You have no idea how tough it is to get UCLA and Lakers games live here in the NYC area. Sometimes it is neglect, while at other times is is just plain distaste for LA.

BTW, the NIT Season Tip Off finals to be held at MSG on 11/28/08 (iirc) will be very interesting, with bracket leaders AU, OK, Purdue, Davidson (Steven Curry, who pushed UCLA, Duke and UNC to the limit last year not to mention their tournament performance) and BC (meh). There are a lot of interesting finals combos you could put together including having 2 of 3 top 20 programs meeting head to head.

For the record, I am not a BEAST fan, and I find it distateful for them to have 4 of the top 10 in the AP poll (and 7 of the top 25) while the Pac-10 only got 3 in the top 25. I am sooo tired of living with the East Coast sports-media bias, which is aided and abetted by ESPN. It is kind of like the sports equivalent of the Republicans complaining about the liberal media bias. I would have loved for Fox to fix the sports problem with their RSNs, but they dont get basic tier coverage by cable. In fact it is exacerbated because you get the New England RSN. Enough ranting for now, Thx.