In college broadcasting, the precedent these days seems to be the hiring of fired head coaches as basketball analysts.
While this seems to be a good theory because of coaches’ knowledge and understanding of the game, most of the time they say exactly the opposite of what the fans really want to hear.
Take Mr. On Again, Off Again coach Rick Majerus as a perfect example. This one time Hall of Fame caliber coach for Utah and three-day coach of Southern Cal is now a college basketball commentator for ESPN.
With its long-standing tradition of reporting accurate facts and unbiased opinions to the typical sports junkie, you would think that ESPN would have more sense, dignity and respect than to hire such implausible commentators.
Just because someone may have been a Hall of Fame head coach doesn’t mean that he is automatically qualified to dictate what is opinionated across the airwaves of mass media.
Case in point:
On three separate occasions this season, ‘Big Rick’ has made it a point to criticize our beloved university, basketball team and even the integrity of our state.
His first time to commentate an MSU game was when the Bulldogs took on arch-rival Alabama.
While State fans know that the team didn’t even give a respectable showing or effort against the Crimson Tide, they didn’t want to hear the habitual rant of how “Mississippi State is overrated” and how “Mississippi State isn’t even deserving of an NCAA tournament bid.”
As if this weren’t enough fuel to the fire, Majerus lived up to his newly earned reputation and even added to it by his further antics when he commentated the Mississippi State-Florida game.
This time MSU proved not to be his only target, as he ridiculed the state of Mississippi.
Now I know that the State of Mississippi has had its darker days and has a public stain upon the eyes of most humans nationwide, but must he really call creed to it?
Must he say that “Starkville is called Starkvegas because it looks like Las Vegas at night time, due to the fact it has more lights than any other town in the state of Mississippi?”
Just when you would assume that a network executive would have noticed Majerus’ critisism and told him to lay off the negative connotations and opinions, ‘Old Baldy’ does it again. This time he wasn’t even commentating an MSU game.
During ESPN’s broadcast feed of the Kentucky-South Carolina game, Majerus said basically the same statement seven times.
He could not get off the fact that he, “would hate to be Mississippi State this Saturday in Lexington” and was even quoted once as saying that “Bully and the Bulldogs are gonna catch it from Kentucky on Saturday night.”
Just because one may think a certain thing, it doesn’t give them justification for always expressing it.
If I were a college basketball commentator, would it be my place to let the whole world know my opinion during what is supposed to be an unbiased report of facts on two teams?
I do respect some commentators in the industry this day that were once college coaches. I will be straight in telling you that some of my favorite ESPN personalities are ex-coaches.
However, there is a difference in reporting the facts and stating opinion. Fans are where the media line ends, so it is up to them to determine whether what was said is just or not. In the case of Rick Majerus, my opinion is “Can him.”
Drew Wilson is a senior agricultural engineering major and can be reached at [email protected].