
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 23, 1991                   TAG: 9102230063
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Medium

WOMEN'S GAMES CATCHING CBS' EYE

If women's college basketball should catch on with television viewers, CBS Sports would be the first to add more women's games to its schedule.

Brian Fielding of CBS Sports, Texas coach Jody Conradt, Tennessee women's athletic director Joan Cronan, broadcasters and others held a news conference on Friday to discuss TV plans and tout today's national TV matchup between fourth-ranked Tennessee and 15th-ranked Texas.

"Any time Texas and Tennessee play, I think you see sparks," Cronan said.

Today's noon game in Austin was picked as a special attraction in women's basketball, which usually appears on network television only for the NCAA Tournament championship.

"Tennessee and Texas have showcased women's basketball in a lot of different situations, and I think this is one more opportunity to do that," said Conradt, the winningest coach in women's basketball. "There is going to be a lot of pressure on these two teams to compete well and to showcase the sport to the country."

Fielding said 1991 will be 10th year for the network to carry the women's championship, but this is the first year to televise a regular-season game.

Auburn-Purdue and Georgia-Iowa were shown live on Jan. 5, and Tennessee-Texas, at noon completes regular-season TV programming for women's college basketball this season.

The only previous time a regular-season women's game was carried live was in 1975, by NBC, at Maryland, CBS Sports basketball analyst Mimi Griffin said.

This year for the first time, NCAA Tournament semifinal games on March 30 at New Orleans also will be shown, and a half-hour preview show will make its debut.

"If things change in terms of the acceptance of this sport on network TV, we would be the first ones to add additional games," Fielding said. "This is the first year, and we have to start slowly and build slowly. And hopefully we will end up with more games as the years go on."

Tennessee is 22-4 but trails its series with Texas 7-3.

The Lady Longhorns are 17-6.

Conradt said, "It's been a little bit of a down season for us. We have been on a rollercoaster ride. . . .

"This team has some potential we still haven't realized it.

by CNB