Sidelines

Game over: Billy Packer out at CBS

The Miami Herald is reporting this morning that the analyst college basketball fans love to hate, Billy Packer, is out at CBS after 28 seasons.

We posted back in April the existence of a strong rumor in San Antonio that Packer's 34th consecutive Final Four would be his last. Turned out that was true.

Packer confirmed the story to the Herald. He is to be replaced by Clark Kellogg, who will move from the studio to join Jim Nantz at court-side.

Have to say I never got as worked up about Packer as most college hoops viewers. In Packer's defense, he concentrated on the game, unlike a couple of other high-profile color men we might mention. He said what he thought, which at times created controversy and pricked the skin of many fans.

Personally, Billy was/is as confrontational as he often is on the air. The first time I attempted to interview him for a story -- Denny Crum's decline at Louisville -- he wasted no time informing me that was an incorrect premise. I remember once being on a flight with Billy around the 2000 presidential re-count in which Packer was debating a legal student over the merits of each case. He doesn't go along to get along.

''I think Billy has given the most professional accounting of basketball in the history of our game as a commentator,'' Louisville coach Rick Pitino says in the Herald story.

I would go along with that. Love him or hate him, Packer was and is a professional. Considering his mini-rivalry with Dick Vitale, wouldn't it be something if Billy ended up doing some games for ESPN this year? My guess is that's where Packer will land.

Program note: Filling in for Chris Cross

I'm filling in for the vacationing Chris Cross today at 4 p.m. on WLXG-1300 in Lexington.

Come on, 67% of the people can't be wrong

Taking a cue from Deadspin, Matt Jones and the good folks (I can say that now) at the Kentucky Sports Radio blog have started doing Media Approval Ratings of Kentucky media members.

Great idea (I can say that now).

They began yesterday with -- yikes -- me.

I'm telling you this now because the polls have closed, and just in the nick of time.

I actually received a (surprising) 67 percent approval rating.

Hey, I can't get above a 50% approval rating from my wife.

Actually, if you put me in with the Deadspin leader board, I think I would be tied with John Kruk, just below Craig Sager (69%) and just above John Madden (65%) and Beano Cook (65%).

(By the way, I love Beano Cook. Caught him yesterday talking about Jim McKay. Great stuff. Seriously. I'm no Cowherd fan, but the two are great together.)

Anyway, they're analyzing Dick Gabriel right now, if you want to join the fun.

Here's the link: Kentucky Sports Radio

ESPN's early college football TV selections

ESPN has sent along its early choices for telecast this coming college football season:

Thursday, August 28

• 7:00 p.m.  ESPNU   Vanderbilt at Miami (Ohio) *  
• 8:00 p.m.  ESPN    N.C. State at South Carolina *

Saturday., Aug. 30  

• 3:30 p.m.   ABC (ESPN2) ~   USC at Virginia
• 3:45 p.m.  ESPNU   Delaware at Maryland   
• 5:00 p.m.  ESPN    Appalachian St. at LSU 
• 6:45 p.m.  ESPN2   Mississippi State at Louisiana Tech
• 8:00 p.m.  ABC     Alabama vs. Clemson (from Atlanta)    

Sunday, Aug. 31

• 3:30 p.m.  ESPN    Kentucky at Louisville *      

Monday, Sept. 1

•  8:00 p.m.  ESPN    Tennessee at UCLA *   

Thursday, Sept. 4  

• 8:30 p.m.  ESPN    South Carolina at Vanderbilt *

Saturday, Sept. 6

• 3:30 p.m.  ABC (ESPN2) ~   Mississippi at Wake Forest    
• 3:45 p.m.  ESPNU   Richmond at Virginia   
• 8:00 p.m.  ESPN    Miami at Florida      

Saturday, Sept. 13

• 12:00 p.m.   ESPN or ESPN2   California at Maryland
• 12:00 p.m.   ESPNU   Navy at Duke
• 3:30 p.m.     ABC     Arkansas at Texas *
• 3:30 p.m.     ABC (ESPN) ~    Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech
• 3:45 p.m.     ESPNU   Chattanooga at Florida State
• 7:00 p.m.     ESPN2   Auburn at Mississippi State   

Saturday, Sept. 20 

• 8:00 p.m.    ABC     Georgia at Arizona State *    

Thursday, Oct. 23

• 7:30 p.m.       ESPN    Auburn at West Virginia *

* Previously announced
~ Game will be part of a split national telecast and available on ESPN or ESPN2 in markets receiving second game (to be announced)

The return of Rick Reilly

Former Herald-Leader intern Teddy Greenstein, now of a little paper called the Chicago Tribune, writes this morning about the return of Rick Reilly, who makes his ESPN and ESPN the Magazine debut next week.

Highlights:

• Reilly's deal with the worldwide leader is a reported $17 million over five years.

• Reilly's first column for the magazine is about the recent death of his father.

• He will be doing stuff for ESPN from the Belmont next week.

• He is in the process of developing a monthly TV show for the network.

Deadspin gives its spin to the return of Riles and how it might affect Bill Simmons.

Bloomberg article on Reilly: ESPN's next superstar starts revving up his pen.

Program note: WLXG appearance

I'm to be on WLXG with Chris Cross and Mike Cameron in the 6 p.m. hour tonight to talk about 8th-grade recruiting.

That's 1300 on your AM dial.

No. 102 may have been Packer's final number

Monday's NCAA title game marked the 102nd Final Four game broadcast by Billy Packer.

It may have also been his last.

That was the word on the street in San Antonio, that the 68-year-old Packer may be either stepping down or yanked down from his long-time CBS analyst chair, to be replaced by a younger presence, say possibly CBS colleague Clark Kellogg.

Packer told the Los Angeles Times' Christine Daniels that, "When I do my game, the last game, the last game will be like the first one. I'll put a headset on, I'll take a headset off. It will be what it is."

Asked by USA Today if this was his last Final Four, Packer replied, "Who knows?"

As for his longevity, Packer said, ""It's something I almost feel bad about, that for so many guys this is their given profession and they worked their tail off and it never paid off for them."

Packer created a mild controversy when he declared that the Kansas-North Carolina semifinal was "over" with Kansas leading 40-12 in the first half, only to have Carolina cut the lead to four points in the second half.

And Packer picked up another critic at the Final Four: David Stern. At a Monday press conference to announce a joint NBA-NCAA initiative to take over summer basketball, Stern was asked why the NBA and the NCAA had not enjoyed a closer relationship. The NBA commissioner put the blame on ex-NCAA head Walter Byars. But then Stern said that had continued with Packer.

"“There was an ongoing feud initiated by Mr. Byers that all things professional should be disassociated from college basketball. As a result, the harmony between our games was disrupted. The last remaining vestige of Mr. Byers’s approach is Billy Packer. He won’t mention a professional player or the N.B.A. in his occasional tirades. The rest of the announcers and the like, the harmony between our games is actually named. They’ll say whether someone is a lottery pick or a pro prospect or not or if someone had a relative that played in the pros. This is one great game, whether it’s a high school component or a pro component. We work together now with all of those various components in a very productive way.”

Links:

• John Ryan says Packer is "gloriously old." [San Jose Mercury News]
• NCAA Tournament Loser: Billy Packer. [San Jose Mercury News]
• Packer set to call 100th Final Four game. [Houston Chronicle]

Rookie will do UK-Marquette game for CBS

Carter Blackburn, a 28-year-old, who does games for CSTV, will be broadcasting his first NCAA Tournament game on Thursday when Kentucky plays Marquette here in Anaheim.

Blackburn, shown at right with ex-Xavier coach Pete Gillen, was once doing games via cellphone. Now he'll be working with Jay Bilas, who openly questioned UK's NCAA Tournament profile before Selection Sunday. (Perhaps Bilas was bending over backwards to be objective. His niece is a student at UK.)

A Texas native who now lives in Austin, Blackburn told the The Quad, a blog by the New York Times, "Here’s betting that the number of Fred Thompson’s delegates at the Republican Convention is greater than the hours of sleep Billy Gillispie got this week, preparing for his first N.C.A.A. tournament as Kentucky’s head coach."

Billy G. on PTI

Billy Gillispie is everywhere today.

First he was on Mike & Mike this morning on ESPN radio.

Now, at 5:30, he'll be on PTI with Kornheiser and Wilbon.

In case you don't know, the show airs on ESPN.

Program note: Billy G. on the radio

Billy Gillispie is scheduled to be on Mike & Mike this morning at 8:45.

That's ESPN radio, which is WLXG-1300 locally.