No Joke, Packer Outshines Co-Stars

CBS had a nice opening Monday night, having cast members from “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” which is playing on Broadway, singing “On Broadway.”

Only problem, the game was in New Jersey, not on Broadway.

CBS wandered off course a few times after that too.

There was Jim Harrick looking ridiculous sitting in the stands wearing a droopy Syracuse hat, next to fellow CBS analyst Mike Krzyzewski, who wore a Kentucky cap.

There was Pat O’Brien hitting the top of the cliche meter, musing, “It does not get any better than this.”

There was O’Brien again at halftime, trying to equate a Syracuse basket that shouldn’t have counted to an “April Fools’ joke.” It was a reach, and it missed.

At least there were no shameless promotional interviews like the one O’Brien did Saturday with Don Johnson to push that night’s “Nash Bridges” episode on CBS.

But enough nit-picking. CBS ended up with a championship game that was better than most people thought it would be, and overall CBS did a pretty good job.

The main reason for that was skipper Billy Packer, who kept the telecast going in the right direction.

Packer doesn’t have a gimmick. He doesn’t rant and rave. He doesn’t talk in initials. No “PT players.” He doesn’t yell for a “TO, baby.”

Packer simply tells you what you’d like to know. And isn’t that what a commentator is supposed to do?

When Syracuse’s Lazarus Sims lobbed a pass to teammate John Wallace that went in the basket, leaving Wallace hanging on the rim, Packer immediately told us the basket was illegal, and he explained why--basket interference.

None of this off-the-mark April Fools’ stuff that O’Brien tried at halftime.

Packer plays it straight, and it works. Not that he doesn’t have a way with words.

When it was obvious Syracuse was tight at the start of the game and was having trouble getting the ball over the half-court line, this is the way Packer described it: “Every dribble seems to be an experience unto itself.”

Early on, Packer seemed to know this would be a good game.

“People thought this might be the JV game to Saturday’s game [between Kentucky and Massachusetts], but there is no indication that that will be the case,” he said.

When Syracuse’s Otis Hill got caught in the middle of a Kentucky double team and was called for a walk, Packer said, “He has to understand where the double team comes from and throw the ball in the opposite direction.”

No, Packer isn’t afraid to criticize.

When Sims threw a bad pass that led to an easy basket for Kentucky’s Ron Mercer, Packer said, “That was two mistakes by Sims. He threw too delicate of a pass, then he stood there as Mercer went right by him.”

When Syracuse’s Wallace picked up his third foul for away-from-the-ball contact with Mark Pope, Packer shot back that he thought Pope had set an illegal screen.

“A big, big foul,” Packer said, and right he was.

After Monday’s telecast, CBS Sports production chief Rick Gentile said on the phone from New York, “Billy Packer breaks down the game like nobody else in the business. He also hits on the key points, and the bigger the game the better he is.”

Hard to argue with that.

Also, Packer works well with play-by-play partner Jim Nantz, who if anything is a little too low-key. But to Nantz’s credit, he seems content to let Packer be the star.

And once again Packer was a star.