Matchup: Jordan vs. UMass Chs. 4, 7 court competition - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

Talk about tough choices. Shortly after noon today, theUniversity of Massachusetts basketball team will be on Channel 4 andMichael Jordan will be on Channel 7.

UMass will be playing Stanford in Albany, N.Y., at 12:25 p.m. inthe second round of the NCAA Tournament. About 15 minutes earlier,Jordan will come out of retirement and suit up for the Bulls asChicago plays the Pacers in Indianapolis.

The timing of Jordan's return is understandable. If he didn'tcome back today, he wouldn't be able to be on NBC until April 9, thenext time the Bulls play on a Sunday afternoon, against the Cavaliersin Cleveland.

When you're a $30 million endorsement conglomerate, maximizing thetiming of your high drama means a lot. And in return for paying theNBA almost $200 million in rights fees this season, NBC deserves thefirst pictures of Jordan back in action. And, indeed, the network isclearing the decks to showcase Jordan. Original plans called forabout only 53 percent of NBC's affiliates to carry Bulls-Pacers andthe rest to show Jazz-Hornets. But now only Salt Lake City andCharlotte will get the latter game.

Rumors were flying Friday in Chicago that Jordan would appear attoday's game and announce at halftime to his NBC buddy, Ahmad Rashad,that he would return to action Friday night against the Magic andShaquille O'Neal. That game will be carried by WGN-TV, theChicago-based superstation. In anticipation, WGN-TV reportedlyalready had asked (warned) the league to guard against NBC or TNT,the league's national cable carrier, changing its schedule to coverthat game.

TNT will get its first Jordan dividend March 28 when it covers theBulls in New York. That's a dynamic matchup, given the playoffrivalry between the teams prior to Jordan's retirement.

Who knows? Perhaps SportsChannel will add a flurry of subscribersin the next three days because the pay channel will cover theBulls-Celtics game Wednesday night, when Reggie Lewis' jersey isscheduled to be raised to the rafters at halftime.

Playing in the Garden again will fulfill one of Jordan's wishes.'Michael told me last September he would love to play one more timein the Garden before they tear it down,' Tom Shaer of Chicago'sWMAG-TV said last week, before Jordan's comeback was set. Shaer saidthat Jordan recalled his 63-point game in the Garden, then expressedregret that when the Bulls were ordinary the Celtics were great,after which the two teams swapped positions.Hockey in the mix

While there is an overload of attention paid to college tournamentbasketball, postseason hockey is also edging into television's goldeneye. On Friday, ESPN2 will carry the NCAA regional semifinals fromWorcester at 4:30 and Madison, Wis., at 8:30, and the channel alsowill cover the semifinals in Providence the following Thursday andFriday, after which the championship will be shown on ESPN Saturdayafternoon. Dave Shea will handle the play-by-play from Madison,including games going out to local markets. Shea was referred toESPN by Sean McDonough, who had to bail out because of NCAAbasketball. McDonough and Shea started together on Boston TVannouncing Hockey East games on New England Sports Network. NESNwill carry the college hockey draw out of Minneapolis tonight at 9.Both NESN and SportsChannel hope to carry some of the action leadingup to ESPN's takeover for hockey's own Final Four weekend, when TomMees and Bob Norton will be the announcers . . . Today's postgamepress conference by UMass coach John Calipari will be shown onSportsChannel on tape about 5 p.m., after live coverage of NCAAhockey. NewSport makes all basketball postgame available, lettingits network of cable channels cherrypick. SportsChannel picked upboth UMass and UConn interviews after their opening games . . .Tuesday from 8 to 9 p.m., SportsChannel will tune in live to thetelethon at Northeastern for the Reggie Lewis Foundation. MikeGorman will be master of ceremonies.Numbers: Down and up

First returns for postseason college basketball were adisappointment for CBS. Prime-time ratings in the top 32 marketswere off by about 15 percent. Daytime audience also fell, but thiscould be blamed on the O.J. Simpson trial, which is distorting allratings. It was worse in Boston for Channel 4, day and night. ButFriday's UMass-St. Peter's game was another story for Channel 4. The6.0 rating it compiled from 3-5 p.m. was the highest ever in Bostonfor a weekday NCAA postseason game . . . You won't hear a referenceto 'scabs' during baseball broadcasts because the league office hastold all teams to make sure their announcers use the term'replacement.' If management will allow it, humor may be thebaseball announcers' best instrument for dealing with the mess. 'Wehave replacement players on the field and their replacement wives inthe stands,' Skip Caray said in the midst of a recent Bravesexhibition.