Dan Shulman/Dick Vitale/Holly Rowe at MSG tomorrow.***

[MSOrange]

I feel sorry for anyone who reads this list of Bill Walton quotes and doesn't LOL at least 15-20 times.

Waltonisms

Holly does mostly Big 12 so I see her quite a bit in my neck of the woods in KC. Not only is she a great reporter, but she's just an amazing all around person with the way she has battled cancer and everyone around here who has met her says she is one of the nicest people you could ever meet.

 

[Trueblue25]

Dont mind vitale, admire and appreciate his passion for the game.

 

[pearl31]

Dont mind vitale, admire and appreciate his passion for the game.

if only he could focus on *the game*

 

[SUintheVille]

We should worry about winning the game, not who calls the game. At least DV has had so much enthusiasm for many years for bball and how he plugs the fight against cancer. He may be annoying to some, but it's Dickey V, let the guy do what he does.

 

[Dave85]

I’ll have the game on mute.

I can't stand Duke Vitale!

 

[Dave85]

if only he could focus on *the game*

I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no reason to say the word "Duke" during a game when they are NOT one of the two teams playing!

Over-under is 6 times. Place your bets.

 

[Symphony Steve]

Vitale reminds me of Lou Holtz, except with a longer track record. Both far exceeded their sell-by date. ESPN fires 150 people and keeps this caricature on the air. He's a novelty act and the novelty has long since worn off.

 

[reedny]

If Walton stuck to the game, he'd be fine. But he doesn't. Not even close. He goes off on ridiculous tangents. I don't know why I am bothering with this. Everyone knows Walton is all over the place.

Agree. He’s discursive. He’s opinionated. And he doesn’t stick to the game. I’m just saying that from an intellectual standpoint, he’s on a different level than DV. He makes lots of historical and literary references that are interesting ... but they come at the expense of his basic job, which is to call the game.

 

[Briancuse]

I think of Dick Vitale like I view Jimmy Carter. Great man who does a lot of good for a lot of people, but leaves a lot to be desired at his job.

Thats actually a very good comparison, I really like Dick as a person, 2 hours of him is just too much for me.

 

[Frozen]

Thats actually a very good comparison, I really like Dick as a person, 2 hours of him is just too much for me.

Two hours of Dick is too much for anybody.

 

[20Plus]

Shulman is good
vitale is THE. WORST. it honestly felt on saturday that neither him nor the pbp guy were watching the game at all - I've sat through some excruciating vitale games thru the years but saturday's took the cake. THE. WORST.

During key part of the game he was talking about the restaurant I mean it was so horrible

 

[Eric15]

Vitale is the single most important person in college basketball history and by all accounts a genuinely good person. I just can't bring myself to get annoyed by him.

 

[elimunelson]

Vitale is the single most important person in college basketball history and by all accounts a genuinely good person. I just can't bring myself to get annoyed by him.

I agree 100%. I take him with a grain of salt but the best ambassador we have had in the game. Not sure the vitriol towards the guy.

 

[Townie72]

I agree 100%. I take him with a grain of salt but the best ambassador we have had in the game. Not sure the vitriol towards the guy.

Let me give it a shot.

He babbles on about nothing or the obvious much of the game. It's like two hours of "College Basketball for Dummies". Tonight I expect a lot about the Big East and the 6-OT game and all that tonight ... which we all know backwards and forwards.

Some times he goes off on tangents that no one cares about.

He says the same thing and makes the same observations over and over again from game to game. He will. of course, blow some smoke up the butt of each team's coach or program. This seems to endear him to some.

Compare the pap he spouts with the intelligence you get from Jay Bilas or Bill Raftery or even flaky Bill Walton.

I guess people feel he's been doing this for so long and therefore is some sort of college basketball broadcast icon.

I wish my TV had some sort of filter on it that selectively blocked his voice. The Mute button is overkill.

 

[RMH44]

I don't mind Dickie V, although intellectually he's not in Walton's league. Walton speaks his mind, is very well read, knows college hoops history extremely well and is far more articulate than "PTPer Baby". The problem is, Walton's dosage is too high. He talks too much, challenges too often and expresses too many opinions. I find him very interesting, but can understand why he might annoy some listeners.

Give Walton a day time talk show opposite Maury Povich where the viewers might actually give two schits about his off-the-wall pontifications. Why force the college BB fans to sit through his acid-dropping induced blather?

FTR, I actually enjoy BW in small doses. End-up turning down the volume in the 2nd half of most of his broadcasts.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Why did Syracuse get the ball after the Chukwu technical.
Why did Syracuse get the ball after a missed FT.
Why didn’t he tell viewers about these charge calls putting a lot of SU guys on the bench.
Vitale didn’t tell the viewer anything about the game. He was all over the place and that broadcast was one of the worst I have ever seen for an ESPN game.

Isn't it the PBP guy's job to tell the audience what is going on?

 

[Alsacs]

Isn't it the PBP guy's job to tell the audience what is going on?

Both guys were terrible.
Dick Vitale is a good person but he doesn’t talk about the game enough.
It’s a 2 hour Dickie V show and he just talks about whatever is on his mind and then will throw in some ohs, PTPers, Diaper Dandies, awesome Babies, praise the coaches and the game is over.

 

[Fly Rodder]

I expect Dick Vitale to spend both games talking about Jimmy V more than the games.

And Kansas and Duke. He sure likes sticking his nose far up blueblood behinds ... such a lickspittle.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Let me give it a shot.

He babbles on about nothing or the obvious much of the game. It's like two hours of "College Basketball for Dummies". Tonight I expect a lot about the Big East and the 6-OT game and all that tonight ... which we all know backwards and forwards.

Some times he goes off on tangents that no one cares about.

He says the same thing and makes the same observations over and over again from game to game. He will. of course, blow some smoke up the butt of each team's coach or program. This seems to endear him to some.

Compare the pap he spouts with the intelligence you get from Jay Bilas or Bill Raftery or even flaky Bill Walton.

I guess people feel he's been doing this for so long and therefore is some sort of college basketball broadcast icon.

I wish my TV had some sort of filter on it that selectively blocked his voice. The Mute button is overkill.

Haha sheesh tell us how you really feel

 

[OttoMets]

Shulman is very good and Holly is the best reporter in the business, but Vitale ruins the whole thing.

A glass half-empty take: Shulman spends too much time setting Dick up for his shenanigans, and Holly fills a totally unnecessary role.

Still, I can't complain about a Vitale game. It's way better than what we get for half the ACC broadcasts. And in five years, 99% of us are going to wax poetic about the days when Dickie V called so many of the big games. (And Shulman does deserve a compliment for being a multi-talented broadcaster with a solid voice.)

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

I'm fine with this.

 

[Madbiker]

Dickie's first 15 minutes are usually pretty good. Then he gets bored with the game and talks about other stuff for most of the rest of the game.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Shulman is fantastic. Dick is Dick. I’m guessing he will keep Dick in line and on a short leash. I know Dick has a lot of respect for Shulman. Shulman definitely knows his stuff and does his homework. Dick not as much anymore. Obviously if we score 85 points, play well, and Dick creaming his pants on TV then the narrative will change with the Dick haters. He’s a terrific guy and personality. He hasn’t approached that Lou Holtz level of scenile takes and the monotone morgue-like tone. He should just retire and continue to enjoy Sarasota but I don’t mind the guy. One thing is that he is all about the game. He’s never been above that.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

So, if I can bring this back up, these guys, and really all of these ESPN guys really piss me off lately.

If I may bring an example. On the Moyer attempted dunk where he nearly got hurt very badly, but probably only bruised a hip, they completely overlooked the actual cause of that. On the play, Moyer makes his move and a smaller guard (4 i think) comes over to contest. If I were to guess, I'd say he was only going to try and swipe the ball out, but he ended up getting hit from behind by his much larger teammate (the big center) and propelled a bit into Moyer, thus the foul and near miss on the tackle on Moyer. The booth showed replay after replay showing exactly what happened, from multiple angles. Never once was it discussed at all.

Talk about the damned game in front of you, not everything but, please!

 

[MSOrange]

Vitale is the single most important person in college basketball history and by all accounts a genuinely good person. I just can't bring myself to get annoyed by him.

Can't argue with that and by all accounts, a fantastic person. That being said, it gets frustrating when he starts rambling on about everything except the game in front of him. Some of this is on Shulman but whenever Vitale announces, I keep the live box score up on my laptop so I can keep track of how many fouls each player has and details like that which are kinda important.