Hold on tight: UK season will be a roller-coaster ride, Vitale says
Four No. 1-ranked teams in the first month of the season should send a message, longtime ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale said Wednesday. The message: No team will dominate; all teams will experience adversity.
“There’s no doubt in my mind you’re going to have a rocky road in terms of up-and-down roller coaster,” Vitale said on a teleconference. “There are a lot of good teams. But there are no dominant teams.”
Vitale, who worked his first college basketball game for ESPN 40 years ago Thursday, said that label of good, if not great fits Kentucky.
“This Kentucky team is going to be a good team,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt. By the end of the (season), it’ll be a good basketball team. Will it be great? Probably not. But they’re going to be good.”
Vitale said he expected Kentucky’s 2019-20 season to be a “typical John Calipari kind of year.” The Wildcats will need time to mesh.
“You start off struggling,” Vitale said. “Then eventually, he gets them to unify, to play the way he wants them to play. I think we’ll see the same scenario.
“There’s enough talent there.”
Ashton Hagans, Immanuel Quickley and Tyrese Maxey give UK a “very good” backcourt, Vitale said before adding that the key for Kentucky will be big men Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery.
An annual reliance on freshmen feeds into Kentucky’s now-familiar scenario of requiring a patient hand, Vitale said. One-and-done players make it “very difficult for these programs to develop that heavyweight powerful team year in and year out,” he said.
Vitale worked the telecast of No. 1 Louisville’s 58-43 victory over No. 4 Michigan on Tuesday. He came away impressed with the Cardinals’ depth, size and ability to defend.
“Last night they showed they’re a legitimate basketball team,” Vitale said of the Cardinals. “They’re No. 1 now. They deserve it right at this moment. But I think we’ve got a season this year that’s going be a roller coaster up there for the top three or four spots. . . .
“For me, it’s setting a stage for a terrific March Madness.”
‘Blows my mind’
As for marking the 40th anniversary of his first game for ESPN, Vitale said the idea of working college basketball games for four decades “blows my mind.”
The game has changed significantly in that time, he said. Players are bigger, stronger, more athletic. It’s not a surprise to see a 6-foot-10 perimeter player.
“It’s gotten away from the low-post center,” he said. “Players are just so athletic.”
Vitale cited greater attention to training, nutrition, scouting and evaluation as factors in the changes he sees.
But fundamental skills — such as shooting — remain important, Vitale said. He noted that Michigan lost at Louisville, in part, because of poor shooting. The Wolverines made only 15 of 58 shots (25.9-percent accuracy). That included 3-for-19 shooting from three-point range.
Vitale, 80, acknowledged becoming emotional near the end of the Louisville-Michigan game when the subject turned to his 40 years as a television commentator. He said his thoughts turned to “how blessed I’ve been. So many people, unfortunately, can’t do what they love to do. They have to make a living.”
To work 40 years seemed unbelievable, he said. “What a journey. It’s exceeded every dream I’ve ever had.”
Next game
Fairleigh Dickinson at No. 8 Kentucky
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
TV: SEC Network
