Keep posting in game threads please. Game threads run hot and cold… in the heat of the game, most of us hate every call against Michigan and speaking for myself, judgement can be clouded by bias. I appreciated seeing your perspective in the game thread.
3 Likes
Yeah, making us listen to Dick Vitale descend into doddering madness begins to feel like cruelty on the part of his handlers.
3 Likes
Isn’t Vitale awful, Cursed. I muted it after the first FIVE minutes. Seriously, he’s become SO unlistenable. I can be a bit hyperbolic but Vitale is so over the top, so outrageous. He becomes a distraction who detracts from the enjoyment of watching the game! Does ANYONE like his “settle” anymore? I sure don’t? He should really just stick to doing stupid commercials!
1 Like
I was trying to think about my opinion of Vitale. He annoys me, but he doesn’t make me too nuts as long as my team is winning. I respect the fact that he is still so positive and energetic at 200 years old and tries to focus on the brighter side of the game instead of being a know-it-all, hot take machine, or uneducated buffoon.
That being said, I think it would be a funny mash-up to hear some of his schtick from a game he called 25 years ago to now and see if the stories are the same. Gushing over Magic, raving about the blue-blood coaches he loves, throwing around non-sensical nick-names like diaper dandy, and telling revisionist history stories about his time with Detroit or the NBA.
5 Likes
Vitale was horrible as usual but the play by play guy was almost as bad. He sounded depressed anytime Michigan took a bigger lead. The Izzo love was insanely over the top.
3 Likes
He may have gotten better as the game went on, I don’t know, but in the first five minutes I couldn’t stand him! I think it’s great that he raises money for the V Foundation and I think it his TV commercial where he dumps the Gatorade jug over his head is funny.
As for passion, there are few people as passionate as I am, and I’m also 200 years old! 
No, really, I can be pretty wild, just ask anyone who has ever heard me speak or has been in a class where I substitute teach. But there comes a time for everyone when it’s…well, time. I think Vitale is past that time, to be honest.
He has done a lot, and in his own way he is iconic, and I can even listen to him when my team isn’t playing, but I really do think he should stick to raising money, a very noble thing to do, and doing commercials, not always so noble.
1 Like
The thing I can’t get over with him, as opposed to a peer like Raftery is that Vitale, if you notice, will not make a single comment on things occurring during the game anymore. His comments are almost exclusively limited to what can be written in advance. Aside from getting “annoyed” at MSU’s bigs for letting Hunter waltz in front of the basket early in the first half, I can’t think of him ever acknowleding what was occurring.
2 Likes
The thing with Vitale is he’s just being himself 100% so I can’t fault him too much compared to someone that’s disingenuous. And he’s also clearly off his rocker a bit at this point and isn’t as sharp as he once was. At this point he’s a straight up bad announcer but whenever he hangs it up (which should be tomorrow) I’ll be a little bit sad. He’s an absolute hilarious follow on Twitter because he makes the most insane tweets, and just regurgitates Rick Pitino talking points.
For example, one of my favorite tweets of all time:
10 Likes
Vitale is horrible and the announcing wasn’t Hummel-level, but I didn’t see it as overly pro-MSU. I just thought that they wanted to call a halfway competitive game and so were cheering on the underdog to make it more interesting. There’s only so many “Michigan-is-great” takes before it gets boring.
Again, I am, as Mattski will tell you, one of those on here who is least critical of Tom Izzo, and he is, after all, a Hall of Fame Coach, but Izzo is almost a cult figure. He has this cult following and it includes some announcers (Vitale!) and a whole bunch of officials (it seems, because he sure gets his share of calls!) I was literally screaming at Izzo last night as he was working the officials, and I’ve tried to “work” my share of officials.
I DO think Izzo affects the officials’ calls. ChattaM might not agree with me, but I really think he does. While I do know that Tom Izzo is a pretty cool guy off the floor I just think the officials should walk away from him and refuse to listen to him and his antics. Even when he’s calm, which sometimes isn’t often, he is CONSTANTLY “working” the officials. Even when a call goes his way, he’s still workin’ those officials. And then when announcers, like Vitale in his over exuberant way, “fawn” over him, and I’m already mad, I just can’t take it! I can’t take it, I tell ya! 
2 Likes
Depending on if FF means Fab Five or Final Four
The only thing that really bothered me with the officiating yesterday was the 2-3 times we got a shot of a ref practically groping Izzo. Like, I get that’s entirely innocuous really, but you could at least pretend to have some professional barriers while on the court and not engage in such familiar acts.
Then again, maybe he was just attempting to soothe Izzo physically to head off or mollify one of his tantrums. He’s such a child on the court and with the media, it’s embarrassing sometimes.
3 Likes
It’s way too perfect. He’s got to be trolling us.
With under a minute to play, Vitale commented, “They really got to get this Hauser kid going.” And that sums up D*ck Vitale for me. Whatever pops into his head, he’s going to say it. He also made 4 separate Magic Johnson references by my count. He was also under the impression that sleeping on Chris Webber’s porch would be a winning recruitment strategy, had he still been coaching Detroit U. That leads me to wonder which pre-Webber, Detroit U alumni had the misfortune of having Dicky V sleep on his porch. I’ll wait for the documentary to come out on that one.
2 Likes
Let’s not forget Jim Harbaugh had a “sleepover” at Quinn Nordin’s house and climbed trees in the yard with Quinn’s sister!
Final Four. I was responding to a comment that said 1 banner down, 2 to go. So technically they could hang 4 is what I was getting at.
1 Like
That will never not be weird.
For some good fan chuckles here is msu message board fan god rodmsu (formerly st8izger8 on red cedar message board) talking about how he think bates will play at msu. For those old timers this is the same guy that coined 3lein, and Darius “magic” Morris to make fun of um back in the day.
Dickie V wanted to keep Webber in Detroit.
Wonder if he remembered Webber didn’t even stay in Detroit for high school.
Even if this fanfic fever dream came true, would Izzo’s searing hatred for Michigan be focused on UDM instead?