The can of worms is now officially open.
If any of you happened to catch the Fox Sports broadcast of the Mississippi State-Arkansas game on Saturday, you might have heard some of the comments made by color commentator Barry Booker.
Booker is an average commentator by every sense of the word. He makes the occasional intelligent comment, but most of the time, like other television announcers, he puts his foot in his mouth more often than not.
And, boy, did he do that Saturday. Not once, but twice.
Pregame Saturday, I’m standing behind Booker with some of the Rick’s Rowdies waiting for the game to begin. An MSU student asked Booker some questions about his thoughts on the SEC season in general. Booker gave his “analysis” and for some reason proceeded to explain a story about how SEC schools think Rick Stansbury and his coaching staff cheat to get players to come to Starkville. Booker assured the student that he would let the people know and “set the record straight” about the accusations against MSU. I’ll get back to the rest of that story in a minute.
So, to get him back on the subject of SEC basketball, I asked him about how he thought MSU would finish in the West and what games we could or could not lose. This is where it gets good.
“They can win the West; they just aren’t winning at Kentucky,” Booker said.
“Oh really?” I asked, trying to get him to elaborate.
He explained how the Bulldogs would be “lucky to get within 10 points” and how they’re not even “in the same league as Kentucky.”
“That’s a little bit of posterboard material, isn’t it?” I asked.
“I don’t care,” he replied. “You can write it down, whatever. Mississippi State will not get close to Kentucky.”
It could have been worse. He could have been on camera. But then again, when a reporter just happens to be at one end of that conversation, he might as well be.
You hear that, Bulldogs? You won’t beat Kentucky. You can’t beat Kentucky. It’s their centennial at Rupp Arena. You might as well not even show up, according to Mr. Booker.
It gets better, Bulldog fans.
Now, Booker and play-by-play man Dave Neal DID defend MSU when it came to the “cheating” accusations, I’ll give them that. But, then again, what was the point in bringing it up in the first place? I know the game was boring, but can we talk about something else, please? So instead of stopping there and saying something like “That’s ridiculous. Rick Stansbury is just a great recruiter,” they go on. And then came the comment about Mario Austin. “Why would Mario Austin go to Alabama and play behind Erwin Dudley and Kenny Walker?”
Guess who said that? Yeah. “Book” it.
To tell you the truth, I forgot who Kenny Walker was. Erwin Dudley is good, no doubt, but Kenny Walker is not–at least not as good as or better than Mario Austin.
I’m not out for Booker’s head or anything. I just think he should pay more attention to what he says before he says it next time. Oh, and one more thing, Barry. It’s STARKville. Not STARKSville.
Breaking Records
The Lady Bulldogs’ attendance record was broken Sunday against LSU. The new record is now 6,055. The fan support was tremendous, and the Lady Bulldogs deserved every bit of it. The one thing they didn’t deserve was the officiating snow job they received.
Bringing In The Best
Signing Day came and went last Wednesday, and if there was anyone other than LSU that made a lot of noise, it was the boys wearing Maroon and White. State brought in another top-notch recruiting class, and Jackie Sherrill and his coaching staff should be commended. The countdown to kickoff with Oregon is officially on.
Hold On, Wait A Minute…
OK, the countdown to kick-off isn’t on yet. Because we’ve got some pretty good teams playing some pretty good ball right now. On the hardwood, on the hard court, on the track, wherever. Bulldog athletes are starting to make some noise in the SEC nowadays.