Grip on Sports: Gonzaga game shows that, over the years, ESPN’s Vitale has seemingly grown more Vitale-like
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Woke up this morning and did a quick check. Good. My ears had stopped bleeding. The bout of Vitaleitis was over. Read on.
••••••••••
• My father and I used to argue over Dick Vitale back when I wore a younger man’s clothes. My dad couldn’t stand Vitale’s type of commentary. He would mute the TV if he wanted to watch Duke play Wake Forest or Clemson. Couldn’t take the non-stop, over-the-top noise, he said.
You don’t get it, I would argue. He loves the game. He’s excited. He’s into it. He makes it fun to watch. My dad would scoff, saying Vitale doesn’t say anything. He just yells the same lines over and over.
Dad, you were right. Like a lot of things, it only took me 20, 30 years to figure it out, but you were right. Either that, or Vitale has gotten even more Vitale-like in his waning years.
It came through loud and clear – emphasis on the loud and not the clear – last night during Gonzaga’s wipeout of USF in the West Coast Conference semifinals.
Vitale yelled his way through it with, seemingly, a thousand babies and hundreds of are-you-kidding-mes. Unfortunately for me, my father’s answer, the mute button, was not an option. We are paid to listen, to observe, to follow along.
It’s obvious Vitale still loves the game. No one, and by that I mean no one, has been a bigger ambassador for college basketball and a bigger friend to its related charitable projects than Vitale. For that he deserves praise. A spot in the hall of fame.
But can’t he tone down the act about, I don’t know, 10 percent? Let the game he loves so much breathe a bit? It would be so much easier to watch, to enjoy, to experience.
It’s not going to happen, though. You know, I know it, my dad knew it. And we get to experience it all over again tonight. Oh joy.
• Speaking of TV, if Gonzaga is honestly thinking of leaving the West Coast Conference for the Mountain West, the television situation should be part of it. Yesterday, the GU women played in the WCC semifinals. We watched it. On BYUtv.
Yes, the television arm of one of Gonzaga’s conference rivals. A school the Zags recruit against consistently, especially in non-basketball sports, broadcasting a game on a channel filled with commercials for BYU. OK then.
And the halftime show was dominated by BYU personalities, including former Cougar coach Steve Cleveland, a friend from our shared college days at UC Irvine. During halftime of GU’s game with USF, the crew focused about 90 percent of its time on how well USF was playing. That’s fine but the cynic in me wondered if praising the 500-pound gorilla that is Gonzaga wouldn’t be frowned upon in BYU circles.
Think about it. Would Washington State be OK with their Pac-12 Conference tournament games televised by ASUtv or UWTelevision (if they existed)? No, it would not. And rightfully so.
The conference has a broadcasting arm that works for everyone. So does the WCC. But the West Coast Conference uses one of the conference’s schools to disseminate its broadcast. That’s just wrong.
• So was it or wasn’t it? As someone who has viewed many dunks from underneath the basket, I would like to have seen that view from ESPN last night. Instead I was forced to watch Josh Perkins’ supposed second-half dunk against USF over and over again.
The verdict? It was not a dunk. A layup with a little more elevation than usual by Perkins, sure, but not a dunk. The official stats crew listed it as a dunk, which would make it the first in Perkins’ GU career. But they were wrong. As replay showed they were wrong on one of the blocked shots earlier in the game and a second-half steal. These things happen.
But a Perkins’ dunk? It hasn’t happened yet. Maybe someday. Just not yesterday.
•••
WSU: It’s the time of year for a couple things. It’s time for the Pac-12 to hand out its basketball awards, and Washington State’s Robert Franks won one of the individual ones, most improved player. Theo Lawson has that story. And it’s time for football players to hold their pro days. Theo also has that story despite being in Las Vegas helping to cover Gonzaga and prepping for Wednesday’s start of the Pac-12 tournament. … Theo also explains his top 25 votes. … Tyler Hilinski’s family took out an ad in the Seattle Times to say thank you to Cougar fans. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, the all-conference teams were the focus for most, from Arizona, where Deandre Ayton was the league’s player of the year, to Washington, where rookie Mike Hopkins earned coach of the year honors and Matisse Thybulle was the defensive player of the year. There are also stories about the honorees from Oregon and Oregon State, Colorado and Utah. … The Arizona State story is about something entirely different. … Spring football really gets going this week, with USC, UCLA and Utah joining the fun. … Rule changes will happen. They always do.
Gonzaga: If you want to relive the semifinal win over San Francisco from every angle, Dan Pelle and Colin Mulvany have the photographs that will help with that. … Oh, there re also about 1.5 million words as well. Jim Meehan leads the way with his game analysis, three keys to the victory, a poll story (Gonzaga is No. 6 again) and a story on Perkins’ layup. He also looks ahead to tonight’s final. … John Blanchette has a column on Killian Tillie’s birthday bashing of USF. Tillie loves Las Vegas or so it seems. … Whitney Ogden had to view Gonzaga’s president in a basketball uniform – aren’t their laws about that? – and watched Perkins’ play. … Theo covered BYU’s upset in the other semifinal. … We offered our thoughts about the TV coverage and the guys in the office put together the highlights package throughout the game. … The women are also in the tournament finals after pulling away from USF in the second half. Whitney has an analysis, a look toward today’s final against USD while Theo adds a quick semifinal story and a piece on Emma Stach’s defense. … Dan and Colin also have a picture gallery from the game. … In the other men’s semifinal, Saint Mary’s may be sweating a bit Sunday when the tournament is announced, despite a 28-5 record. The Gaels’ loss to BYU means their chance of winning the automatic berth is over. … The Gonzaga baseball team won again. … The Mountain West rumors are a big deal in Las Vegas.
EWU: The Eagles are on a roll as the Big Sky postseason tournament begins. Jim Allen is in Reno and he previews their chances. … Jim also has the news Bogdan Bliznyuk was the conference’s MVP.
Idaho: The Vandals are looking to make some noise in Reno and Peter Harriman has a preview.
Mariners: The M’s outfield has been decimated by injuries. The quick fix? Bring back Ichiro for a last hurrah. Fine. But how does it end?
Seahawks: It looks as if Earl Thomas is coming back. Others might be gone though. … The Hawks had their eyes on some folks in Indianapolis.
Sounders: If you are confused by Seattle’s early season schedule, you are not alone.
•••
• The week of college basketball just rolls on. ESPN has some name for it, but it was overshadowed yesterday by noise. Maybe I can remember it today. Until later …