Is it ok to admit that I sorta, kinda miss Billy Packer? Clark Kellogg beside Jim Nantz is fine, but Kellogg doesn’t seem to hold opinions or convictions beyond the importance of blocking out and setting high screens.
By now, Week 2 of the NCAA tournament, Packer would have ticked off some, most, or all about something. But he’d take a stand, get our blood angried up, poke at our brains.
With so many foreign players (“old freshmen”) in the tournament, Packer once could have been relied upon to say that he can recall when athletic scholarships to American colleges were first extended to American kids, and how the NCAAs now could pass for a blind-draw Olympics.
And on Day 1, he’d have said that two or three two and three seeds should’ve been eight and nine seeds. And the schools’ coaches, ADs and fans would have had a pep rally to campfire Packer in effigy.
And Packer, who hasn’t called the tourney in two years, reflexively scorned/explained as an ACC shill, would have been right on some things, wrong on some, convinced on all.
But this time of year, he always poured a strong drink, shaken and stirred.
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NBC golf co-host Dan Hicks yesterday noted that John Daly “just can’t stay away from the big holes when he drops shots,” to which Johnny Miller said, “There are a lot of things he can’t stay away from.”
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Woody Johnson‘s desperate sales force will now have you think that a Thanksgiving night game is a new, extra special reason to buy PSLs! Although it’ll be a night game for the NFL Network, remember: Commissioner Goodell says PSLs are “a good investment.”
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At 62-34, Syracuse over Gonzaga yesterday, Gus Johnson told us SU was “on a 15-4 run.” Ya don’t say? Yeah, before that, SU was on a 47-30 run. . . . Not sure which stunk worse, Jim Boeheim, up 24 and 2:08 left, not giving his bench a shot to play, or Johnson and Len Elmore not saying a word about it.
CBS’s Duke analysts, Mike Gminski and Jim Spanarkel, again had a strong tournament. Both so smartly see and speak the floor, no shouting.
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Teddy Atlas‘ latest charitable tribute to his late dad, the Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation Flatbush Gardens Boxing Gym — in concert with NYC Cops & Kids — will be dedicated Wednesday, with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly to attend.
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WCBS-AM now has a deal with WADO 1280-AM for the latter to serve as the Yankees’ Spanish-language station. Even if one no comprende, WADO’s now a sensible alternative to John Sterling. . . . Radio regular “Bruce from Bayside” Lindner is expected home soon after a heart procedure.
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The fraudulent altruism attached to the Erin Andrews caper continues. Tuesday, after the conviction of her video stalker, the ESPN/ABC reporter appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where she and host Robin Roberts agreed that Andrews’ participation on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” has been part of her “healing process.” Ugh.
If Andrews agreed to the GMA interview in order to instill strength in victims of stalkers — as she and Roberts said — then “Dancing With the Stars” would have been assiduously avoided, or, better yet, Roberts would have asked if Andrews’ agreement to perform on DWTS was a way for her and ESPN/ABC to cash in on her victimization.
The outrageous, sexually deviant and felonious treatment of Andrews has been exploited by ABC/ESPN and Andrews for self-promotion and cross-promotion, which is outrageous, too.