Billy Packer, Walter Herrmann, and the Revenge of Zach Randolph

Its Final Four Day, and I'm watching UCLA v. Florida as I write this. Watching the Pac-10 this year, I've come to expect this smothering UCLA defense. Whats never fails to impress me is their amazing ability to block out. After Florida misses a shot, watching the Bruins go to work is pretty fun. Joakim Noah was just boxed all the way out of bounds on a recent shot. Nice.

I don't root for UCLA often, but I'm really hoping they win today as I have had my fill of Noah's constant chest thumping and screaming, not to mention the constant cuts to his dad sporting the latest crazy Euro tennis player attire.

There was another interesting thing I noticed during today's Final 4 CBS Broadcast, and it came from Billy Packer (who as we all know, doesn't give a fuck what you think of him, which is awesome). If you need a quick reminder, Bill Simmon's article for ESPN.com is a good summary of the man who is the Voice of the Final 4.

Anyways, Jim Nantz (blah) asked the mandatory question towards the end of the Georgetown v. Ohio State game, and the conversation basically went like this:

"So Billy, what do you think of the Oden/Hibbard matchup we just saw?"

Billy: "Well, neither dominated the game. It wasn't Walton versus Kareem or Russell out there."

Nantz (blah): "Right, like many are quick to say they belong with them already. But do you see the potential for them to join that company someday?"

...crickets chirping for a few wonderful seconds of total silence......


Billy: "No."

Nantz (blah): "No!?!?!?!?!?!?! Errrrrgeeee My robot brain cannot handle opinions outside of the mainstream school of basketball thought!!!! SAVE ME BILLY!"

Billy: "I just think those players were just a different type."


And then instead of starting a good conversation that wasn't lame banter and making the same points over and over again, Nantz (blah) just rebooted his hard drive and moved on to talk about something else. Too bad Nantz sucks, I would have enjoyed hearing Billy's opinions about these two players. Nantz's ability to keep broadcasts free of originality and interesting topics is truly amazing.



Moving on, Zach Randolph is shutting it down for the rest of the year. I want him gone anyways, and I want the Blazers to lose more games to improve the outside chances of nabbing Durant, so this should be a good thing. But as of right now, I'm in the playoffs of fantasy basketball. Randolph is on my team. I had to pick up this guy as a replacement. There's only one explanation for this timing, Z-BO (or at the least, some posse member) reads my blog and is trying to sabotage me. Z-BO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yelling while shaking fists at the sky)