PLAY THE GAMES IN SPITE OF WAR.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

Play the games. All of them. On schedule and as planned.

Sing the anthem, tip your caps, have a moment of silence, or if it behooves you, say a prayer.

But play the games. Throw the ball up as slated in every arena across the country.

There is really nothing to be gained by delaying the start of the NCAA Tournament because of President Bush's coming war.

NCAA President Myles Brand said the games might be postponed to be ``respectful of our men and women in uniform,'' but how exactly does this work?

Think soldiers battling in the desert will feel slighted if the tournament and other sports go on as scheduled in America? And if it were somehow actually determined to be disrespectful, what is an appropriate delay?

A day?

A week?

A month?

Tip off as scheduled, all 32 games.

There is a different March Madness here, and many are plainly uncertain how to respond.

This isn't 9-11. This isn't in response to a national tragedy, to an unexpected terrorist attack. Not a nation in shock and mourning.

This is an unusual war for us. We are the aggressors. We are the invaders. To most of the world, we are the bad guys, the bullies.

Our sports leaders are trying to find their way through this, searching for answers, for the right balance to a new equation.

Go ahead and play. It's OK.

The only reason not to is if it was determined security was inadequate. But added security measures have been in place since 9-11. And it's not as though the NCAA didn't know this was about to happen. Bush talked of his deadline weeks ago.

Now, a couple of days before the tournament is to begin, you want to start moving dates around? Arenas and hotels are booked months and even years ahead. Many won't have easy open dates to slide into.

This is not the Super Bowl, which had four months after 9-11 to postpone its event and still struggled to make it happen.

Push it back an entire week and the tournament will cross weekends with the Masters, two of CBS' prime sporting telecasts. Think CBS is on board for a delay?

Move it a week, and you're talking about 13 cities and arenas and 64 schools having to reschedule. If only logistically, it won't happen.

If security at the venues is deemed adequate, the only other element that would warrant delaying the tournament is if the United States suffers massive loss in another terrorist attack in response to invading Iraq.

Ultimately, we know this will happen. It is more a matter of when. At that point, you step back, reconsider, weigh what is going on and how to best respond.

Games seldom have been postponed or canceled because of war. No one ever stopped during Vietnam or Korea. It took World War II to bring a halt to sports.

And this is not World War II. Bush called out Saddam Hussein to this high noon. He's counting on the same kind of quick victory the U.S. had against Iraq in Desert Storm.

If he doesn't get it, if this turns the Middle East into an even more heated firestorm, if the war becomes prolonged, protest at sporting events will grow into something much larger than a lone women's basketball player at a little-known college refusing to face the U.S. flag during the anthem.

``All we are saying, is give peace a chance,'' Bill Walton, the original sports rebel said at the end of his radio report Monday, but the national radio guy wouldn't bite. He wanted to talk basketball.

Just play the games. Sadly, many lives will be lost in Iraq. Lives are lost in war. They are the precious cost.

Does it feel insensitive to play, cause a pang of guilt? If it doesn't feel like there is a perfect response, it's because there isn't. There doesn't have to be.

There is no warm answer we can wrap our arms around during war with which to feel safe and comfortable. You make the best, most logical call you can.

Sports remain a deep constituent of our national fabric. Offer a diversion that is constant and speaks to normalcy.

Around the office water cooler in the coming days, there will be much talk of war, and what is right and wrong. And of basketball.

Go ahead, play the games.

IMPACT STATEMENTS The sports world is deciding how to cope with the threat of war with Iraq:

--Baseball cancels season-opening series in Japan between Seattle and Oakland. --NCAA men's and women's tournaments will go on, but war coverage could push the men off CBS. --Other major sports organizations plan to maintain their schedules amid heightened security. --Plans could change depending on safety risks.

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IMPACT STATEMENTS (see text)