Packer marches to a beat that starts its own madness

Billy Packer could write a book about creating controversies this time of year. It could be called, “March Madness, Packer Style.” And included could be at least a little page on Craig Littlepage.

The latest controversy involves Packer’s on-air defense Sunday of a Duke player who broke the nose of a North Carolina player. His stance made Billy a goat among some college basketball followers.

Last year, a controversy stemmed from an interview Packer did with Littlepage, the Virginia athletic director who at the time was chairman of the NCAA tournament selection committee.

At the end of CBS’ tournament selection show, Packer’s broadcast partner, Jim Nantz, questioned the committee’s selection of as many Missouri Valley Conference teams -- four -- as Atlantic Coast Conference teams.

Packer, of course, was blunt.

“Are you kidding me?” he said.

Then, in an ensuing interview, Packer wondered how the committee could have given the Missouri Valley Conference equal stature to the ACC.

At a news conference the next day, Littlepage said, “I think Billy made the comment that he hadn’t seen the Missouri Valley Conference play, but he felt comfortable enough to talk about their lower level of performance not only this year but over time.”

Littlepage also said Packer and Nantz “should be more respectful of the NCAA in light of the CBS-NCAA contract.”

“Asking questions is what I do on that show,” Packer said Wednesday from his home in Charlotte, N.C. “If you can’t ask questions, then why have a show?”

He suggested other factors contributed to the friction during the interview, which was done via satellite.

Packer said he and Nantz had called the Big Ten tournament championship game in Indianapolis that day, then had only about 15 minutes to collect themselves, get hooked up and do the selection show.

“We had three to five minutes to come up with something after the selections were announced,” Packer said. “I’ll tell you something else. There was a transmission problem that made things more difficult. There was a slight delay in what Craig could hear Jim and I saying and I think that made him somewhat uncomfortable.”

Packer said he has nothing against Littlepage. He said he has great respect for him and that their dispute is long forgotten.

“We get together every year with the NCAA people to discuss various topics and see what improvements can be made,” Packer said. “Craig and I were involved in a discussion with others for about an hour, and we might have spent two minutes talking about last year’s show.”

And, as it turned out, Packer was wrong about the Missouri Valley Conference. Two MVC teams, Bradley and Wichita State, made it to the Elite Eight. Only one ACC team, Boston College, made it to the Elite Eight.

“I’m not the only person who can’t be right every time,” Packer said.

A lot of people believe he wasn’t right about what happened in Sunday’s game at Chapel Hill, N.C., which was televised by CBS.

With North Carolina comfortably ahead and 14.5 seconds to play, Duke’s Gerald Henderson came flying in to block a shot by Tyler Hansbrough and, in the process, broke Hansbrough’s nose with an elbow. The hit eventually was ruled a flagrant foul and Henderson was given a one-game suspension. Packer disagreed that the foul was flagrant.

By Wednesday, despite public outrage over what Henderson did, the CBS commentator hadn’t changed his mind.

“You had three referees and six eyeballs that saw the play,” Packer said. “I’m not a referee, but in my role as an analyst, I have to say what I see. So that’s eight eyeballs that initially didn’t see it as an intentional flagrant foul.

“Then the referees decided to look at a monitor and review the play for four minutes. Common sense tells you the game is over and all the referees needed to do was first make sure the player who got hit in the face was OK, get everybody under control and get out of there. Why infuriate 22,000 fans by reviewing the play?

“Henderson came flying into the pack from 10 feet away. There’s no question it was not intentional.”

So chalk up that opinion as another Packer controversy.

For those keeping score, Here are some other Packer’s Madness moments:

* In 1998, in an interview with The Times, Packer called CBS’ “60 Minutes” “a cancer in our organization.”

Packer was upset the award-winning news magazine show had chosen to do a negative story on Jerry Tarkanian and Fresno State basketball. The piece focused on the fact that eight of the 10 scholarship players on the Fresno State team had missed games because they were suspended, ineligible, in rehabilitation or had quit. Four were convicted felons.

* In 2002, “60 Minutes” was again a Packer target. This time he was upset by a story Lesley Stahl did in which Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, called the NCAA a sweatshop because of the way college athletics are treated.

“It’s beyond comprehension,” Packer said at the time. “Anytime they do a piece on college athletics, it’s preposterous.”

Packer fits into a group of commentators that includes Johnny Miller and John McEnroe. They say whatever pops into their mind, and such candor is what makes them appealing. It is also what angers people.

On Sunday, Packer and Nantz will call the Big Ten championship game in Chicago, which begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time. Then comes the selection show at 3 p.m., with Packer getting another shot at stirring up a controversy.

larry.stewart@latimes.com