V

He is Dick Vitale, a college basketball icon and he is Awesome Baby!!

[Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Staff writer Roger Mills caught up to Dickie V at his home in Sarasota and asked him some tough -- and not so tough -- questions. Here’s what Vitale had to say . . . and then some.

By ROGER MILLS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 20, 2003

RM: Do you sleep?

DV: I tell you what, I do sleep. A lot of people think that I don't get my sleep, but it's not true. Day to day, I get a solid six hours.

RM: Where? On planes? In cars?

DV: I sleep everywhere, but I do sleep on planes, and thank God I can. I make sure, no matter when I get home, that I get my sleep. I'm a fitness freak. I don't eat red meat. I haven't had red meat in over a decade. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I drink a lot of water and I play tennis every morning when I'm home. I try to take care of my personal stuff and still have ample time, but it's important to slip in those six hours of sleep. I may have to cheat, but I get them in.

RM: Who does the best Dickie V impression?

DV: That's easy, Brad Nessler. I work with him at ESPN. Last year, at the Final Four, they had a Dickie V sound-a-like contest, he jumped out and was terrific.

RM: So, what's the trick to the whole Dickie V impression?

DV: I think it's energy and the hands. You have to have a lot of animation. You know, it's amazing I went to see the Pirates play the other day and as I pull up my car, the players are shouting, "It's Awesome Baby! Prime Time Player! Get a T-O Baby." It's hilarious. I get that every day.

RM: I would get tired of it.

DV: Not at all. It's flattering. I don't think there's a day in my life that I go somewhere where I don't get that. I know my bald dome gives me away a lot. I can't hide.

RM: Favorite signature call.

DV: Wow, wow. There's so many of them. ... I would have to say, "Prime Time Player." That's special when you think about it. But then again, "It's Awesome Baby" is also special. You know, I learned a lot of those things back in the day when I was coaching. Players would come up to me and say, "Coach, when can I get some PT? How am I going to show my stuff?" So when I got to TV, I just transferred that over. Now, it's become a part of the college basketball vocabulary.

RM: Best college basketball team of all time would be?

DV: There have been some great ones. But the college team I appreciated the most and loved the most was the last unbeaten team. The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers. Now, would they have beaten the UCLA teams with Lew Alcindor, would they have beaten the Bill Walton teams? I don't know. Because they didn't have a player the caliber of Alcindor or Walton. But, as a team, they epitomized everything that as a former coach you want to see. And I'm talking about shot selection, defensive pressure, the ability to make the big play, well drilled and coached in every phase of the game.

RM: I can't buy that. They would not have been able to match up with some of the dominant teams in recent years.

DV: They could have held their own against anybody, they were that talented. They had a special toughness to them mentally. We're talking about Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson, Scott May was the Player of the Year, Kent Benson was the center and Tom Abernathy was the big power forward. Something has to be said for the fact that it was the last team to go undefeated. It may be that we will not see a team run the table again.

RM: Never say never.

DV: First of all, scheduling has become a lot tougher, television has matched up teams and in the early season, you're not playing cupcakes like you used to do years ago. Unbeaten teams are history.

RM: Why is there more parity in college basketball today?

DV: The 3-point shot, especially if you get one or two kids who can make the 3. I've seen games where the superior team loses because somebody on the other team gets off, knocks down five 3s and changes the whole complexion of the game.

RM: Best college player you've ever seen?

DV: Lew Alcindor. They changed the rules to try to stop him. They took away the dunk to try to stop him. And he still was the most dominant ever. Say what you want about the guy, but he was the ultimate winner. Everything he did was related to winning. He was the best. In pure basketball sense, offensive and defensive efficiency begins in the three-second area and nobody did it better.

RM: When you think about a great NCAA game, what comes to mind?

DV: I'm biased here. I think about Jimmy V and the North Carolina State Wolfpack shocking Phi Slama Jama in 1983. Nobody thought they had a shot. That Houston team had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, but the image of Dereck Whittenburg putting up that shot and Lorenzo Charles dunking it in. Wow!

RM: That brings me to Jimmy V....

DV: What Jimmy had to do was beat North Carolina with Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins and that gang. A fair team I would say. Then they had to come back and beat Ralph Sampson and Virginia (in the ACC Tournament) just to get into the tournament, and then to run the table like that in Albuquerque, it was unbelievable. Jimmy had the crowd. He had the media. He was wowing them. You know, at the time, his wife was expecting and he said to me that if they had a boy they were going to name him Al B. Kerke. Mercifully, they had a girl.

RM: So, that was a bigger upset than the Villanova win over Georgetown?

DV: I think it was. During the year, Villanova played Georgetown very tough in the Big East. What made that so unique was how they did it. They almost pitched a perfect game. That was the most perfect game by one team in the history of the tournament.

RM: What's Jimmy V doing in heaven right now?

DV: He's up there with Al McGuire, trying to figure out who's going to be in The Dance. They have their own tournament up there.

RM: How has the college game changed?

DV: The influx of kids leaving early. Now we can't see a great dominant team grow together, like Duke. Look, they lost three of the top 10 players in the country in one year, Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, Michael Dunleavy. No doubt about it, kids don't get a chance to develop into dominating players.

RM: And have players changed?

DV: They've gotten more agile. We've got bigger players on the perimeter. But we don't get a chance to see the super player develop into a situation where he becomes a household name. The bottom line, if he's good, he's gone.

RM: Dick, the time has come to pay players.

DV: I agree. I've always said when CBS drops down $6-billion for the rights to the tournament, yes, pay the players. Why not keep $5-billion for the tournament and then keep $1-billion and make it available to the kids of the revenue sports who bring so much fame and notoriety to the school. They should be allowed, at the very least, to have room, board, books, tuition and maybe $200 a month. A stipend of some kind. Have it so that a kid can pay a telephone bill, for instance.

RM: Jim Harrick won't be the last coach to find himself in hot water.

DV: Absolutely, and here's why: Even if you give to some guys, there's always going to be one guy that's going to go overboard. If you take any profession, there's always someone trying to take that winner's edge and will be prepared to go to lengths that are a little shady. It's the way of life.

RM: Speaking of Jim Harrick, who do you think you are, Mike Wallace?

DV: I got so many calls from people about that. You know that was the sad thing about it. That night featured one of the greatest college basketball games this season (Florida at Georgia), one that came down to the last second, and after that interview, nobody, I mean nobody asked about the game. All they cared about was the Jim Harrick interview.

RM: True or false, every college coach has at some point paid a bill for a player.

DV: False, not every coach.

RM: Every program has a skeleton in its closet.

DV: False.

RM: Do bowlers talk trash.

DV: I would imagine they would. They're competitive, aren't they? Once there's competition, there's trash talk.

RM: Yeah, but what's a bowler going to say?

DV: If I was bowling and my ball went down the gutter, I could hear them say, "Look at that gutter ball, are you kidding me? Your dome looks like that ball. Why don't you roll that dome down there, at least you could see the pins." I'm sure there's some trash talk because they're probably drinking some beer too.

RM: Do they take steroids?

DV: I would imagine this, people in all walks of life are always trying to get an edge. I'm sure there's a bowler out there that's trying to get an edge.

RM: Saw an ad the other day pimping "the highest quality brakes." My question is, who's making low quality brakes?

DV: Let's hope and pray that that isn't the case. That implies that someone's out there selling inferior quality brakes. It's like when I'm flying, people tell me that the pilot has a heck of a record. I say, he better. He better be perfect. He better make sure he never takes the L.

RM: But think about it, all active pilots have to be undefeated.

DV: If they're still in the game, then you've gone unbeaten every year. If not, they're not in the game any more.

RM: Tide comes out with New and Improved Tide, but they're still selling the original stuff. So what's that, Old and Raggedy Tide?

DV: But you know what, for a few dollars less, people are going to take the Old and Raggedy Tide, why not?

RM: Is Jon Gruden more intense than you?

DV: It's close. It's close. But he's got the edge. When I was coaching, I was like that, on his level. But not anymore. My job is utopia. I have the greatest job in the world. I'm all over the country. But I never have the pressure of wins or losses. I'm undefeated. I coach every team in America and I never, ever lose. But Jon, he can't lose. So he won the Super Bowl, great. But what do you think about the pressure he now has. Wow! He set a standard so high.

RM: What will you name your racehorse?

DV: Awesome Baby. ... And I may be doing it. I was with Rick Pitino the other day and got a chance to be on the farm, Claiborne Farm, and see some of the great horses of all time, winners of the Derby. It was magnificent. So, he and I are going to get together, put a few dollars down and have some fun (by purchasing a horse together). Can you imagine me, at the Derby, and my horse is coming around the turn and, "Down the stretch they come. And it's Awesome Baby in the lead!" That would be phenomenal.

RM: Heard you had a glass eye?

DV: I do not. But I am blind in my left eye. But I was told as a youngster that there was no need to take the eye out. I had problems with my eye, it was always infected and I could not go out in the sun. I missed my whole junior year of high school because I was out so many days. We get to a point where the doctor tells us he's going to correct the problem I had with the sun, but he said I would never see out of the eye but not to let anybody take the eye out, because you never know what could happen with modern technology. I have never known what it was like to have proper vision. I don't know what it is to miss.

RM: So, if they do develop a bionic eye, would you?

DV: I'm 63, but you know what, I would not give it a doubt right now.

RM: Four words to describe the tournament.

DV: Greatest sporting event ever.

RM: Four players to watch.

DV: Brandon Knight in Pittsburgh is a key player to watch. T.J. Ford in Texas. Hollis Price in Oklahoma. And my favorite combination in the backcourt, Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison (Kansas).

RM: Final Four teams.

DV: Subject to change at a later date, but I'll go with Kentucky. I love Kentucky. Tubby Smith is going to be my national coach of the year when I do my Dickie V awards. Arizona. Texas, somehow I think they're going to be a tough team to eliminate, because of T.J. He's the Roy Jones of hoops. Pound for pound, inch for inch, he's the most dominant player in the game. The fourth one is between Oklahoma, Florida and Kansas.

RM: Who's winning.

DV: I really believe it'll be Kentucky cutting the nets down this year.

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