Thursday, February 02, 2006

Vitale statistic

This post is for everyone who refers to Dick Vitale as Dukie V becaue he is such a shill for Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils. Vitale and his regular broadcast partner, Mike Patrick, worked last night's Duke-BC (still hard to grasp this as an ACC game not some Big East-ACC Challenge). Down 17 early in the second half, BC rallied to get back in the game. Trailing by three with about 15 seconds left, BC's Tyrese Rice drove to the basket and collided with Shelden Williams. Both Vitale and Patrick immediately said Williams should have been called for a foul, and said the same thing when they showed the replay. No call was made, Williams got the rebound, and iced the game with two free throws. Yes, Vitale fawned over Krzyzewski throughout the game, and there were way too many shots of Coach K and his posse of three fomer point guards, Johnny Dawkins, Cris Collins, and Steve Wojciechowski sitting next to him like Huey, Dewey, and Louie (the camera rarely catches Mike Jarvis II in the shot; he has been at Duke the last two years as "Head Team Manager," but is basically a fourth assistant). But Vitale had love for everyone who showed up on camera last night. BC Coach Al Skinner, Doug Flutie, Tim Russert, Bob Kraft, and the anonymous cheerleaders, bandmembers, facepainters, and babies in BC gear all got shoutouts from Dickie V. He doesn't just drop names, he detonates them. Twenty years ago, I liked Dick Vitale's schtick, then I grew tired of it, but now I accept it and realize that he can call a pretty good game in between his effusive outbursts. And sometimes I just hit the mute button and watch the game.

No comments: