Bringing Together Davidson & Holy Cross

From Bill Simmons' mailbag this past week, a question and (sort of) answer that draws a correlation between Davidson & Holy Cross. Phil and Chaz, this blog and this NCAA Tournament has come full-circle.

Q: So, Davidson is a small liberal arts school with an excellent academic reputation that just made the Elite Eight? Oh and they have free laundry, and their trustees paid for everyone to go to the tournament games? Holy Cross has no excuse now, the precedent has been set. We need to get it together. -- Jon, Worcester, Mass.

• Simmons: Don't get me started. Hey, I'm glad you brought up Davidson. More than a few readers asked why I haven't been writing about college basketball as much this year. Here's the answer: As long as the NBA is running on all cylinders -- and really, it hasn't happened in 15 years -- I don't see why anyone would watch college over pro unless they had a favorite college team (which I don't, thanks to Holy Cross fading into obscurity). Of all the guys we watched in the tournament this year, maybe eight of them could step into an NBA rotation right away, and only two of them (Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley) could start for a decent team. Personally, I'd rather watch basketball played passionately at the highest possible level; the NBA hasn't been this good since the watershed 1992-93 season and the competitiveness of its games has just been absolutely remarkable. I remember the days when maybe 10 regular-season games per year would stand out; now we're getting four or five a week, and that's not even an exaggeration.
  With that said ...
  Nothing in sports can match what happened Friday and Sunday: An underdog school (Davidson) with a Jimmy Chitwood-type hero (Stephen Curry) toppling one high seed and coming within one possession of making the Final Four, and if that's not enough, Gus Johnson was announcing both games and ready to have an on-air seizure if Davidson had scored on the final play to beat Kansas. Of all the sports (college or pro), March Madness is the only time when you can hop on a bandwagon and not feel guilty about it -- whether it's Belmont trying to topple Duke, Davidson trying to make the Final Four, or whatever -- and it's the only time when an athlete can completely alter his destiny in the span of 10 days. For example, Curry wasn't even considered a first-round pick before the tournament started; now he'd probably crack the top-15 if he came out (which he won't), and if that's not enough, we'll always remember him as the kid with the gorgeous jumper who did the Chitwood impression.
  Anyway, I'm not down on college hoops this year -- the Davidson run was incredible theater, and we're headed for one of the greatest Final Fours of my lifetime. Just know that, overall, the NBA product was markedly better as a whole this season unless you had a college team you loved.

1020 & 8101

The Anti-Billy Packer Column

Billy Packer is a humorless, trouble-making curmudgeon. That pretty much sums it up right there. Packer loves to get involved in a story a little too much. He's been doing his shtick since the 1970's and believes that he has become an essential and beloved part of the college basketball landscape, when really, he's become an unoccupied, run-down, bankrupt Orange Julius store on that landscape...laughable, unessential, and way beyond it's time. This doesn't stop Billy Packer from his own unique type of journalism. Now there is "Gonzo" journalism, popularized by Hunter S. Thompson, where the writer essentially becomes part of the story as fact and fiction become blurred, style triumphs over content, and emotions provide context. I believe that there is now "Packer" journalism, popularized (or maybe epitomized) by the crabby Mr. packer himself. Packer journalism, which I fully expect to be taught at universities sometime soon, would include the following: presenting a dissenting opinion at any time (even after it has been proven wrong), mistaking being stubborn for being resolute - and coming back by being even more stubborn, learning how to make yourself the story - even and especially in the midst of a huge story, being old, having the inability to admit when one was wrong, & a 400-level course in not understanding the concept of irony. Here is a brief list of Mr. Billy Packer's past exploits:

• In 1996, Packer calls Allen Iverson a "tough monkey" during a Georgetown game. Packer did apologize and neither Iverson nor Georgetown head coach John Thompson said they were offended by the remark.
• Packer mocked the 1979 Indiana State team's credentials as they were given a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament. Um, that Indiana State team was led by a white guy from French Lick named Larry Bird and they went to the Championship game that year.
• In 2000, Packer had to apologize again...this time for making sexist comments before a game at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. When students asked Billy to show them his press pass, Packer says: "Since when do we let women control who gets into a men's basketball game? Why don't you go find a women's game to let people into?"
• Much like his self-righteous bashing of Indiana State, Packer had problems with St. Joseph's #1 seed in 2004. (St. Joseph's went undefeated until their Conference Championship game that season and made it to the Elite Eight) This resulted in an on-air spat between Packer and St. Joseph's coach, Phil Martelli.
• Packer has this amazing ability to blast the inclusion of mid-major teams year after year, even after multiple mid-major teams make the sweet sixteen, or in the case of George Mason in 2006, make the final four.
• "Fagging Out" - enough said.

Now Billy Packer is not pure evil. He actually knows the sport of basketball rather well. And he's pretty good with the history of the game pre-1992. My point is that he's had his moment in the sun and it's time to move on and open the door for others.

I can't properly do an Anti-Billy Packer column, because the truth is that Bill Simmons already did it. Please check out his piece on The Curse of Billy Packer. If Bill Simmons ever comes across this blog and reads it...do I win a prize? Seriously though...his column on this is really on the ball and really well done.

Here it is Phil...the Anti-Billy Packer Column. I'd love to know your thoughts on the ageless announcer and instigator.