoops, Part I. Bracketology, numbers, ball-screen defense, in the paint, tip-time, the ultimate eraser, dipsy-do for two, knocks down a trey, rattles it in, off the back iron, dribble penetration, pulls the trigger, shot clock winding down, too many steps (which they hardly ever call), floater, above the rim, over the back, baby hook, fall-away j, off the window, the pill, the rock, put a body on him, T him up, slam, jam, dandy dunkeroo.

Hate: Why does CBS insist on calling them media timeouts. No, they're television timeouts, the better for the network to throw in even more commercials and make its $6 billion rights fee investment pay off.