ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602070007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: ON THE AIR
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Billy Packer can't win.
ACC fans expect the nation's foremost college basketball analyst to be one of them. Fans in other parts of the country consider the Wake Forest graduate an ACC shill.
Then, when the veteran analyst tells a CBS audience what he really thinks about a league he has watched for more than three decades, he gets in trouble.
Packer has drawn the ire of Virginia supporters this week. As Connecticut finished its 30-point rout of the Cavaliers on ``Super Bowl Sunday'' on CBS, Packer and play-by-play sidekick Jim Nantz picked a Chevrolet Player of the Game from each school.
The Virginia player was ... Ralph Sampson, in memory of his superb Super Bowl Sunday game against Ohio State in 1981.
``I take 100 percent of the responsibility for it,'' Packer said. ``It wasn't done to embarrass anyone.''
Packer said he couldn't remember picking a former player before, although he did recall the network one time naming a crowd somewhere as the player of the game.
``Virginia was so bad,'' Packer said. ``The fans [at the Hartford Civic Center] were booing Virginia, not because of anything mean, but because they wanted to see a better game. It was apparent the Virginia kids were very frustrated, and Jeff [Jones, UVa's coach] was frustrated, too.''
During a commercial timeout, CBS producer Bob Dekas asked Nantz and Packer for their Chevrolet players. Nantz suggested UConn's Ray Allen. And for Virginia?
``We had our stats guy checking and checking,'' Packer said. ``There was no one to honestly pick. Virginia was terrible. We thought about picking Jeff. I said, ``If we go over and tell Jeff, he's liable to punch us in the face.'''
So, Packer brought up Sampson, whose '81 performance had been recalled earlier in what was a very long telecast. ``Dekas said, `Billy, get serious, we can't do that,''' Packer said. ``But there was no one else.''
Dekas said they didn't have a Sampson photo. Nantz and Packer found one in the UVa media guide, and a CBS cameraman hurriedly shot it for the Chevrolet graphic.
``Some people have written and called and said it was a slap at Virginia,'' he said. ``That's one of the barometers of whether we're doing a good job ... when you hear it from both sides.''
In recent weeks, Packer has. He's called two straight rip jobs of ACC clubs, and he's been very candid about what he's seen.
``The ACC has been the best conference for years, and the [NCAA] tournament numbers are there as the report card,'' he said. ``If I say that, I'm an ACC guy. Now, all of a sudden, I'm not.
``On a national level, the ACC isn't this year where it has been. A Big East team [Villanova] kicked North Carolina by 20 the week before. Then UConn really kicks Virginia by 30.
``The fact is, the ACC is getting its a-- kicked on a national level right now. Period. And that's a reflection of what I said.''
HERE'S DAVE: The newest face in college hoops TV has a familiar sound. The Big South Conference TV package made its debut this week, and the play-by-play man is Dave Hunziker, Radford's radio voice.
Hunziker, in his fourth season with the Highlanders, was chosen among Big South game-callers for the four-game TV package, which airs on cable's Home Team Sports and SportSouth.
The next telecast airs live today (noon, HTS), with UNC Greensboro at Maryland-Baltimore County. After that game, Hunziker will fly from Baltimore to Roanoke - weather permitting - then drive to Lynchburg for the Highlanders' radio call tonight at Liberty.
``It's the first time I've done any TV play-by-play,'' Hunziker said. I told [Big South commissioner] Buddy Sasser, "It's kind of like putting a rookie pitcher on the mound on Opening Day.' I was thrilled to be picked.''
Hunziker is working with former Furman coach Butch Estes, who has worked part-time as a TV analyst since being replaced two years ago as the Paladins' coach by former VMI boss Joe Cantafio.
The next two Fridays have the Big South crew in the region, with UNC Asheville at Liberty and Coastal Carolina at Radford.
SIGNEES: Virginia Tech will try a new concept with its football recruits. The Hokies will air a one-hour show reviewing their signees. It will air locally on WSLS (Channel 10) on Feb.24 at noon. The show also will air statewide and on Home Team Sports.
John Ballein, coach Frank Beamer's administrative assistant and coordinating producer of the weekly Tech TV show, said the Hokies got the idea for a recruiting show from Penn State, which produces and sells a video on its signees.
SUPER STUFF: The Super Bowl's 46.1 rating on NBC - the best in a decade - and record 138.5 million viewers have been well-chronicled, but within those numbers are others that show just how competitive Sunday's game was.
In a rarity, the Nielsen rating rose in every half-hour segment of the game. It went from 43.5 (percentage of U.S. TV homes) in the first half hour, to 49.5 for the last 30 minutes. More than 70 percent of U.S. homes with the tube on were watching the game from 9-9:30 p.m.
NBC's six hours of Super Bowl coverage were a pleasure to watch for two reasons in particular. The 21/2-hour pregame show was stuffed with football, opinion and strong features, and Paul Maguire's game analysis was pointed, witty and bold.
MOVING: Roanoke's Jeff Dickerson, former WROV high school football and basketball voice and more recently heard on Express hockey telecasts, has been named sports director at WAEU (Channel 14) in Reidsville, N.C. The station, which reaches about 70,000 homes, plans two nightly local newscasts directed at the North Carolina Piedmont and Martinsville-Danville areas.
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