All over Duke

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Bryan Rosenbaum

This comes as no surprise to someone who has followed college basketball, or even saw one of those ESPN "Happy Action Fun Time" commercials with Dickie V calling Elton Brand the best player on the best college team of the 1990s. From the beginning of practice in October until the championship, Vitale has been all over Duke like Ricky Moore on Trajan Langdon.

Only this time, Moore was the one who finished off the deal.

Let's talk about objective journalism, something Vitale doesn't believe in. For whatever reason, the short, bald guy has taken a liking to Duke University and coach Mike Krzyzewski. Maybe because he overachieved, and Duke, a small school in Durham, N.C., overachieved. Guys like Bobby Hurley and Steve Wojciechowski epitomize overachieving, and epitomize Duke.

Vitale loves Cameron Indoor Arena and its rowdy student fans, the "Cameron Crazies," and loves the Atlantic Coast Conference more than life itself. But let's hear about someone else sometime.

Duke this, Duke that, Elton Brand is the best player in America, Trajan Langdon is the best senior, blah, blah, blah. Nobody cares.

Even ESPN in its pregame show had Jay Bilas, a Duke player turned ESPN analyst, picking Duke to beat UConn. What kind of insight into the game am I getting here? Thank goodness for Digger Phelps, as he was the only one to pick UConn to win the game.

At least Vitale doesn't get to announce the tournament games, where we get a breather from him telling how dedicated the Duke fans are, how great of a coach Krzyzewski is and how so many great players go there.

It's understandable to be biased when you write for, say, a sports information office, because it is the job of an SID staff member to be mouthpiece for the school. Real journalists are not supposed to be biased in any way, shape or form.

ESPN, though, should expand its horizons and talk about somebody other than Duke. CBS at least has Clark Kellogg, who once played at Ohio State, but you wouldn't be able to tell he was a Buckeye fan. Then there's Utah head coach Rick Majerus, who won't be hired by Notre Dame because he said in his book that he couldn't discipline a player for cheating because he cheated when he was a student. You don't get more honest than that.

So take the summer off from college basketball. With three more McDonald's All-Americans coming in next year, Vitale's going to be hanging all over Duke in 1999-2000.