Sports

CBS’ Johnson ruining tourney moments

What A shame. TV and radio executives continue to hand the biggest events and often the most remarkable games to play-by-players and analysts who try to impose their will and egos and their shticks on them, making otherwise terrific games barely tolerable, a test of our wills to try to enjoy.

What CBS’ Gus Johnson did — was allowed to do, even encouraged to do — to the epic Florida-Butler game, Saturday, was the latest pity in an endless series.

Though he applied lots of hip basketball phrases, he again was clearly unsure of what he was hollering about. Yet he screamed his way right through and then past the game and its overtime.

He again tried to wreck a telecast by providing TV audiences his hysterical radio call — including frantic calls of free throws, for crying out loud — while again forcing clever repartee with analyst Reggie Miller, failed gags that should have been whistled for traveling and steps.

Another fantastic game was vandalized by Johnson’s “I-scream-anything-at-everything” new-age “style.”

Even before the tip, Johnson let it be known that this wasn’t our game, this was his game. Butler guard Shelvin Mack, he declared, “Is going to be a pro.” Perhaps. But how would Johnson, who two days earlier asked if BYU should foul with 15 seconds left in a tie game, know?

Johnson kept slamming the hyperbole button. In the first few seconds, after Mack hit a three, he hollered: “Shelvin Mack is a pro!”

Johnson shouted nonsense for 2 ½ hours. Analysts Len Elmore and Miller were again forced to work around him, not with him.

With 50 seconds left in regulation and Mack, obviously, dribbling quickly up-court, Johnson hollered: “Here comes the senior!” He’s a junior.

With 29 seconds left in OT, Butler up by one, Florida called a timeout. Johnson said: “Billy Donovan’s got a timeout left, and he burns it right here!”

Burns it? What was he saving it for?

When CBS returned from commercials Miller and Elmore calmly explained that with likely one possession left, the timeout was used to put in the better shooters. Imagine that, Gus!

Why was Johnson allowed to do this to this game? What made him think he’s good enough to stamp his name over the telecast rather than under it? Is there no one at CBS who can put an arm around his shoulder and gently suggest that he cut it out? Or does Johnson’s act meet and even surpass CBS’ standards?

When the game ended, much of the crowd delirious, Johnson still couldn’t allow something to speak for himself. He tried to shout over it, through it. Whatever he was shouting went unheard. Not a bad thing.

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More on Butler: In the opening seconds, after Florida took a 2-0 lead, Miller asserted that: “It’s very important that Butler gets off to a good start. They play much better when they’re ahead. . . . Butler does not have the offensive personnel, if they’re down, to come back in the ballgame.”

Come on. That’s the opposite of what we’ve seen from Butler in the tournament — last year, too. Last week Butler came from behind to beat top-seeded Pittsburgh, and came from behind in its first NCAA Tournament game against Old Dominion. And halfway through the second half on Saturday Butler was down by 11.

Perhaps most remarkable thing about Butler is not who it has beaten lately, but who it lost to during the regular season. It lost at home to Evansville, which finished 16-16, then, on Jan. 23, lost at home to Milwaukee, which was then 10-11. Seems impossible.

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Butler-VCU in the Final Four — one will play for the national title — is pretty neat, a bit like the Royals-Mariners in the ALCS.

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Kentucky’s basketball program again seems to have the same relationship to college as Jim and Tammy Baker had to the Good (check) Book.

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How is it that throughout the NCAA Tournament, a lot of teams that played with the most “swagger” lost?

Non-golf talk is a bit tricky

MOST TV golf commentators simply can’t talk regular talk when they’re on the air.

NBC’s Dan Hicks, Saturday, to Arnold Palmer: “You’ve been out of the throes of competition for so long.”

Then, Roger Maltbie: “Tiger Woods’ shot has found the water.”

No, it didn’t, Roger, that’s where Woods hit it.

Yesterday, Golf Channel’s Terry Gannon on Steve Marino: “Steve’s had 20 top 10s in his career, but has yet to break through into the winner’s circle.”

Ridiculous, too, is how many commercials are seen within CBS’s, NBC’s and GC’s coverage. Four or five shots, commercials. Four, five shots, commercials. We see more golf in the commercials. By the way, that Nike driver that a smiling Tiger Woods claims to love in that commercial, is that the one he threw on Saturday?

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Friday, the subject of abandoning basketball’s rule against palming or carrying the ball arose here. That moved reader Darrin Cummings to send this: “I was coaching a CYO game among eighth-graders in Port Washington. Ref calls a carry. Then he says to the kid, ‘Sorry, son, not yet. In three years, that’s OK.’ And then the ref runs back down the court.”

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Ya don’t want to miss ex-Gov. Paterson‘s three-hour gig on WFAN, tonight at 10. He’s giving out free Yankees tickets.

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Prediction: If the Yankees get off to anything but a good start, expect to read stories about a simmering stew between team president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman.

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Even with Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, Dolan-ized Madison Square Garden is still loaded with bush-league artificial prompts on when sports’ most sophisticated fans should chant “Dee-fense” and when to “Get Loud!” Could be worse; could be “Get Thirsty!” and “Deep-fried!”