Dick Vitale has his voice back, but he still bugs me

Dick Vitale returned to announcing basketball this week. Some people were really excited about it. I am not one of them.

I don't wish him ill. I just don't think he's good at announcing basketball games. He does not provide intelligent analysis; he huffs and he puffs and shouts and manages to say... nothing. Awesome, indeed. The combination of Dickie and Mike Patrick (of Britney Spears fame) is a good example of how far aggressive mediocrity can take you.

Where's the discussion of matchups? Where's an explanation of the offenses and the defenses run to counter them? It's nice when an announcer does some of that work for me. Or you can just scream and yell and never say anything negative about anyone, ever.

happy anniversary: Dick Vitale still has a job

In honor of our 2 year / 300 post anni over here at GJAW (formerly firedickvitale), I thought it would be fun to take a look at an early theme from the blog. Yes, Dick Vitale still has a job, and yes, he's still an idiot. If you think I'm just jealous because Dicky V. gets paid to say stupid shit and I don't, you're right. (image courtesy someecards - get over there and send someone you know an ecard right now.)

Dick Vitale writes like he speaks, and since he speaks like a drug-addled 4th grader, it's not hard to find fault with his writing. Some people probably think he does a good job. Some people think The Secret is full of insight. These people should get together, actualize themselves a brain.

So, Dick, where do we start today? The Stock Watch is too banal. It's lame and empty, but there's no there there. Thus nothing to critique. Ahhh, heeeeeere we are. Surely you can provide us with some insight on this repeated violation? No? How about some redundant idiocy? Perfect.

Down at Indiana, you would have thought Kelvin Sampson and his staff would have taken every precaution to avoid the embarrassment and humiliation of the latest telephone scam.

Would you? I'd have thought he would break the rules again, since he was an inveterate rule breaker at his last job.

On May 25, 2006, the NCAA banned Sampson from taking recruiting trips or calling recruits for one year.

This is important; we will be coming back to it shortly.

There were stipulations placed upon his hire at Indiana. The feeling was Sampson would be under a zero tolerance policy. No recruiting violations would be tolerated.

Is this the same thing as a "zero tolerance policy"? Because you just said that.

I spoke to Kelvin Sampson and he stated that they did not cheat, but they made an error in judgment.

Sampson was not supposed to make any recruiting calls, so he was conferenced in when they called him. And also, he had assistant coaches make calls for him and then put him on the phone in a 3 way conf. call. So technically, the coach didn't make any conf calls. Great leadership, coach. Way to set an example for your incoming guys.

He [Sampson] claims he unknowingly was patched in to calls with an assistant and a recruit.

I do not believe that you are telling the truth Mr. Sampson.

It will be interesting to see how Sampson cleans up this mess. For those who were critical of The General, Robert Montgomery Knight, I simply ask ... was there ever any talk, conversation or innuendo about any violations?

Bob Knight never violated recruiting rules. However, he punched his players, kicked his players, threw chairs/tantrums/fits, berated and physically threatened support staff, erupted at the slightest provocation, and set new standards for awful behavior as a human being in general and coaches in particular. People have written entire books about it. I'm too lazy to find the links describing how awful Bob Knight is, but I did google Bob Knight punch and got 151,000 hits. Start here if you need a refresher.