The Week In Tv Sports

Highlights

SATURDAY 9/1

? WNBA Finals, Game 2
NBC 3:30 PM
With Coop ( Cynthia Cooper) having flown the coop for a coaching gig with Phoenix and Swoopes (last year's MVP Sheryl) unable to swoop because of a season-ending knee injury, the Houston Comets' four-year reign as WNBA champions came to a close in the opening playoff round at the hands of the Los Angeles Sparks. So who's got next, you ask? Look for mighty LA., behind 2001 MVP Lisa Leslie, to bring another basketball title to Tinseltown.

? UCLA at Alabama
ESPN 7:45 PM
Roll, Tide, Roll, eh? More like Tide Washes Out. That was the theme of many headlines in Tuscaloosa last season as Alabama stumbled to a 3-8 record after opening the season as the AP's third-ranked team. No wonder Mike DuBose, an unbearable 24-23 during his four-year stint as coach, was replaced by Dennis Franchione. The former TCU head man's first Tuscaloosa tussle is a prime-time rematch against UCLA, who started the Tide rolling backward last year with a 35-24 win in 'Bama's season opener.

WEDNESDAY 9/5
? U.S. Men's Soccer Team vs. Costa Rica
ESPN2 10 PM
Thirty-three years ago Dionne Warwick, searching for peace of mind, famously inquired, "Do you know the way to San Jose?" Well, when it comes to San Jos�, the capital city of Costa Rica, there's no peace of mind for the Americans, who are winless in six straight matches in Costa Rica. Tonight's World Cup qualifier takes place at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa, a horror for the opposition, with rowdy fans just yards from the pitch. Will the U.S. finally break its drought in San Jos�? Only Warwick's amigos at the Psychic Friends Network know for sure.

Don't Miss

SUNDAY 9/2
? Yankees at Red Sox
ESPN 8 PM
To be a Boston fan is to have a doctorate in disappointment and a master's degree in masochism, and to be a summa cum laude in Sisyphean struggles. To wit: www.soxsuck.com, a website that offers "a chronological history of amazing Boston Red Sox losses, remarkable collapses and other record-breaking feats." Surfing through the sad state of Sox affairs, one learns that on Sept. 2, 1952—49 years to the day before tonight's showdown at Fenway Park-New York shut out Boston 5-0 and 4-0 in a doubleheader. With both the American League East title and a wild-card spot still within reach, the Red Sox are hoping tonight's finale of a critical three-game series, the first for new skipper Joe Kerrigan against the hated Yankees, won't end up as another entry in Boston's cyberhistory of horrors.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.