The E-Files

Yay Bobby Knight!

Posted by: Eric Loy

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 9:24 PM

When it was announced that Bobby Knight would be hired by ESPN to analyze college basketball, I had some mixed emotions. How would he react to some of the silliness in the studio, and would his legendary surliness cut his broadcasting career short.

But there has been something coming out of this move I really hadn't expected: he's really pretty good at it. Here's an analyst that will actually break down a play into Xs and Os, tell you why a play did or didn't work. In the Vitale-crazed TV era of the past, real coaching insight had been tossed out in favor of screaming, pandering, slobbering goofiness.

There are plenty of good analysts (used to be called "color" men dontcha know) on TV broadcasts. Steve Lavin is among the best for sure, and former flyin Illini Stephen Bardo has turned into a star in that chair. But they haven't gotten the recognition they deserve, getting thrown under the bus by those blinded by the buffoonery of Vitale and that ilk. Maybe the emergence of Knight as a real nuts-and-bolts analyst will change that.

WDWS runs many basketball games from different radio networks, and we get to hear many different announcing styles. I can safely say that Illinois has one of the top teams around for play-by-play for basketball. Brian B is pro all the way, and Jerry Hester has grown steadily into an all-pro candidate. Jerry gives you the listener that extra bit of information that explains why something on the court happened, and/or puts events together to correctly analyze what is ABOUT to happen. If he wants, Jerry will follow Stephen to those same heights.

It's tough complimenting and, Naismith forbid, rooting for Bobby Knight, but that's exactly what I'm doing. More info and less screaming, I'll vote for that.

It's also be nice if he could take a chair to that useless Digger Phelps.

 

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