North Carolina State Coach : Valvano Will Be a Commentator, Not a Critic

Jim Valvano is going to a college basketball game today and he already knows nary a nasty word will cross his lips.

“Don’t expect me to criticize anyone because I won’t,” said the North Carolina State coach.

The Wolfpack are off today, but Valvano will be on NBC when it televises Illinois vs. Indiana from Champaign, Ill.

He will be the game analyst and roughly 50% of the country--the Big 10 Midwest area and the mountain states--will get to watch, according to NBC, which was pleased to get an active coach in the broadcast booth.

“This is a one-shot deal, an oddity of the schedule. He looked at his schedule and we looked at ours, and we found a day he could do it,” said Rich Hussey, director of program planning for NBC.

“We think he will offer a fun perspective,” he said. “It’s kind of unusual to have a coach in the middle of season take a break to do some color analysis.

“There’s no question he can do it. We think he’ll be entertaining and enlightening,” Hussey said.

Valvano hopes so.

“I think it will be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it,” he said, adding that he would have been watching a basketball game on television Sunday anyway.

What kind of homework was he doing?

“Basically, none,” said the loquacious coach, who acknowledges there is practically no chance he will be at a loss for words.

“All I want to do is be a coach watching the game. I’ll try to explain the technical aspects and talk about some of the options that may be going through the coaches mind,” he said.

No way is he going to second-guess Hoosier coach Bobby Knight or Illini Coach Lou Henson on the air.

“I would never do that in a million years. In my mind, Bob Knight is the best coach in the world and I have the utmost respect for Lou Henson.”

The NCAA said it had no objection to an active coach performing in a broadcaster’s role for a network.

“There is no restriction against that,” said NCAA spokesman Dave Cawood. “In the NCAA basketball tournament, the basketball committee does not permit a coach who has a team in a tournament to serve in a color role. But there’s no restriction for a coach during the season. That’s been done before in football.”

And Henson said he didn’t mind that Valvano actually is getting a chance to scout his team: “Not at all. And even though we might play them somewhere down the road, people can always look at game films.”

Knight was unavailable for comment.

As for rumors that he’s had it with coaching and would like to take over Al McGuire’s job on NBC telecasts of college basketball, Valvano replies:

“I don’t know where that comes from. Probably from the same guys who said we couldn’t beat Houston.” That remark refers to N.C. State’s triumph in the 1983 NCAA Tournament when it beat the Cougars with a winning dunk.

“To say that I want to be another Al McGuire, well, that’s a compliment to me because I think Al is terrific at what he does,” Valvano said. “I think the two best guys in the business are Al and Billy.” Billy is Billy Packer.

McGuire, the former Marquette coach, is under contract to NBC until 1987 and has vowed that this is his last season. Valvano is in the midst of a lucrative 10-year deal as N.C. State coach, but some TV insiders have said he would like to get into broadcasting.

“He desperately wants out of coaching,” an unidentified TV source recently told Newsday, the Long Island newspaper. “He’d love to be another Al McGuire, but he needs a forum. National television would be the perfect vehicle for him.”

“Everybody has different ways they handle stress with this profession,” said Valvano. “I tend to do the things I think are fun and exciting. To recharge my battery, I’ll do a radio show or television. I think it’s a great opportunity to do something a little different.”