To call Dick Vitale an ambassador is give the frequently overbearing former coach the benefit of the doubt.
But who beats college basketball's drum more than the controversial Vitale, who recently began his 15th year at ESPN? Who else has his own rooting section in each arena he enters? Who else could survive all this time with a face made for radio and a sappy vocabulary that is all his own? Dickie V. is a prime-time player. There's no other way to view it. He will be on in prime time tonight during an ESPN triple-header, come back seemingly countless times throughout the winter, and sprinkle in weekend dates on ABC.We've come to learn that it's impossible to turn Vitale off because he's always on. On the air, off the air, it makes no difference. The mouth moves all the time.
Players come and go, but Vitale is here to stay.
As for Vitale's strongest opinions this season, he says, "North Carolina is, without a doubt, the best team in America and the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) is the best conference in the nation."
Thanksgiving leftovers:
Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, who work Saturday's Louisville-Kentucky game seen locally on KJZZ, don't argue with Vitale when it comes to the Tar Heels.
"North Carolina enters the season as the dominant choice for number one," Nantz remarks. "You'd have to be crazy to pick another preseason favorite. If, as expected, they make it to the Final Four in Charlotte, you have the set-up for one of the all-time NCAA championship scenes."
Packer Is even more sure of North Carolina's chances.
"In the past, people have wondered whether there will be another undefeated team in college basketball," he says. "But when we look at Carolina later this season, we'll be asking, `Can anyone beat them?' They will be unbeatable come tournament time and, as early as mid-January, we will recognize this team as one of the great college basketball teams in history."
. . . A year or two ago, the loss of John Daly in a Skins Games would have had ABC executives and the event's organizers in a funk. But Daly has had many more than three strikes, so the hunch here is that many who long stayed in his corner now don't care that he's out.
Daly was replaced by Arnold Palmer, who, unlike Daly, would never think of bringing the game a black eye. The Skins Games has always brought the upscale audience that ABC's golf sponsors seek. This year, even without Daly, should be no different.