Imagine this for a moment. They are 2 of basketball's most colorful & high profile personalities. He is the one & only "Round mound of rebound". He is an ESPN original analyzing NCAA Basketball games again this season with Dan Shulman. Might they be on the same team come NCAA Tournament time?

According to USA Today's Michael Hiestand, there's a very real possibility that Charles Barkley & Dick Vitale might be calling NCAA Tournament games for CBS Sports as well as Turner Sports, and both guys seem very excited about the possibility of working on the same team.

Even before Turner's TNT, TBS & TruTV joined forces with CBS 2 years ago as broadcast partners for the NCAA Tournament, CBS in particular has tried for years to borrow Vitale from ESPN for NCAA Tournament games. ESPN bosses had always declined to loan Vitale to CBS, claiming that Vitale is a "franchise player" at the "Worldwide Leader".

However, Vitale's boss, ESPN Executive Vice President of Production John Wildhack, might be ready to allow Vitale to work games for CBS/Turner Sports. Wildhack said that "we are interested", but wouldn't say if he'd allow Vitale & Barkley to work NBA games on TNT, college games on ESPN, or just NCAA Tournament games on CBS/Turner.

As for the idea of CBS/Turner using Vitale on their broadcasts, they released a corporate statement. The statement read: "There have been no discussions and we're very pleased with our CBS/TNT announcer lineup."

While there's a very real possibility of Barkley & Vitale calling games together, Sir Charles is actually vacating the Atlanta studio where he, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber & Ernie Johnson, Jr. analyze TNT's NBA coverage Thursday nights from time to time. Two weeks ago, Barkley, Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller & sideline reporter Craig Sager were in Miami for the Spurs/Heat game that ended up causing quite a firestorm, costing the San Antonio franchise $250,000 by the NBA when HC Gregg Popovich sent Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili & Danny Green home at the end of a long road trip for rest. Thursday, Barkley, Harlan, Miller & Sager will be in New York for TNT's coverage of the Lakers/Knicks' game. Needless to say, none of the big stars for either team will take the night off...At least that's the plan anyway.

I wish Vitale would go away.

Ditto.

An act. And not a particularly good one either.

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Well, ESPN did give the thumbs up a few years ago to another one of their college basketball analysts in Jay Bilas working NCAA Tournament games for CBS Sports. Jay's supposed to be one of the best in the business, arguably even better than Dick Vitale. However, I didn't see Bilas' name among the CBS/Turner broadcast teams last year for the NCAA Tournament.

One guy who will be new to the Tournament broadcasts, thanks to his new contract with CBS Sports is Doug Gottlieb. Working NCAA Tournament games has long been something on Doug's "bucket list", and soon he'll do just that. I'll be as interested as anyone to find out who Doug will be paired with when CBS, TNT, TBS & TruTV all collaborate again for "March Madness".