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Post by timholycross on Jan 27, 2023 9:18:09 GMT -5
Figured this belonged in the HC basketball thread because of his (to us) uncalled for remark about Ted Bettencourt back in the day. To comment on that further would beat a dead horse; not as dead as perhaps not accepting the Big East offer nor moving some of our sports to D3; but dead nonetheless.
But, there were a few things about him I thought were kind of interesting:
1. Graduated same high school as Chuck Bednarik, Pete Carril and Murray Goodman (who LU's stadium is named after) in Bethlehem, PA. 2. His dad was the hoop coach at Lehigh. 3. Second leading scorer on a Final Four team at Wake Forest...who lost in the semis to Ohio State, featuring John Havlicek, Jerry Lucas...and a bench guy named Bob Knight.
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Post by hchoops on Jan 27, 2023 9:40:57 GMT -5
For someone who frequently disparaged mid and low majors, he certainly was betraying his father’s level teams.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Jan 27, 2023 10:33:20 GMT -5
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Post by hchoops on Jan 27, 2023 11:50:05 GMT -5
Frequently wrong, but never in doubt At least on air, arrogant and insufferable
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Post by res on Jan 27, 2023 13:25:52 GMT -5
Doubtful. He was born in WNY as Anthony William Paczkowski. His father subsequently changed the family name. A Baltimore Sun sportswriter once described him as "overbearing, arrogant, condescending, dismissive and petulant". If anything, this is a marked understatement.
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Jan 27, 2023 13:49:46 GMT -5
Packer's body is still warm!
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Post by hchoops on Jan 27, 2023 13:58:59 GMT -5
Writer Seth Davis spoke highly of him. He was a good foil to Al McGuire.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 27, 2023 14:21:19 GMT -5
Wasn’t a fan in life but no sense disparaging him in death. RIP.
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Post by bfoley82 on Jan 27, 2023 14:44:05 GMT -5
Frequently wrong, but never in doubt At least on air, arrogant and insufferable The best was when a guy missed a shot with the whole "I don't think they wanted that shot"
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Post by notjuanjones on Jan 27, 2023 16:07:02 GMT -5
For someone who frequently disparaged mid and low majors, he certainly was betraying his father’s level teams. I was far from the biggest Packer fan, but on this, I think he's gotten a bit of a bum rap. He was famously criticized for questioning George Mason making the tournament as an at-large in 2006, but if you actually go back and look at the tape of that CBS Selection Show, it was Jim Nantz that really dumped on the mid-majors, and on Mason – which, of course, wound up going to the Final Four – and not Packer.
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Post by hchoops on Jan 27, 2023 16:55:03 GMT -5
Another scenario
Seth Davis
In March of 2004, I worked my first Selection Sunday show for CBS Sports. The big question coming in was whether Saint Joseph’s, which had gone through the regular season undefeated, would get a No. 1 seed despite its loss in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. The NCAA men’s basketball committee gave the Hawks a top seed, which I thought was the right decision, and said so on the air.
A little later in the show, my new colleague Billy Packer weighed in remotely from the site of the Big Ten tournament. “I don’t agree with Saint Joe’s being a No. 1 team, and I’ll tell you why,” he said. “If you put together a tournament, just as we have, you’re going to take Pitt and Connecticut, you’re going to take Oklahoma State, you’re going to take Texas, and you’re going to take Duke and you’re going to take Maryland and you’re going to take Kentucky and you’re going to take Florida. Where does Saint Joe’s fit in that tournament? Or in a league made up of those kind of teams.”
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Post by timholycross on Jan 27, 2023 16:58:37 GMT -5
In looking up some things about Packer, came up with a few good stories about his college coach, Bones McKinney (the guy who recommended that Red Auerbach draft a kid named Sam Jones from an obscure school in NC).
1. Bones thought he was getting a raw deal from the zebras (in those days, 2, not 3). Told Packer and another guard to cover the referees. The referee confronted McKinney, who said he was using a triangle-and-two defense that he learned from Adolph Rupp. “You take three guys and form a triangle underneath the basket. You take your two best defensive players and they play man-to-man against the two guys who are beating you.” 2. Once, Bones was tossed out of a contest after he was unable to decide whether the ref was a thief or incompetent. So he called him both. Taking umbrage at his ejection, Bones demanded an explanation for being given the heave-ho. “Because you called me a thief,” responded the referee. “Oh my goodness, no indeed!” remonstrated Bones. “I gave you a choice.”
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Post by hchoops on Jan 27, 2023 17:09:09 GMT -5
More Seth Davis
If Billy had a blind spot, it was regarding the excellence of schools that did not play in the so-called power conferences. Long before anyone heard the term “mid-major,” Billy questioned whether Larry Bird’s 1979 Indiana State squad was worthy of its No. 1 ranking because it played in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Sycamores’ fans hurled invectives at Billy all the way to the epic championship game against Michigan State. Two years after his contretemps with Martelli, Billy knocked the selection committee for including four teams from the Valley into the tournament. When two of those teams made the Sweet 16, and one of them, George Mason, reached the Final Four, Billy acknowledged that the committee was right. “I’ve become the lightning rod for this controversy,” he said. “My wife says that’s what I get for running my mouth so much.”
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Post by notjuanjones on Jan 27, 2023 21:07:27 GMT -5
More Seth Davis If Billy had a blind spot, it was regarding the excellence of schools that did not play in the so-called power conferences. Long before anyone heard the term “mid-major,” Billy questioned whether Larry Bird’s 1979 Indiana State squad was worthy of its No. 1 ranking because it played in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Sycamores’ fans hurled invectives at Billy all the way to the epic championship game against Michigan State. Two years after his contretemps with Martelli, Billy knocked the selection committee for including four teams from the Valley into the tournament. When two of those teams made the Sweet 16, and one of them, George Mason, reached the Final Four, Billy acknowledged that the committee was right. “I’ve become the lightning rod for this controversy,” he said. “My wife says that’s what I get for running my mouth so much.” Seth's a good reporter, but Mason, of course, was not in the MVC; they were in the CAA then. And, again: if you look at the tape, it's Nantz who first mentions the four MVC teams getting in, not Packer. Nantz said to Craig Littlepage, then the chair of the selection committee: "Well, with all due respect, I’m looking at some of these non-conference opponents that George Mason played, that made the field, and those teams from the Missouri Valley, and it’s not all that impressive." Packer then pointed out that the MVC and CAA got six total bids, while the ACC and Big 12 only got two more, while the latter two conferences had made 25 Final Fours combined in the previous five NCAA Tournaments. A dig at the small conferences, but not a vitriolic one. Then, after Littlepage said Power 6 conferences had to start scheduling better non-conference opponents to be considered for at-large berths in the future, Nantz went in again on Mason: “I just feel these computer rankings need to be re-evaluated. We talk about who you schedule … George Mason (played) Irvine, the loss to Wake; lost to Creighton, beat Manhattan, American, Radford, Hampton, Holy Cross, Wichita State … I mean, I just don’t see these, like they’re playing powerhouses, and spots have been taken from the bigger conferences this year.”
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Post by efg72 on Jan 27, 2023 21:25:34 GMT -5
In general these announcers over the last four decades have pumped up the power conferences, and rarely prepared to present what those less deserving conferences offer in the match-up on a given day or in the NCAA tournament
In football we see the same thing in rankings and playoff seedings
No surprise, but only listen to them for entertainment and not content
Btw Barkley is the best entertainment and honest in his assessments
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Post by mm67 on Jan 27, 2023 21:47:59 GMT -5
Media has a lot invested in big time college sports. Viewership determines ad revenue. It's all a show, not to be taken too seriously. Follow the money. "That's entertainment."
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Post by hchoops on Jan 27, 2023 22:20:29 GMT -5
In general these announcers over the last four decades have pumped up the power conferences, and rarely prepared to present what those less deserving conferences offer in the match-up on a given day or in the NCAA tournament In football we see the same thing in rankings and playoff seedings No surprise, but only listen to them for entertainment and not content Btw Barkley is the best entertainment and honest in his assessments As long as he and his pro buddies stay off the NCAA tourney, where they know little.
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Post by efg72 on Jan 27, 2023 22:37:13 GMT -5
Lol
I was thinking more about the commercials😎
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