Love him or mute him, Vitale speaks for college basketball

College basketball sorely misses an ingredient this year to join the predictable upsets and weekly rankings and handful of teams that appear more Final Four worthy than the rest. It misses that recognizably deafening voice, the one that can extract as much annoyance as it does pleasure depending on how you feel Dick Vitale assesses your favorite program or ones you despise.

As weeks pass and Vitale remains away from ESPN telecasts while recovering from surgery on noncancerous throat lesions, something becomes more and more obvious. He greatly matters to a game most identified by its enthusiasm.

It is true as much for his passionate commentary as the infuriation he draws from fans like many who follow UNLV, who seem torn on which they loathe more — Duke or Vitale for his perpetual admiration of all things Durham.

He matters because he generates feedback, dialogue, emotion from both sides. How many broadcasters truly do that to the degree of Vitale? He matters because you can’t listen to him and not react.

It’s not about whether you’re a fan of Vitale or would most like to see his mouth sealed with duct tape like that hole in your home heating system — I have felt both sentiments over time — but that you realize his message runs deeper than a nightly compilation of earsplitting adjectives.

“I think Dick realized a long time ago that he can’t please everyone and be all things to all people,” says play-by-play voice Dan Shulman, who has worked alongside Vitale for six years. “He just keeps plowing ahead looking for the positive in people. He understands not all people feel the same and is fine with it.

“But I have always said that I never feel more invisible than when I walk into a room with Dick Vitale, and it doesn’t bother me at all. No matter where we are, his enthusiasm for life feeds off others. He entertains. That’s why he is more recognizable than anyone in this business. He is the same way in real life as he is calling games — as upbeat and positive a person as I have ever met.”

Imagine the irony. The one part of Vitale most identify, the one source that causes college students across the country to act even more outrageous than usual and fans at home watching to either crank the volume or push the mute button, is the one doctors cut into.

Vitale went nearly four weeks without speaking, which would be like asking Floyd Mayweather Jr. to go a month without spending a dollar. Vitale communicated by scribbling notes on a dry-erase board, undoubtedly setting some kind of record for the most exclamation points drawn when ordering lunch.

He matters because when he returns to calling games early next month, he will carry with him a new perspective about a cause he has championed for years, shedding even more light on the world’s fight against cancer.

Vitale has personally raised millions of dollars to fight cancer through the V Foundation, named for his late close friend, Jim Valvano. He matters because, as Shulman says, not a day goes by when Vitale doesn’t mention to someone how much research still needs to be funded.

“I’ve taken (from this experience) simply that the job is not done,” Vitale wrote in an e-mail this week. “Until there is a headline that cancer has been cured, all of us have to reach down and bring a smile to those that battle this disease. We are fortunate that there are 10 million cancer survivors because of all the research. It’s the last chapter of my life and I want to give back because so many people have been so good to me.

“I miss mostly being on campus, being 68 and acting like I’m 12. I miss interacting with fans, players, coaches.”

Maybe you think he unfairly praises a certain number of those teams and coaches more than others. Maybe you believe what some embrace as amusing entertainment is instead unabashed favoritism. It wouldn’t be difficult to discover evidence on both sides.

Maybe for a second, though, we should search beyond the voice and look at the man, the one who takes underprivileged children to his home in Florida for Thanksgiving, who inspires thousands more with motivational speeches about life’s greatest lessons, who helps keep the war against cancer alive.

Who is missed this college basketball season. Who, in his own over-the-top way, matters.

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.