Billy Packer is frank about sloppy pplay.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

PHILADELPHIA _ Television analysts too often soften their criticism in championship games. They decline to express what the intelligent viewer sees.

Not Billy Packer. As Monday night's Maryland-Indiana NCAA men's title game droned on, Packer and Jim Nantz didn't conceal the fact that this was ugly basketball.

Early in the second half, Packer said the game was "one of the poorest played games I've seen in a Final Four in a long time, particularly after what we were expecting."

Near the conclusion of Maryland's 64-52 victory, Packer said, "This was one of the strangest Final Four games I've seen."

Surely, the nation's viewers ...