Packer Out
CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer is out according to the Miami Herald and will be replaced by Clark Kellogg. Clark Kellogg? Why didn't CBS just get rid of Jim Nantz and Seth Davis too and start over?
Packer did deliver one of my favorite lines of the season regarding USC basketball:
``This may make all the recruiting experts angry but (O.J.) Mayo is a good player, he is not a great player . . . he could be a good player. He is not a great player.''
I doubt any of the remaining suck-ups at CBS would deliver that line, especially Davis, who is a Tim Floyd-crony.
Packer is not very exciting, but he is very knowledgable about the game. Not a surprise with the shift in CBS' coverage more towards March Madness hype instead of analysis.
Another great insight was when Packer explained that Duke was getting booed at the Charlotte regional because Duke is disliked in the State of North Carolina and that Charlotte is basically a Tar Heel town.
Is Packer out at CBS or just as the lead analyst?
Either way, Packer works during the week as Raycom's lead analyst for ACC games. If you get the ESPN Full Court package you can still enjoy his handiwork.
Packer definitely provided a lot of valuable insight, and always told it like he thought. Hopefully he will be picked up by another major station. espn, hopefully youre listening.
Shocking that someone criticizing a USC player is one of Wolf's favorite quotes. At least he doesn't pretend to be impartial and admits to disliking his beat.
Packer is a grump. CBS needs to get Gus Johnson in there for the big games. At least he still enjoys the game of basketball.
And how is Packer tempering the expectations of a collegiate freshman considered being ballsy? If Packer had said his boss was a nincompoop and a talentless blow hard, that would have been ballsy.
Saying a player is overrated and being a "suck-up" aren't mutually exclusive in my book. One doesn't have much to do with the other.
I think Packer had become a dinosaur. Kellogg is a younger, hipper version with the occasional funny line, and also very opinionated. Actually, I think Seth Davis is great. Very smart dude who knows that stats cold, and speaks well. Much smarter analysis than what Packer can provide.
If only CBS was running the Daily News.