TV Ratings Rise For First 2 Rounds

Television ratings for the first and second round of the NCAA Tournament are up 6 percent from last year.

Overnight ratings released Monday show CBS earned a 5.4 rating and 12 share, up from a 5.1 rating and 12 share for the first two rounds in 2008.

On Sunday, the overnight rating was up 10 percent from 2008. The final group of games, including a tight contest between top seed Louisville and Siena, earned an 8.1 overnight rating and 14 share, the highest rating for the 5-7:45 p.m. EDT slot since an 8.2 in 2006.

A rating is the percentage of all homes with televisions watching a program. The share is the percentage of all TV sets in use at the time. Overnight ratings measure the country's largest markets.

Familiar Foe For Memphis

The last coach to hand Memphis a conference loss now aims to knock out the Tigers from the NCAA Tournament.

Missouri's Mike Anderson, then with UAB, beat Memphis 80-74 on March 2, 2006, then left for Missouri 24 days later.

"I remember they had a countdown on the clock in the middle of the campus," Memphis coach John Calipari said in a conference call Monday. "I remember the tents outside, and it was sold out three or four months before the game was even played. Before the season, they were pointing to that game. I remember a very physical game."

"It was physical people. They threw a punch, we threw a punch, they threw a punch. Then the biggest thing I remember is I couldn't get to Mike to shake his hand. I had to wait until we got in the back hallway. I don't believe I ever shook his hand. I think I called him, 'Hey, I couldn't even get down to you.'"

Calipari's Tigers haven't lost a Conference USA game since - a span that has topped 1,100 days with 61 consecutive wins. It's a string of domination that includes all four league titles - regular season and tournament.

On Thursday night, the second-seeded Tigers (33-3) put their school-record and nation's best 27-game winning streak on the line in the West Region semifinals against Anderson and his third-seeded Missouri Tigers (30-6) in Glendale, Ariz.

The Associated Press