Like WSU, Vitale at the top of his game
Mar 14, 2007 23:17:37 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Mar 14, 2007 23:17:37 GMT -5
www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/college/wsu/2007/03/14/ddn031507mccoy.html
Like WSU, Vitale at the top of his game
Thursday, March 15, 2007
SARASOTA, Fla. — Nobody saw Dick Vitale at a Wright State University basketball game this season, mainly because he wasn't there. But that doesn't mean he is uninformed about the Raiders.
If it's college basketball, the vitality-full Vitale knows every scrap of information available, as he proved Wednesday while sitting 1,000 miles away from Dayton at the Broken Egg restaurant in Lakewood Ranch, a Sarasota suburb.
The Broken Egg is the ESPN college basketball analyst's regular haunt when he is home. An outside table where he sits includes a stack of newspapers at his feet and a Sharpie on the table to sign every autograph request, chat with every fan, pose for every photo request.
"I've lived here 17 years and it is paradise living here, every day is a vacation," he said.
As he talked Wednesday about Wright State, he awaited a call from a doctor with word about an early-morning physical. He fretted about the results until the call came and the 67-year-old bundle of kinetic energy was given good news. A smile creased his craggy face.
"I've gone from 201 pounds to 185 pounds in three-and-a-half months," he said. "I quit late-night snacks and all bread. Everybody made fun of me at Italian restaurants. I ate every piece of bread I could get my hands on."
When he talked about Wright State's season and tonight's NCAA tournament game against Pittsburgh, it was as if Vitale saw every game this season.
"Brad Brownell was on the fast track at UNC-Wilmington and I was surprised the Wright State athletic director (Mike Cusack) was able to get him. Now I'll be interested to see if they can keep him because he is a bright guy who did a phenomenal job this year.
"I know Wright State started something like 3-5 and lost to Chicago State and got blown out at LSU by 25 and lost by 31 to Butler," Vitale added, talking off the top of his head with no cheat sheet. "Then to come back and do what they've done is just unbelievable."
While he credited Brownell, he also praised former coach Paul Biancardi, who resigned after last season because he was caught up in the Ohio State scandal while he was an assistant there.
"Paul is a friend and what happened to him is a shame," said Vitale. "Too many times assistant coaches get caught up in what happens under a head coach and pay the price, and that's too bad. Biancardi laid the groundwork for what happened this year, built the foundation and people shouldn't forget that. Then Brownell did an incredible job of turning things around this season. He is one of the rising stars in coaching."
Vitale, always an optimist, also is a realist and puts it on the line about Wright State's chances tonight.
"Wright State is one of college basketball's amazing stories this year, but they'll have a tough time surviving Pittsburgh," he said. "How well they can control the tempo, keep it close early in the game, will determine how well they do.
"I know Wright State plays great defense, really gets after it and holds opponents to about 60 points a game, but they aren't very big and they'll have a tough time inside against Pittsburgh."
Vitale calls Wright State star DaShaun Wood the real deal.
"That kid can really play," he said. "He is phenomenal. And I like those two freshmen, Vaughn Duggins and Todd Brown. Jordan Pleiman is a good player, too."
As he talked, a USA Today was spread in front of him and Vitale circled information on college teams. The St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, New York Post and New York Times were on the floor, already read, already marked up.
"I'm not good on the computer, but my daughter makes printouts for me from sportspages.com," he said. "If I'm going to do a Duke-Wake Forest game, she makes printouts of stories on the teams from the Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem newspapers and I read them on the plane going to the game."
Vitale has a friend in Sarasota with a private jet, and most of the time he flies Vitale to and from games so he can spend more time with his family.
"I can't believe that in a span of eight years, from 1970 to 1978, I went from a grade-school teacher in New Jersey to coach of the Detroit Pistons, with a stop in between as coach at the University of Detroit," he said.
After he was fired by the Pistons, he was offered a job at ESPN to analyze basketball. And 28 years later he not only still is doing it, he remains on top of his game, as eager and devoted as ever.
"If I had stayed in coaching, I would have been dead by the time I was 50," he said. "I couldn't handle losing, just couldn't stand it. My family paid a big price when I coached. I was coaching 24/7. You might make a lot of money in coaching, but you earn every dollar. You are overly scrutinized, like poor Tubby Smith at Kentucky.
"Now I'm living the dream and people ask me when I'm going to retire and I tell them, 'I've been retired for 28 years. I'm not working, I'm doing something I love.' The day I lose my enthusiasm for the game, nobody will have to tell me. I'll know it and I'll quit."
After sitting for an hour with Vitale at the Broken Egg and listening to his voice, an excited crescendo at the end of each sentence, only his health can stop him. And if you watch him play tennis or run the beach at Siesta Key, mark him down for about another 20 years of screaming on the air, because he isn't ready for a T.O, baby, and he remains a PTPer, a prime-time player. He isn't, though, a diaper dandy. He just carries himself that way.
Contact this reporter at
hmccoy@DaytonDailyNews.com.
Like WSU, Vitale at the top of his game
Thursday, March 15, 2007
SARASOTA, Fla. — Nobody saw Dick Vitale at a Wright State University basketball game this season, mainly because he wasn't there. But that doesn't mean he is uninformed about the Raiders.
If it's college basketball, the vitality-full Vitale knows every scrap of information available, as he proved Wednesday while sitting 1,000 miles away from Dayton at the Broken Egg restaurant in Lakewood Ranch, a Sarasota suburb.
The Broken Egg is the ESPN college basketball analyst's regular haunt when he is home. An outside table where he sits includes a stack of newspapers at his feet and a Sharpie on the table to sign every autograph request, chat with every fan, pose for every photo request.
"I've lived here 17 years and it is paradise living here, every day is a vacation," he said.
As he talked Wednesday about Wright State, he awaited a call from a doctor with word about an early-morning physical. He fretted about the results until the call came and the 67-year-old bundle of kinetic energy was given good news. A smile creased his craggy face.
"I've gone from 201 pounds to 185 pounds in three-and-a-half months," he said. "I quit late-night snacks and all bread. Everybody made fun of me at Italian restaurants. I ate every piece of bread I could get my hands on."
When he talked about Wright State's season and tonight's NCAA tournament game against Pittsburgh, it was as if Vitale saw every game this season.
"Brad Brownell was on the fast track at UNC-Wilmington and I was surprised the Wright State athletic director (Mike Cusack) was able to get him. Now I'll be interested to see if they can keep him because he is a bright guy who did a phenomenal job this year.
"I know Wright State started something like 3-5 and lost to Chicago State and got blown out at LSU by 25 and lost by 31 to Butler," Vitale added, talking off the top of his head with no cheat sheet. "Then to come back and do what they've done is just unbelievable."
While he credited Brownell, he also praised former coach Paul Biancardi, who resigned after last season because he was caught up in the Ohio State scandal while he was an assistant there.
"Paul is a friend and what happened to him is a shame," said Vitale. "Too many times assistant coaches get caught up in what happens under a head coach and pay the price, and that's too bad. Biancardi laid the groundwork for what happened this year, built the foundation and people shouldn't forget that. Then Brownell did an incredible job of turning things around this season. He is one of the rising stars in coaching."
Vitale, always an optimist, also is a realist and puts it on the line about Wright State's chances tonight.
"Wright State is one of college basketball's amazing stories this year, but they'll have a tough time surviving Pittsburgh," he said. "How well they can control the tempo, keep it close early in the game, will determine how well they do.
"I know Wright State plays great defense, really gets after it and holds opponents to about 60 points a game, but they aren't very big and they'll have a tough time inside against Pittsburgh."
Vitale calls Wright State star DaShaun Wood the real deal.
"That kid can really play," he said. "He is phenomenal. And I like those two freshmen, Vaughn Duggins and Todd Brown. Jordan Pleiman is a good player, too."
As he talked, a USA Today was spread in front of him and Vitale circled information on college teams. The St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, New York Post and New York Times were on the floor, already read, already marked up.
"I'm not good on the computer, but my daughter makes printouts for me from sportspages.com," he said. "If I'm going to do a Duke-Wake Forest game, she makes printouts of stories on the teams from the Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem newspapers and I read them on the plane going to the game."
Vitale has a friend in Sarasota with a private jet, and most of the time he flies Vitale to and from games so he can spend more time with his family.
"I can't believe that in a span of eight years, from 1970 to 1978, I went from a grade-school teacher in New Jersey to coach of the Detroit Pistons, with a stop in between as coach at the University of Detroit," he said.
After he was fired by the Pistons, he was offered a job at ESPN to analyze basketball. And 28 years later he not only still is doing it, he remains on top of his game, as eager and devoted as ever.
"If I had stayed in coaching, I would have been dead by the time I was 50," he said. "I couldn't handle losing, just couldn't stand it. My family paid a big price when I coached. I was coaching 24/7. You might make a lot of money in coaching, but you earn every dollar. You are overly scrutinized, like poor Tubby Smith at Kentucky.
"Now I'm living the dream and people ask me when I'm going to retire and I tell them, 'I've been retired for 28 years. I'm not working, I'm doing something I love.' The day I lose my enthusiasm for the game, nobody will have to tell me. I'll know it and I'll quit."
After sitting for an hour with Vitale at the Broken Egg and listening to his voice, an excited crescendo at the end of each sentence, only his health can stop him. And if you watch him play tennis or run the beach at Siesta Key, mark him down for about another 20 years of screaming on the air, because he isn't ready for a T.O, baby, and he remains a PTPer, a prime-time player. He isn't, though, a diaper dandy. He just carries himself that way.
Contact this reporter at
hmccoy@DaytonDailyNews.com.
