Sports: ESPN's Conley keeps eye on basketball, his health

ESPN's Conley keeps eye on basketball, his health

By SHARON GINN

After 20 years of calling college basketball games for ESPN, fatigue finally hit Larry Conley last season. But he was too busy to pay attention -- and his procrastination could have killed him.

"October, November last year I could tell something was wrong," Conley said. "I was really tired. ... You don't slow down long enough to really take care of yourself. I was too stubborn to slow down."

It was March, five days before the start of the Final Four, before Conley sought treatment for what he thought was his annual bout with bronchitis. The doctor told him what others had noticed: You don't look good.

A blood test found him dangerously anemic, and more tests were run. Three days later, a cancerous, baseball-sized tumor and 18 inches of his colon were removed.

His doctors believed they got all the cancer, but Conley endured 18 weeks of chemotherapy to be sure. The treatment ended Sept. 25, and Conley was pronounced cancer-free.

The numbness in his fingers and toes finally is gone, and his taste buds are back to normal. But more important, Conley, 56, is back at courtside.

One of the first two analysts hired by ESPN -- Dick Vitale is the other -- Conley has a full schedule this season, calling games for ESPN, ESPN2, Jefferson Pilot and SportsSouth. He'll be in Tampa on Saturday to call South Florida's matchup with Texas at the Sun Dome.

A member of "Rupp's Runts" and an academic All-American while playing forward at Kentucky in the mid 1960s, Conley found his analytical style worked well for him as a cancer patient. He studied the disease the same way he studies basketball teams. Now he urges friends over 50 to have their colons checked.

"I've approached this very clinically: "We've got a problem. Let's solve it,' " he said.

And, like most things he does on air, Conley made it look easy.

CBS NOT COWED: CBS has rejected for its Super Bowl lineup an anti-leather ad from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA said it was willing to pay the $2.5-million for the 30-second spot featuring singing cows ("Do I make myself clear?/Keep your hands off my rear"). But network spokeswoman LeslieAnne Wade said the reason for rejecting the ad is simple: "CBS has a longstanding tradition of not accepting advocacy advertising of any kind." PETA tangled with the network last summer when it picketed CBS' New York headquarters after an episode of Survivor showed the "castaways" cooking and eating rats.

IN REVIEW: Charges of racism are enough to work many national journalists into a lather, particularly those with a microphone and a limited amount of air time. But Mary Carillo's report on the discrimination lawsuits against USF and suspended women's basketball coach Jerry Ann Winters was perceptive and fair. There were no revelations in the report, which aired on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and Gumbel bumbled when he said USF was "near Tampa." But Carillo did a solid job presenting the many disparate viewpoints in 15 minutes. The show airs again Saturday (noon), Monday (10:30 a.m., 8 p.m.), Wednesday (1:30 p.m.) and Dec. 17 (9:30 a.m.).

LIGHTNING ON TV: Sunshine may announce today what will become of the Lightning Hockey Network, a group of 14 local cable channels scheduled to broadcast 20 games this season. After Time Warner's Hillsborough County station failed to show one game last week and missed two-thirds of another because of equipment problems, Sunshine -- which produces the games and has an eight-year TV deal with the Lightning -- began searching for other options.

Sunshine general manager Jim Liberatore said the network has two, possibly three options, but declined to comment further. He said Monday's game at Colorado likely still will be shown on the Lightning Hockey Network.

FINE TUNING: ESPN will air a Heisman Trophy preview at 7 tonight. It profiles the lives of the four finalists, including Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke. ... Fox Sports Net will air the first Butkus Award show from the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando at noon Saturday. The finalists for the nation's top linebacker award are Miami's Dan Morgan, Oklahoma's Rocky Calmus and Clemson's Keith Adams. ... ABC presents Game for Anything: The Strength of Women in Sports, hosted by Holly Hunter, at 4 p.m. Saturday.