If you watched this year's NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks, you might have noticed that aside from Mark Jackson's "there goes that man" tagline and Jeff Van Gundy's often oblivious pop cultural references, play-by-play man Mike Breen drove in his own highlight-reel, go-to verbal.
"Bang."
Every great play-by-play television commentator has one. Some catch on and some don't. Some are plain stupid while others are made into legend. For every "boom goes the dynamite" there's a "with no regard for human life." Gus Johnson, who we wrote about earlier in the week, is on his own level in having a cult following that is hard for anyone to amount to.
This, however, makes me wish that watching Arizona basketball games were less painful to watch on TV from home.
In no offense to former Wildcats Corey Williams and Matt Muehlebach, rugby coach Dave Sitton or otherwise, but we could all use a little more bang in our lives.
Just think, whether it be Salim Stoudamire drilling the step-back game winner to drop the ASU Sun Devils in 2005 or Nic Wise hitting the fitting game-winner against USC in overtime of his senior day farewell, I'd like a little more from the Wildcat announcing crew. And I realize talent is hard to come by in this regard.
Maybe it's too much to ask. Not everyone can be Mike Breen. Mind the pun, but I'd like a little more bang for my buck. To make up for the painful Wildcat memory I posted earlier this week, here's a little pick-me-up.