University of North Carolina Athletics
Woody: "I'm Just Saying"
April 23, 2014 | Men's Basketball
By Woody Durham
The headline in itself is an overused phrase, but not unlike familiar phrases and certain words used frequently, especially during a basketball season such as the most recent campaign.
I haven't looked it up, but this year's NCAA Tournament had to be one of the most competitive on record. Nearly one-third of the games were decided by five points or fewer, two of which were played by Carolina in San Antonio. Once the Tar Heels were sent nearly 1,400 miles into the southwest, I was committed to following the rest of the action on radio and TV.
St. Louis had already taken out NC State in Thursday's second round when Jean and I drove to Murrells Inlet, South Carolina on Friday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of some close friends. During the drive, we listened to SiriusXM coverage of Duke versus Mercer with John Thompson, the former Georgetown coach and a close friend of Dean Smith, as the analyst. It was the first time I had heard him, and he was good. In the late stages of what turned out to be the Blue Devils' second first-game defeat over the last three years, John pointed out, "Any coach would love to have a team of Duke's talent, but that talent is young, while Mercer has seven seniors on its roster, and five of them are starters. It's often difficult to beat that kind of experience."
By the end of the third round, five of the six ACC entries were back home. Virginia, the conference champ, made it into the East Regional semifinals at Madison Square Garden before falling to Michigan State in another of the many close games, 61-59. That marked the fourth straight year no official ACC entry made it into the Final Four.
There were a lot of broadcasters, analysts and reporters working the NCAA, and most did a good job. However, a few lead announcers slipped in a quip every now and then such as "tickle the twine" on a made basket, and "the bank is open" came on a shot which hit the backboard and banked into the net.
I have searched the basketball rules book from cover to cover and never discovered the use of "rings" to identify certain areas of the playing floor. "Circles" were always good enough for me, and just about everybody else.
A lot of play-by-play types and former coaches have gone to the use of "elbow" to indicate the playing area which is an extension of the free throw line in each lane. In other words, the image is that of a person with his arms at his side. Yet few people working the games ever take time to explain it.
On both radio and TV, there were numerous situations when the play-by-play guy was setting up a game situation, and after explaining his thought process he turned to his analyst and got "No question about it!" Of course, there were times when the analyst rendered his opinion, and all he got from his partner was "No question!"
I haven't forgotten the reporters, most of whom, especially on TV, are women, and you might expect them to be out running around searching for interviews. The normal cue is "She has caught up with so-and-so," even though they have been waiting several minutes to start talking. Hopefully she will start the interview with something better than "Tell me..." or "Talk about..."
There are two things which bother me when watching television. One are the newscasts on both local and network coverage. I have been told the news directors at both levels have asked their anchors to "thank the reporters" who file the stories for each broadcast. Those reporters get paid for what they do, which is probably not enough, so why "thank them" for doing their job unless what they have done is extraordinary?
My second bother is any basketball TV announcer who tells me everything I can see for myself while watching a game. I am reminded of a Jim Nantz story which appears in the 2014 spring edition of LINKS magazine. He is now 54, but at age 26 in 1986 he was picked to work his first Masters by the late legendary TV director Frank Chirkinian. He assigned Nantz to the par-three 16th hole at Augusta, and the rookie wanted to know what he should say if there was a hole-in-one. Affectionately known as the "The Ayatollah" for his dictatorial ways, Chirkinian told him, "You are working in a visual medium. Don't ever tell me something I can already see on my own."
I rest my case!
