🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Fran Fraschilla.

Love him, hate him... or consider him milk toast not worthy of emotional entanglement.

However.... did I hear him right today during the game? Did he really put the Hilton above AFH in top venues? Maybe I heard it wrong. Or, maybe it was innuendo... Fran is pretty good at that.

!hilton.jpg ↗

BTW: I don't want to be negative about ISU, their fans, or their venue. They deserve some respect for building up their program and I hope more teams in the Big 12 develop the fan enthusiasm they have. But come on....

He also said something about travels being legal with new rule changes as we discovered last game at AFH. Go disrespect someone else's program, Fran. Nobody wants you at Kansas.

We got rid of Bobby Knight. Lets get rid of Fran. I'm not against a voice being far and balanced but Fran isn't that. He brought up Braggs confrontation not realizing Bragg was innocent.

He's got to go.

@DoubleDD I say we put a kick out on him and hire Grayson, he may have free time and he won't have to kick high

yeah, he used to be one of my favorites. not sure what happened. something to do with his kid?

@drgnslayr said:

milk toast

Thats it. I call him babbling baffoon as well. Hey, how about some BTO?
[

Ban Fran!

Ban Banschilla needs a disclaimer to run when he does KU games.

---Fran's son did not get to be a walk-on at KU.--

Seriously, I don't want to threaten Ban's meal ticket. He has a right speak his mind. But I do want to make fun of him for these and other reputed negs tossed our way.

Question: is it possible Dick Vitale has made some kind of blood oath with Ban?

He also called JJ Josh Smith after one of his blocks on Zach Smith and then went on to talk about what a good game Zach Smith was having. He never has anything good to say about KU = always talks up the other team. And when he mentioned the venues @drgnslayr he was giving his top 5. I don't think he put Hilton ahead of us, it was just in the mix.

That bulls&^$ label of "Mayor of the Big 12" is an insult. His partner calling the game was so far up his arse it was sickening to hear all the slobbering he did throughout the game. :two_men_holding_hands:

@DoubleDD He brought it up, and said Bragg was exonerated. Seemed pretty clear to me. And he only brought it up in the context of Bragg seeming to have trouuble generating focus and energy.

I actually appreciated the comment because there are probably people who had heard of the charges but didn't know he was exonerated.

@mayjay but they need to explain and apologize for showing his mug and making that game all about Bragg. I was so mad! Equal time

@drgnslayr These guys get paid for talking & so many are unprepared & just out of new subject material. Muffbooger goin on & on about Mixon is a prime example of piss poor ability to adlib on stage behind the mic. With limited ability to say relevant & correct topic statements, they struggle & say fence post dumb schizz all the time. Personally I thought Bob Knight was great with his immense hoops knowledge & chippy candor. Sometimes Bilas can be OK also. But espn does a terrible job of assigning games with flexibility for their announcers to work with diff teams & conferences, that's probably a part of it that won't ever change on their broadcasts. CBS & FOX don't seem as stuck in their rut as espn so I generally keep the volume as low as possible & try not to miss Bob Davis so much. I mentioned him last night on the game chat. when the camera showed Max sitting with SZ behind the bench. Believe it or not, I actually wept when Max retired-only other time was when Wilt triumphantly returned to finally claim his glory at AFH. RCJH !!

What do you all think of Brian Hanni, the Bob Davis replacement?

@RockChalkinTexas

You are right... he put AFH in his list of 5 greatest venues.... the "innuendo" was he said Hilton first. Most of the time, in these media days, a list starts from the top.

Heck, he should be a politician.

@globaljaybird

I could like Bilas if he didn't have such an agenda. I just can't get past that. I can't get past him using the microphone to empower himself to decide the future of college basketball.

What has he done to deserve that kind of power? He "politics" with the microphone. All I want from the game barkers is to call the game they are hired to chat about.

@DanR He is okay. I've watched each of his short videos he does after each game with the player of the game. Last week it was Svi and that was kind of funny. He is no Bob Davis tho as far as enthusiasm goes.

Miles Simon probably would be doing a lot of our games except his Dad passed away just right after Christmas. He'll be back soon and doing one of our games. I think he possesses good ball knowledge and tells it like it is.

@DanR Have not been able to listen to him un interrupted for an entire game yet. What I have heard I have liked but really don't have a feel for him. If I'm out & about in the truck there's not much reception here at Table Rock...Too damn many little mountains in the way so I have to use Alexa on the phone for tunein radio & that takes the battery out quick as a jackrabbit on a date. Laptop at home no prob.

@approxinfinity Fran is now far beyond smart elec classification & traversed into wise-ass territory ... FOF or BAN FRAN Have it both ways...

@globaljaybird that's Family Over Fran right? :wink:

Nah, I dont think Fran was listing those schools in order. First guy said is KU the best place, Fran said yeah, then named off his schools, not in any particular order...at least thats my interpretation.
That said, Fran is declining in popularity in my eyes any how

@RockChalkinTexas said:

Miles Simon probably would be doing a lot of our games except his Dad passed away just right after Christmas. He’ll be back soon and doing one of our games. I think he possesses good ball knowledge and tells it like it is.

Yes! Miles is terrific. He is always well-prepared, knows the history and all the names of the players and coaches on each team and is very basketball savvy in light of his pedigree. He's still a touch raw and can sound a little stiff at times, but that will change as his experience level grows. Troy Aikman was that way too when he first started calling NFL games, but has eased into the job quite well. I hope Simon continues to hone his chops. I think he's excellent.

Fran has had Bromance with ISU in the last few years and has praised the program often almost implying that it is the Conference's flagship program...of course he conveniently forget those pesky 12 titles in a row that make him look not only silly but petty as well. He has also drooled over Hilton forgetting that AFH is the Cathedral of college basketball and let us not forget that he called the ISU fans less smug than KU fans...of course Mel Weatherwax disproves that claim as well.

@drgnslayr

I think he was just listing his top 5 in no order because I don't remember him saying such court in order.

Besides that he was absolutely pathetic throughout the entire broadcast. I can't believe ESPN Allows him on the air. I have zero respect for him

@DanR I've seen hanni on hawk talk and I really like him. Haven't listened to a bb game. Hard for people to accept change.

@BeddieKU23

It's all innuendo. He didn't say it was in order.... but one could make that assumption since media usually puts things in order starting from the top. He was working in AFH, and yet the first top venue that comes in his mind is the Hilton? And he had remarkable enthusiasm for the Hilton and just sort of mentioned AFH because he had to.

I'm not trying to whine or be over-sensitive... just pointing out his style of doing things and when you have the microphone you should be thinking about how things appear.

This is his style and how he does things, and most of his negative energy towards Kansas is innuendo and other tactics often hard to "prove."

Like I said, he should be a politician, or a lawyer, or like most politicians, both.

I put Fran in a similar light as Bilas. Bilas might be more knowledgable about the game, definitely on subjects outside of the Big 12... both of these guys make plenty of good points in their broadcasts. But they both seem to have axes to grind and that biased approach doesn't cut it with me.

I could give both of these guys fairly high marks for their work if they just cleaned up their acts.

@drgnslayr

It remind me of the time they had a poll on the top college basketball venues among 20-30 basketball writers and analysts and every single one had AFH in the top 2 or 3 except for one that did not list AFH; any guesses who?...MU alumnus Pat Forde.

Did we mention he thinks self should give up his HOF nomination to Eddie or some other guy? Who does that? I'm going to whine a lot about him! He associates his name w/others to make himself look good. Could I draw up what relocate means to all you KU unbb educated fans again?

@Crimsonorblue22 I thought that comment was more about Self's respect for Sutton, since as we know HCBS always pays tribute to those from whom he has learned. Not unusual to think a protege would want his mentor before him after he has been waiting awhile.

@mayjay not Fran's place

@mayjay

While Sutton was a very good coach, he also had big issues complying with rules. Rule violations at Kentucky during his watch brought the program within a whisker of the death penalty and he was forced to resign; he also left the OSU program under a black cloud. These are some of the reasons that have made it difficult for him to be nominated so far and perhaps he never will be...voters seem to frown upon law breakers, otherwise Charlie Hussle would be in the Baseball HOF.

@approxinfinity Gee, how'd you ever guess ?

@RockChalkinTexas Ole' Bob got wound up tightern' an 8 day clock ... What a treasure.

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As I said the other day, his woody for Hilton and IowaSt is getting old. Of course that caused "Hilton" to be mentioned first, no doubt. I mean, he's doing the damn game live right there in AFH on the halfcourt line, yet says some "other" place first. How transparent is that? Go ahead and dismiss it if you want, but why give him an out?

And how about leaving out Cameron Indoor? Would "knowledgeable" basketball fans pick Hilton over Cameron? Really? I would actually say I'd bucket list going to a game in Cameron, in DeanDome, and at Rupp...but I'd never put Hilton on that list.

Early senility? He's lost all perspective. Why dont they assign him to do IowaState's games, and OU's games (since his son played there)? I'll take Bob Knight over Fran anyday. Even when he said to "sit" senior Sherron, I didnt agree because I knew what Self would say about it, but I at least respected Knight as having a legitimate coach's perspective. Fraschilla's drivel is nonsense, at least he talks so softly, he gets half-drowned out by all the sneaker-squeaking game noises.

@ralster agreed - I honestly don't know why nobody likes Knight. My dad and I always enjoyed listening to him do our games. Like you said, he provided a genuine, no nonsense coach's perspective to the games. Really unfortunate

@ralster The Cameron thing was based on his broadcasting preferences--apparently they put the broadcasters up too high compared to other arenas.

@HawkChamp

I've always liked Knight calling the games. Sure, you have to put up with him messing up player names, etc., but he actually KNOWS basketball and is truly one of the architects of the game.

I've tried to tolerate Fran, I really have. But he makes it tough.

@ralster

"Early senility? He’s lost all perspective."

The business of sports media is a frenetic business area full of fear-driven non-sports media and marketing wonks. I worked for over a decade in that field. These people are always looking over their shoulders... afraid they are being passed up on the ratings charts.

I kind of wonder if they are attempting to bring back the "color man" concept? Remember that? The idea was to have one sportscaster "off his/her rocker" to bring in a different perspective and kind of break things up. Keep it light and jovial.

I say that after having to tolerate Bill Walton doing UCLA games. Sad thing is, I'm a Walton fan... going back to his UCLA/Wooden days. But his thoughts have become so distorted that he is taking away from the game he is calling. I'm there to watch the Bruins, not to listen to Bill's ramblings.

Fran is just a half-step away from Bill (Walton) now. Fran says crazy things but he usually has enough vagueness in there to keep his bases covered. Walton just goes off, completely unfiltered.

We all hear things through our own filter, I suppose. Mine filter is pretty tight anti-IowaState, ever since the EJ39 game, and that slightly tarnished Hoiberg a bit, but I still respect him. He was a worthy foe, as was Larry Eustachy. We'll see about Prohm. The fanbase beshat themselves on natl TV, though, just like the purple jokers in Manlesshattan. At least we have a better purple (Beware the Frog!) with Jamie Dixon and TCU.

My filter towards Jay Bilas is rather accepting. I like his tone. He speaks like a fellow blueblood alum, which he is. Agree or not with his point of the moment, at least he articulates himself well enough to follow the logic line (agenda or not). He's not as transparent as Gottlieb, DickieV, Fraschilla.

Of course, we could lobby for Kevin Harlan to do KU games! Miss him doing the Chiefs games "oh, baby...what a play...!", but Trent Green is absolutely acceptable, and rather special actually. Miles Simon certainly has my respect as well. My condolence on his loss.

@drgnslayr Agree about Bill Walton. I watched a Pac12 game he was commenting on, and it seemed to be a sideshow-comedy-relief, as he often flabbergasts his partner. But there is a segment of SoCal intelligentsia that absolutely love Walton's schtick. They get the humor. He's their guy. It is very different from midwestern sensibilities or East coast conventional thought.

@ralster

Yeah.... you called it right on Walton. I just can't ponder existentialism while trying to focus on hoops.

@HawkChamp Knight was a good broadcaster early on, but he got progressively worse each season. Nonstop talk about playera not using a shot fake. His final year of doing Big 12 games, a couple of friends and I did a drinking game for every time Knight talked about a shot fake. We had to stop at halftime so nobdy wpuld have to go to the hospital.

@Texas-Hawk-10 yes but thats basketball related AND HE'S RIGHT! Players dont utilize it nearly enough

@Texas-Hawk-10 [I'd bet he'd LOVE to watch Mrs. Hinson play](

I'd bet he'd LOVE to watch Mrs. Hinson play

@Texas-Hawk-10 ha ha

@HawkChamp

I like Bob Knight. I always enjoyed hearing the perspective of a HOF coach and I always felt like I learned something new from just listening to him.

@Texas-Hawk-10 I agree Knight seemed to be less effective as time went on. Honestly, I used a different filter with him, like I would with an elderly grandpa. You know older folks seem to cling to vestiges or cornerstones of their past personas. One could also say Knight forgot more about basketball than many people in their prime actually know...(isnt that how that cliche goes?) But, ultimately, everyone's time comes, and I believe Knight's time came. Look how split the KU fanbase's opinion is on Knight, and we are supposedly knowledgeable basketball fans.

But you know what was absolutely the worst? Brent Mustyberger and his encyclopedia of baseball-isms along with Bob Knight. Just not a lot of personality in that pairing. 2 old sweaters, 1 red, and 1 blue. Cartoonish pairing...

What might have been funny, is to pair Bilas with Knight, and listen to Knight "lecture" Bilas, since Krzyzewski played for Knight on an Army roster, I believe?

@HawkChamp The issue with Knight pointing it was that he was doing it every other possession without adding much else towards the end of his Big 12 run.