One shining moment from Billy Packer

By Marc Isenberg

The UNC/Duke rivalry hit a new low yesterday with the end-of-game foul by Duke's Gerald Henderson on UNC's Tyler Hansbrough.

NCAA president Myles Brand likes college sports served up nice and gentle, not "hostile and abusive."

Yesterday's Duke/UNC game was definitely the latter.

After the game, the officials released a statement characterizing the incident "as combative and confrontational action."

Reasonable? Not according to CBS's lead college basketball commentator Billy Packer.

And now for this week's installment of college hoops announcers acting badly...
Packer was absolutely convinced that the referees blew the call on Henderson's foul on Hansbrough, calling it unintentional, not flagrant.

After Henderson was ejected, Packer declared, "I think this is a poor piece of officiating. I didn't see any intent on [Henderson's] part."

Packer was making these comments while watching slo-mo replays...over and over. I am sure Henderson's intent was not to KO Hansbrough, but there is no defensive technique that I am aware of that involves using the forearm to block someone's shot.

Billy Packer, CBS's goto guy during March Madness, gets the Network's biggest college hoops assignments, including the UNC/Duke game, the ACC Tournament, and the Final Four. He is paid a lot of money (millions?) to offer expert insights about basketball, sportsmanship, officiating, you know, the nuances of the game that are often missed by less-skilled announcers.

Instead we get comments like:

"Since when do we let women control who gets into a men's basketball game? Why don't you go find a women's game to let people into?" [Packer's response to a Duke female working at Cameron Indoor when she had the audacity ask for him to present identification]

And Packer's the voice of college basketball's crown jewel?

I was also underwhelmed by Coach K's response.

According to ESPN's Pat Forde, Coach K said, "The game was over before that. I mean the outcome of the game, let's put it that way. That's unfortunate, too, that those people were in the game in that play. Maybe this wouldn't have happened."

Forde wrote, "So there. Hansbrough had it coming for playing mop-up minutes in a double-digit win. Naturally, this blame-the-victim jab went over wonderfully with [UNC coach Roy] Williams."

It is unfortunate that the late-game incident overshadowed the game, including Hansbrough's brilliant 26-point, 17-rebound performance.

Related info
In a battle of image, Duke takes black eye [Pat Forde/ESPN.com]
Wow. How embarrassing for him and CBS (includes Youtube footage)  [Gunslingers blog]

More misinformed comments from Packer's past

Comments

[gil]

You didn't mention a couple other examples of Packer showing his true colors.

1) Calling Allen Iverson a "little monkey."
2) In 2006 tag teaming (along with Jim Nantz) NCAA tournament selection chair Craig Littlepage over the inclusion of a record number of mid-majors. Littlepage and his fellow committee members got the last laugh with the final four breakthrough of William & Mary.

Packer has been an ass for as long as I can remember.

[Frank]

Great stuff. Henderson's blow was totally unnecessary. Whatever credibility Packer left, it is now gone. Some of the polish has come off Coach K's armour. This guy is supposed to be a model for others to follow, but he couldn't even take the high road after the incident.

[Josh Centor]

He may or may not have intended to get at Hansborough like that, but with less than 15 seconds left in the game, was the hard foul necessary? How about something like that Billy Packer???

[andy fine]

Packer/Nance deserve to broadcast the final four every year--they are so good that even a blowout is interesting. Their memories of minutia of hoops history is remarkable. Packer was wrong about the intent of Henderson--it was even on replays a cheap shot. Hopefully, Tyler H. will stay 4 yrs. because he will be lucky with his current skill set to be a high energy backup rebounder with no range--like Mark Madsen--but without the contract.