It has become obvious over the first two weeks of the NCAA Tournament that time waits for no man, especially he who calls the action on CBS basketball telecasts.

Week before last, Billy Packer, the network's lead analyst since Gerald Ford was president, mentioned that in UNLV the tournament finally had a Sweet 16 team from the "Big Mountain Conference." He meant, of course, the Mountain West Conference.

And last Thursday, Dick Enberg, one of the finest sportscasters, made a mistake that must stick in his craw. With Southern Illinois' Tony Young putting up a 3-point shot with 0.2 seconds left to tie its regional semifinal against Kansas, Enberg shouted: "Young to win it!" When the shot missed and the buzzer sounded, Enberg said, "... or to tie, rather! That three would have tied it." The moment was lost in more ways than one.

This is not to belittle Packer and Enberg. Their career excellence speaks for itself. But this is the spring it became apparent that Enberg, age 72; Packer, 67; and 66-year-old Verne Lundquist, CBS's next play-by-play man behind Jim Nantz and Enberg, will not be around forever. CBS is in the midst of a $6 billion, 11-year contract that runs through 2014. And to most of its audience, anybody over 39 is a geezer.

The question is which announcers can fill their shoes.

As for Packer's successor, Jay Bilas, 43, the one-time Duke player and former assistant to Mike Krzyzewski, is almost certainly the man. What you want from an analyst is something that makes you say, "Aha!" Bilas teamed with Enberg on the Midwest Regional and was consistently insightful.

Working the UCLA-Pitt regional semifinal, Bilas pointed out that the Bruins were winning because their halfcourt defense was forcing Pitt far onto the perimeter, 25 feet from the basket. He spots key nuances. "Instead of a one-dribble move, it's a two-dribble" for the Panthers, he said. "Instead of a 10-foot pass, it's a 14-foot pass."

A while later, Enberg noted that John Wooden brought great defense to UCLA, although of a subtler variety than current coach Ben Howland's. Bilas' pithy comeback: "This is more smash-mouth defense. They just kneecap ya."

Bill Raftery, 63, the analyst alongside Lundquist, and Len Elmore, who was paired with James Brown, are not prime-time material. Raftery's hyper-enthusiasm sometimes produces a back-of-the-throat emotional tremor that makes me cringe. Elmore is a cliché hound: "the big fella" ... "it was all she wrote."

Meanwhile, the personable Brown's strength is in the studio, not in play by play.

Note to all announcing wannabes: Send CBS Sports your résumés.

• THEISMANN OUT -- ESPN's decision to boot Joe Theismann from the "Monday Night Football" booth in favor of ex-Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, announced Sunday, was no shock. The chemistry between Theismann and Tony Kornheiser, who teamed with play-by-play guy Mike Tirico, had grown toxic.

Bottom line: The forever- babbling Joe was just as exasperating as the sarcastic, whiny Tony and the mutual dislike between them was palpable. Maybe ESPN can yet create something in their petri dish.

• ON WOODEN -- HBO's perfectly timed hour-long special Sunday night, "The UCLA Dynasty," was part sports history and part documentary on the 1960s and '70s, a period that nearly tore America apart. But most of all, it was a poetic tribute to John Wooden, college basketball's greatest coach.

"Goodness gracious, sakes alive," Wooden, now 96, may have said in mock disapproval when he watched the show about UCLA's 10 NCAA titles in 12 years and record 88-game winning streak. But the piece, produced by George Roy, deftly captured him and his era.

Enberg mentions that in the nine years he called UCLA games as a young man, he never heard Wooden mention the words "winning" or "losing." That was because most of his coaching was about life and not just the game.

The intergalactic traveler Bill Walton says: "When you're part of something like that it changes your life forever. ... He taught us how to learn. Taught us how to think. Taught us how to dream. Taught us how to be part of a team. He never told us the answers. He just told us how to get there."

The special will be replayed at 8 a.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday and 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Bill Taaffe is a former award-winning TV-radio sports columnist for Sports Illustrated. He can be reached at taaffe-reviewjournal@earthlink.net.