Enjoyed CBS' halftime tribute to Dick Enberg. He was definitely one of the greats. Even in his recent decline and when he was demoted off the top two teams, I still felt he was the best NFL play-by-play guy CBS had (Jim Nantz is so-so and Greg Gumbel is blah). I don't think of his as a basketball guy, even though he's done March Madness for CBS since 2000, was at the call of the famous Michigan State-Indiana State Magic-Bird national championship in 1979 for NBC, and teamed with Billy Packer and Al MaGuire on NBC's college hoops broadcasts on what is considered the greatest college basketball announcing team of all-time. That being said, he was still good at it. He and Jay Bilas have made a solid team these last few NCAA Tournaments.
If CBS keeps the Tournament after this inevitable expansion and new television deal that will kick in next year, I wonder who will replace Enberg on one of their big-four teams. In recent years, the teams have been Nantz-Clark Kellogg (before Kellogg it was Packer), Verne Lundquist-Bill Raftery (the best team CBS has because of how well Verne and Raft play off each other and because Raft is the best analyst alive on any sport, I think), Gus Johnson-Len Elmore (the most entertaining team CBS has because of Gus, although probably not the best because I don't think Elmore fits well with Gus) and Enberg-Bilas. Their second tier play-by-play guys have been Ian Eagle, Kevin Harlan and Tim Brando, with Spero Dedes this year replacing Craig Bolerjack.
If CBS doesn't want to alter things too much, they could just bring back Bolerjack and promote Harlan, who is a terrific basketball play-by-play guy on both March Madness and the NBA on TNT. If they feel they need more starpower (and don't ask me why networks feel the need for starpower when no fan has ever tuned in specifically to hear an announcer), the obvious move would be to slide Gumbel out of the studio (he was NBC's No. 2 NBA play-by-play guy in the mid-1990s and even made the famous "John Stockton sends the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals!" call in 1997 when Stockton's game-winning three beat the Rockets in Game 6 of the West Finals) and replace him with James Brown.
Whatever CBS does, let's hope that JB doesn't go courtside. They tried that a couple years ago, taking Gus off the regional semis and regional final, to disastrous results. JB is a great studio host and a lousy play-by-play guy.
No matter what CBS does though, it won't be able to replace Enberg. He will be moving on to do Padres play-by-play and I hope some of those games are available on MLB Extra Innings. I also hope he will continue with tennis as he is really good at that too.
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