The Dicky Debate

Beginning in January, we will launch a new site called KSRU, that will feature college students writing features about UK sports, with an emphasis on some of the secondary sports at the school. Over the course of the rest of December, a few of these students will each be writing posts in this space at 9 am to get accustomed to the process. Therefore you will see a variety of names here in the coming days. We hope you enjoy their work and remember, be nice. Good morning, KSR! If you're reading this, I have successfully figured out how to get my first official post on the blog up and running--nothing short of a miracle. I hope that there will be many more to come, and here's to hoping that you will want to see more from me, too. But enough about me... Now that you've had a full day to settle down and approximately 895,234,569 chances to see the replay of Watford's downtown dagger on SportsCenter, I would like to kindly ask you to  think back to Saturday's debacle. For those of you who have already wiped it from memory completely, consult the nearest Indiana fan. Believe me, they can tell you all about it...in excruciating detail. Now, I'm not going to bore you with more talk about the play of Terrence Jones (poor guy) or why Davis and Lamb should, indeed, have made those last free throws. Let's, instead, shift gears and have a little chat about everyone's favorite commentator, who graced us with his presence for UK's first (and hopefully only) loss of the season. I am, of course, talking about Dick Vitale, whose loud, passionate, and arguably obnoxious calls of Duke's the nation's best games have landed him the much sought after title of "The Face of College Basketball" (or, at the very least, certainly voice). While listening to quite possibly the most inescapable voice in the commentating world sing the praises of whatever team was hot at the moment, I found myself caught in one of the biggest internal struggles of my life: Do I love or hate Dicky V? Although I can't claim to have been around when Vitale was a Diaper Dandy himself, it seems to me that there has never been a more controversial commentator when it comes to the gap between people really liking him and really hating him, and the fan base that seems most split on the issue is the Big Blue Nation. On one side of the issue, Vitale seems to have a pretty high ceiling on his likability of the Cats. He's always the first to talk about the passion and intensity of UK fans. He's always the one to give credit where credit is due to UK's coaches and players, and he certainly has everything to be giddy about in the way of superstar freshmen to drool over on this year's UK squad. Plus, did anyone else notice how quickly Dick flicked off the IU cap that Crean wanted him to wear post-game? Just saying. On the other hand, I was literally ready to throw my roommate at our brand new flat screen if Dicky V told--no--demanded Indiana to feed the ball to Zeller one more time. As a friend of mine said during the game, "If that old geezer doesn't shut up about Cody Zeller, I'm going to drive up to Bloomington and punch him in the voice box." I'll be the first to admit that I absolutely love his passionate tangents when they sing the praises of UK, but when they're directed at anyone else--namely Duke, which seems to be the other major beneficiary of Mr. Vitale's services--I find the quickest possible route to the mute button. So, what say you, BBN? Is Dicky V great for the sport, or would you drive the 200 miles from Lexington to IU just to get a shot at him? Maybe a little of both? I look forward to reading your comments on this one. It's great to finally meet you. Here's to kicking off the beginning of a beautiful relationship. IT'S AWESOME, BABY!