So long, Billy Packer
CBS announced that Clark Kellogg will replace Billy Packer as the lead analyst of college basketball. My initial reaction? So long as somebody did.
Packer long ago wore me out. How he lasted 34 years as the voice of college basketball is bewildering. Must have been a contract thing for Al McGuire not to become the prime color man of March Madness.
Packer was a voice of the establishment; he was Big School, instead of Old School. Saint Joe’s coach Phil Martelli called out Packer in 2004 when Packer ripped the seeding of St. Joe’s No. 1 and Oklahoma State No. 2 in the East Regional, but that was typical Packer. He never seemed to capture the romance of the NCAA Tournament. Always seemed ready to tell us why a George Mason never would crash the ball instead of telling us how it could happen and how glorious it would be. Which it was.
I don’t know how Kellogg will do on the job. But I know it was time, far past time, for Packer to go.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Wherever Billy’s going, can he take Brent Musberger along with him? Talk about someone who’s longevity is bewildering! Brent has got to be the sportscaster who over the years has annoyed me the most. I wondered at how he made the top ten when you ranked all-time sportscasters not too long ago (if I remember correctly, Berry)…