Is Jim Harrick good for the college basketball? Is the controversy engulfing the Harrick family and the University of Georgia overshadowing and ruining March Madness?

These questions are so embarrassingly naïve and silly that I already regret addressing them. But address them I must. It appears that many of my sports-writing colleagues have no idea what makes television such an influential, captivating force.

	Tony Cole was brought in for NCAA sweeps.

Questioning the Harrick family's contributions to the long-running TV show "NCAA Division I College Basketball" is the equivalent of arguing J.R. Ewing's importance to "Dallas," Massa Reynolds' relevance to "Roots," O.J. Simpson's role in the "Trial of the Century."

Every good TV show needs a diabolical villain, someone who makes the viewer's skin crawl every time he/she graces the screen, someone we love to hate.

In the season that saw the new reality TV show "LeBron James Receives a Hummer" steal ratings points and some of college basketball's hype, the Harrick-Tony Cole he-said he-said is really just what "NCAA College Basketball" needed. The timing couldn't be better. March is sweeps month for CBS and ESPN, the primary networks that broadcast games, and we now have a juicy storyline that we can be regaled and enthralled by.

Yes, the storyline is old, cliché and obvious. Stop the presses! There's academic and financial fraud in major college basketball.

But, really, there are no new plotlines when the story is good vs. evil. Whatever the Bible didn't cover, daytime soap operas did. Nope. What makes Jim Harrick the star of this season was the performance he put on during his sitdown interview with Dick Vitale on ESPN. If that scene doesn't garner Harrick an ESPY, I'll resign from my post as a member of the ESPY Academy.

Al Pacino couldn't have lied with a straight face any more effectively than Harrick. And let's don't overlook the fact that Harrick's performance brought out a scene-stealing performance from Vitale.

Dickie V, the coach-turned-celebrity broadcaster, was outstanding as a journalist/interviewer. Many of my peers have been critical of Vitale, because Vitale referenced on a couple of occasions that he and Harrick were longtime friends and because Vitale expressed affection for Harrick and Harrick's family.

The criticism is bunk. That's what made the interview great. Here was a respected friend nailing Harrick with tough question after tough question. Vitale's interview was honest and fair and riveting. Sportswriters oftentimes do the same kind of "ass-kissing" during an interview, but the reader never sees it. It's left out of the writing. Martin Bashir, the Michael Jackson chronicler, probably made his bones as a sportswriter.

Vitale is the sports equivalent of Barbara Walters. He's just as big a celebrity as the people he covers. Compare Walters' recent kissy-face interview with Robert Blake. Vitale was much tougher on an accused television buyer/grades fixer than Walters was on an accused murderer.

Vitale's interview was a fine piece of TV journalism. All that was missing was a lie detector strapped to Harrick's body or a ruler super-imposed on Harrick's nose.

	Mr. Harrick, we will see you at the ESPYs.

The other benefit from the Harrick flap is that now Jeremy Schaap, the ESPN reporter, is a bona fide superstar. Schaap is the journalist who unmasked Harrick as a (possible) cheat. Harrick blasted Schaap for "ambushing" him for an interview.

The country first took notice of Jeremy Schaap when Bobby Knight tried to bully him during the Neil Reed-choking interview. In a classic exchange, Knight claimed that young Jeremy would never be a Dick Schaap, Jeremy's father and an acclaimed, highly respected multi-media personality.

Knight's unstated-but-clear accusation was that Schaap was making a living off his father's name.

Well, I knew Dick Schaap. Dick Schaap was a friend of mine. And Dick Schaap would be very, very proud of young Jeremy. Jeremy is turning into a likeable Jim Gray and a Geraldo Rivera with substance.

As a journalist you have to be doing something right when you've been dissed by Knight and Harrick.

Send me my ESPY ballot! Jim Harrick and Dick Vitale can duel it out for Best Leading Actor. Schaap is the runaway choice for Best Supporting Actor. And "NCAA Divison I College Basketball" is the big winner once again.

Jason Whitlock is a regular columnist for the Kansas City Star (kcstar.com), the host of a morning-drive talk show, "Jason Whitlock's Neighborhood" on Sports Radio 810 WHB (810whb.com) and a regular contributor on ESPN The Magazine's Sunday morning edition of The Sports Reporters. He can be reached at ballstate0@aol.com.