I'm pretty sure that it was the combination of thinking about Vitale's surgery, AA's interview with Gus Johnson, and Arizona announcing that Kevin O'Neill would be Lute Olson's successor that got me thinking about this amazingly awesome idea during one of my 45-minute Kramer style showers.....
With Dick Vitale's declining health and age, now would be the perfect time for him to tab a successor for ESPN college basketball. His successor...........a man named Gus Johnson.
This makes way to much sense. While we expect Vitale to make full recovery, the man is 68 years-old. He won't be calling games forever. And wouldn't Gus be the perfect energy guy to fill the passionate Vitale's role on ESPN? He's clearly one of the most popular and under-appreciated announcers around, and he's currently being wasted by CBS, pretty much calling the entire 2007 Houston Texans season. Why not make the move to ESPN once Vitale steps aside? Sure, that means he'll be off of the NCAA Tournament, but I'm willing to drop one weekend of Gus for an entire season. And it's not like he was going to calling any Final Fours in the near future, as all of the evidence seems to indicate that Billy Packer is not human.
Sure, I'm aware that Gus Johnson is a play-by-play guy and Vitale is color. That's why we'll tab Johnson as the "energy guy" for ESPN college basketball. Doesn't matter where the energy is coming from in the booth, just as long as it's there. I'm sure that there are several color guys who don't scream that you can place next to Johnson. The only one I can see getting burned in this deal is Dan Shulman.
While I know this would ever happen, I guarantee this move would be applauded by 95% of college basketball fans. Because if the Gus move doesn't happen, get ready for a whole lotta Jay Bilas in the future. Think about that...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Dick Vitale's Replacement - Gus Johnson
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11 comments:
I usually like Jay Bilas, but he did a poor job with the Pitt-Duke game last night.
Isn't Gus the pbp guy for the Knicks? Not that he wouldn't give that up, but I think that is his main gig at the time. Along with his CBS stuff.
too* much
I'm in love with this idea
Only if he was doing the play by play. Vitale is the color guy.
Hey moron! Dick Vitale is a color analyst and gus johnson is a play by play guy. The pieces to your puzzle just dont fit jackass.
Hey jackass, did you read the post or just stare at the title?
Is there a way to get him to be with ESPN but allow him to do March Mandness too? Those upsets are just too exciting to let Billy "I kick infants for fun" Packer announce them.
We don't need nor want a replacement for VItale. It has been nice not to have to avoid his presence recently. And while you are mostly correct about one thing - Gus Johnson has the annoying "energy" (as you refer to it) that would be Dickie-like. But we don't need his over-the-top, way-too-excited schtick either. Gus is one of the worst of the recent crop of announcers who are considered ready to bust out. Sorry. Nope. He sucks.
Bill Simmons' little brother is blogging!
Probably the nicest thing I can say about this silly post is that all of us who bothered to read it are now 45 seconds nearer to death
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