The Week In Tv Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 3/4
?U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships
NBC 2 PM (LIVE); ESPN MIDNIGHT (TAPE DELAY)
Brandishing a pole and wearing nothing but thigh-high boots with spiked heels, Stacy Dragila hardly resembles the traditional image of a matriarch. Dragila, who recently posed in such scanty regalia for a women's sports calendar, won the first women's pole vault at the world indoor championships (in 1997) and at the world outdoors (in '99). The rancher's daughter from Auburn, Calif., will be looking to hit the heights at the Georgia Dome.

SUNDAY 3/5
?Red Wings at Stars
ESPN 8 PM
Dallas's leading scorers are most likely its leading snorers. Already this season Mike Modano (29 goals through Sunday) and Brett Hull (19) have suffered broken noses, a sure recipe for clogged nasal passages. The Stanley Cup champs lull opponents to sleep by clogging the neutral zone: The Stars were atop the Pacific Division despite having scored a Western Conference-low 154 goals.

MONDAY 3/6
?Raptors at Trail Blazers
TBS 10:30 PM
Scottie Pippen is no xenophobe. Over the course of his 13-year career, Pippen has soldiered alongside, among others, an Australian ( Luc Longley), a Canadian ( Bill Wennington), a Croatian ( Toni Kukoc), a Nigerian ( Hakeem Olajuwon), a Rodman (Dennis) and, now in Portland, a German ( Detlef Schrempf) and a Lithuanian ( Arvydas Sabonis). Tonight Kofi Pippen draws the defensive assignment against Air Canada, Vince Carter.

WEDNESDAY 3/8
? Big East Tournament
ESPN2 11 AM and 7:30 PM; ESPN 1 PM and 9 PM
Unlike ESPN, the Medieval Times restaurant chain offers dinner with its tournaments. Also, as its Web site attests, "Your own medieval serving wench or serf... attends to your every need." So that's what became of Sonny Vaccaro! A showcase for ranked schools such as St. John's (which last Saturday conquered a Duke), Syracuse and defending national champion Connecticut, this tournament also offers a drawbridge into March Madness for court jesters Notre Dame (16-12 through Sunday), Seton Hall (19-7) and Villanova (17-10), none of whom can afford a first-round lancing. Tomorrow will see the tap-offs of two other major tournaments: the Big Ten ( ESPN2, 2 p.m., and ESPN, 4 p.m.) and the ACC ( ESPN, 7 p.m.).

Don't Miss
THURSDAY 3/9
? Stanford at Arizona
FOX SPORTS NET 10:30 PM
Sitting here in my boxers, watching Matt Lauer of Today interview comely California nurse and Fox insta-bride Darva Conger, I'm wondering if she'll sign on for Who Wants to Sponge-bathe a Sportswriter. Talk about a Pacific 10! On to a different Pac-10: At week's end the Cardinal (24-1, 13-1) was No. 1 in the nation but only tied for the top spot in its conference with the No. 3-ranked Wildcats (24-4, 13-1). In Arizona's 68-65 win at Maples Pavilion on Jan. 8, Stanford freshman center Jason Collins (above) grabbed eight rebounds but his classmate, guard Casey Jacobsen, went 0 for 6 from beyond the arc.