BEHIND THE MICROPHONE

The moment we've all been waiting for...

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The 2009-10 Atlantic Coast Conference basketball schedule released today by Commissioner John Swofford is highlighted by 281 television appearances by the league’s 12 member schools, including 162 appearances on national television networks. This year’s schedule also includes 173 televised games involving ACC teams and marks the sixth-straight year the ACC has had more than 250 television appearances.

The Conference will provide an updated 2009-10 ACC schedule with additional television selections at a later date.

In addition, the league also unveiled the 2010 ACC Tournament logo today. The 57th annual ACC Tournament is set for March 11-14, 2010, and marks the 22nd time that the four-day event will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum.

ACC Basketball by the Numbers

162 - ACC teams are scheduled to make 162 appearances on national television networks, including 118 appearances on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, 35 on Fox Sports Net, and seven on CBS.

24 – ACC teams are scheduled to play a total of 24 games against 22 non-conference opponents that earned NCAA Tournament berths in 2008-09.

19 - Fox Sports Net and affiliates will televise 19 Sunday afternoon and evening games on a national basis, starting with North Carolina hosting Nevada on November 29.

11 - Headlining the league’s non-conference schedule is the 11th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge pairing two of the nation's premier conferences in a regular-season challenge series. Last year, the ACC won the Challenge for the 10th-straight time, winning six of the 11 games played. The ACC (.640) and the Big Ten (.613) are the two winningest conferences in NCAA Tournament history.

Fang's Bites

Check out a recently conducted interview I did for Fang's Bites. Here's the link:

http://www.fangsbites.com/2009/08/interview-with-bob-rathbun.html

Welcome back, Coach!

Below is a reprint from today's Orlando Sentinel. It's a column written by George Diaz on ESPN's Lee Corso. Lee and I worked toegther at ESPN in 1987, first with the inagural season of Arena Football and later that fall on college football. He is one of my favorite people on the planet and one of the most loyal friends and partners that I've been lucky enough to work with. So happy that he is coming back strong!

Lee Corso won't let the stroke he suffered in May slow him down

Lee Corso won't let the stroke he suffered in May slow him down

George Diaz

COMMENTARY

12:34 AM EDT, August 2, 2009

Lee Corso stepped outside his home in Heathrow around 8:30 a.m. on May 16, and disappeared.

Somebody else came back into the house. That person, newspaper in hand, grabbed a glass of orange juice and sat down in the patio. He felt woozy. He then tried to talk.

"Gaaagggh, baaahh." Pure gibberish.

Corso — the loquacious Mad Hatter on ESPN's College GameDay — vanished that day, replaced by a man engulfed in dark silence.

The diagnosis was a mild stroke. The adjective was a life-saver. Corso saw it for himself, as he began his rehabilitation to heal his body and mind. Others in that room, scarred for life, weren't so lucky.

"I read this book that said 'if you survive a stroke,'" Corso said. "Hello — if you survive a stroke. They used the word survive. That scared the crap out of me. You don't read, 'if you survive a broken leg.'"

Corso is surviving. One day, one word, one sentence, one conversation, at a time.

Nearly three months later, Corso is piecing his life together again. He's graduated from physical therapy but remains in occupational and speech therapy. The stroke affected his right side. He is learning to write all over again, just like he's learned to talk all over again.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the stroke, Corso sat down outside a Starbucks in Longwood a few days ago, took a few sips of an iced tea, and told a story etched in transformation.

A man who has reinvented himself once already — going from a struggling football coach to a glib gridiron guru — is plotting another magnificent makeover. He will be back on TV once fall football begins. The ironic twist in the challenge is obvious: A chatterbox got silenced by a stroke. His voice, as he says, is "the ultimate thing for me."

He speaks fine now. There are a few quirky moments when things don't quite connect, like when he's trying to recall precise moments through the fog of recovery. A critical step was passing a swallow test, he says, "inside the hotel (pause), inside the airport (pause), inside the hospital." It took three times, but he finally found the right word.

But don't feel sorry for Corso. He doesn't. He knows he's blessed.

Blessed from the moment he was rushed from Florida Hospital Altamonte after the stroke, and then transferred within hours via helicopter to Florida Hospital Orlando for more extensive tests that revealed a stroke caused by a blockage to a small artery.

The diagnosis was the easy part. The hard work came next. Beyond the struggles with speech and writing, Corso lost comprehension skills. He couldn't remember anything he had just read.

He was in the hospital for a week in critical care, then another five days in the rehab section before his release.

"The brain heals at its own pace," he said. "If I had a shoulder injury I could rehab it 10 hours a day for five days and it would be great, but not the brain."

He's piecing it all together slowly. He works out every day. Gathers strength in his right hand by squeezing Silly Putty. Twice a week, it's speech therapy. "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr," he says, mimicking one of the tongue exercises, then moving his tongue side to side, cheek to cheek. "When I first started I felt my tongue weighed 80 pounds. And I slobbered. I'm getting better at that. I'm trying to get the brain to realize that you can do this."

The blessed part? Like most people who suffer trauma, he's gathered perspective and appreciation for life. Blessed by a family, including his wife, three sons and a daughter. Blessed by his "day job" if you will, as director of business development for Dixon Ticonderoga. It's the company's No. 2 pencils you see when Corso waves them at Kirk Herbstreit to make a point on GameDay. Blessed by getting to know people who cared from him unconditionally. Doctors, nurses, and the orderlies who bathed him during the first days of his hospital stay.

"The people who used to bring me my food and ask how I was," Corso says, tearing up for the only time during our conversation. " ... They got your back and they do a good job. They care about you and they want you to get better. They didn't care who I was."

They likely know Corso for his ESPN gig, which began in 1987. They might not recall a few other significant details: He was Burt Reynolds' roommate at Florida State. He stumbled for success in three head coaching gigs in college. His résumé read more like P.T. Barnum than Paul "Bear' Bryant, a fair assessment for a man who once rode an elephant to help sell season tickets for the University of Louisville in 1969. He has strong ties to Central Florida. Born in Lake Mary, Corso had a run as coach of the Orlando Renegades of the United States Football League in 1985.

Corso's voice is what matters most now. Part of the soundtrack of college football, it's informative and analytical, glib and gregarious. Putting on a mascot head to pick a weekly winner of the game, live on campus, is his pièce de résistance. It's a shtick that has endeared him to generations of football fans, from the college freshman to the 70-something grandfather who is his peer.

Just five days shy of his 74th birthday, Corso is not about to let no stinkin' stroke spoil the fun.

He's marked Sept. 5 — the Alabama- Virginia Tech game in Atlanta — as his coming out party for 2009. That's his goal. He will be there. Live TV. First stop on ESPN's college football traveling circus.

He's turned down various speaking gigs that would have prepped him for the moment. He won't entertain his buddies at the annual Florida Citrus Sports kickoff dinner. He admits to a bit of fear, afraid he might embarrass himself before he's ready.

Instead, he's heading straight to the big room. National audience. No safety net.

Typical Corso. You gotta love it.

Way back when he was a struggling football coach, Corso once crawled out of a coffin on his local TV show to give his players the ultimate pick-me-up: Don't ever count yourselves out.

Same deal applies today. Lee Corso refuses to be silenced.

Not so fast, my friend: Mr. Corso is popping out of that coffin again on Sept. 5.

George Diaz can be reached at 407-420-5533 and gdiaz@orlandosentinel.com.

Toe Meets Leather

Seven SEC football games added to Fox Sports South

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

9:04 p.m. Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The proliferation of SEC sports on television continues.

Fox Sports Net said Wednesday it has reached a deal with ESPN that will put 91 SEC sporting events per year on FSN regional cable networks in the Southeast, including Atlanta-based Fox Sports South.

The package will include seven football games, expected to air on Saturday nights, as well as 20 men’s basketball games, 24 women’s basketball games, 16 baseball games and 24 other events per year.

The package comes from the massive inventory of events ESPN controls under its new contract with the SEC. Since there is not enough room on the various ESPN networks for all of the programming, some is being sold off to other outlets.

One place or another, all SEC football games and all non-conference home games involving SEC teams will be televised this fall.

The deals will mean an increase in the number of SEC games played at night. The seven Fox Sports Net games likely will kick off between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Fox Sports South general manager Jeff Genthner said. He said there might be as many as three other SEC games televised elsewhere on any given Saturday night.

Genthner said selections of FSN’s first two or three matchups should be finalized next week.

He said Bob Rathbun will be the play-by-play announcer on the football games, with Dave Archer as analyst, Jenn Hildreth as sideline reporter and Fred Hickman as halftime host.

FSN also plans a live one-hour SEC football show on Wednesday nights this fall, “SEC Gridiron Live,” airing from the network’s Atlanta studio. The show will debut at 10 p.m. Sept. 2 and run for 12 weeks.

Genthner said the studio show’s cast will include Charles Davis (host), Randy Cross (analyst), former Georgia star David Pollack (analyst) and Cassidy Hubbarth (“social media reporter”). Hubbarth’s role will be to facilitate live interaction with fans via sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Genthner said.

Fox’s SEC programming will air on Fox Sports South in seven states, Sun Sports in Florida and Fox Sports Southwest in Arkansas and Louisiana. The programming will be available in more than 24 million cable and satellite households.

FSN had direct TV deals with the SEC for the past 18 years, but those did not include live football games except on rare early-season occasions.

From this week's Speaker Net News

Video showing how ridiculous some negotiations are — Beth Terry

Wondering why retailers and service providers are clear on the concept that being in business equals getting paid; and speakers and artists seem to think this is a concept to wrestle with? This well-done video, “The Vendor/Client Relationship — In Real-World Situations” illustrates what we face with those who want to negotiate.

True Hoop Blog (re-feed)

Just had to pass this along in case you have not seen it.

We hear the stories all the time. There are problems with the NBA. If you wanted to make a story about what that means exactly, you might want to use the facts from this stars real biography:

 

Raised in a single-parent home, with a rotating cast of father figures.

No tolerance as a youngster for real coaching. Countless victories are lost to poor strategy.

Terrible grades and at times a really glaring lack of education.

Shopping from school to school to find one who will grant a diploma.

 

A car provided by an unofficial "sponsor."

Trouble with teammates, family and sometimes the police, including for outrunning the police in more than one high-speed chase.

Later in life, divorce, dallying with various celebrities, and a child out of wedlock.  We see these stories and we pull our hair out fretting. What can be done? Someone needs to fix this!

 

Ban the high school players! Instill dress codes! Lecture everybody about this and that!

 

Heres a little thing to make you think, though. That biography I outlined up above?

 

Whose is that? Care to guess?

 

Thats the tale of Lance Armstrongs life (as I learned from a new book about him). Yet Armstrong, for many reasons, is generally seen as one of the most dignified, successful and admirable of all athletes. 

 

So, does that mean pro leagues need to get all wound up about character issues in more sports, or fewer? I cant say for certain. But I cant imagine a league of Lance Armstrongs would be subject to the same kinds of hand-wringing the NBA endures.

 

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-42-21/What-s-Wrong-with-the-NBA.html

 

Here's the release about the Emmy's from FOX Sports South

FOX SPORTS SOUTH, SPORTSOUTH

RECEIVE NINE EMMY AWARDS

Original Programming, Studio Programming, Live Event Production

and On-Air Promotions Recognized with Awards

 

FOX Sports South and SportSouth received nine Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) Southeast Chapter.  The 2009 NATAS Southeast Regional Emmy Awards, presented June 27 in Atlanta, recognize television excellence in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. 

 

FOX Sports South and SportSouth received 18 Emmy nominations and won in eight of 11 nominated categories.  For the third consecutive year, the networks won the Sporting Event/Game-Live/Unedited category for production of the Atlanta Hawks’ Game 6 playoff match-up against the Boston Celtics and the University of Georgia’s football game against Central Michigan University.  Also for the third year, FOX Sports South and SportSouth won in the Interview/Discussion category, not a sports-specific award, for In My Own Words: Charles Barkley.  The networks swept the nominations in the Sports-One Time Special category and won for the 60-minute documentary Spotlight: Joe Johnson.  Please see below for a complete list of FOX Sports South and SportSouth Emmy winners.

 

Television and Program Specialty Excellence – Sports One-Time Special

·         Spotlight: Joe Johnson – Steve Becker, Keith Wetzler, Dan Greene, Joe Johnson

 

Televise News and Program Specialty Excellence – Sporting Event/Game-Live/Unedited

·         NBA – Celtics vs. Hawks Playoff Game #6 – Hammond Reynolds, Rohan Backfisch, Jay Hoover, Garry Lehman

·         College Football – Central Michigan @ Georgia – Hammond Reynolds, Craig Ritchie, Joe Vencius, Ric LaCivita

 

Television Programming Excellence – Interview / Discussion

·         In My Own Words: Charles Barkley – Steve Becker, Keith Wetzler, Kevin Allison, Charles Barkley

 

Television Spot Announcements Excellence – Promotion-Program

·         SportSouth Trivia – Jon Johnson, Alix Jones, Phil Olshanski

 

Television Crafts Achievement Excellence – Director-Short Form

·         Braves LIVE Show Open – Adam Hirsch

 

Television Crafts Achievement Excellence – Graphic Arts-Graphics

·         SportSouth Trivia – Jon Johnson

 

Television Crafts Achievement Excellence – On-Camera Talent-Anchor-Sports

·         Jerome Jurenovich

 

Television Crafts Achievement Excellence – Photographer-Sports

·         Dan Greene

 

“To be recognized with 18 Emmy nominations for excellence across so many disciplines of our business – original programming, editing, promotions, graphics, on-air talent and photography – and to earn nine Emmy wins is a tremendous honor and a well-deserved recognition for our entire team,” said Jeff Genthner, senior vice president and general manager of FOX Sports South and SportSouth.  “We are grateful to the Southeast Chapter of NATAS and congratulate the many other Emmy winners for their excellence in television production.”

 

The Emmy goes to...

A great night for FOX Sports South/SportSouth last night at the NATAS Southeast Regional Emmy Awards. FSS walked away with a grand total of 10 Emmy Awards!

It was a thrill for yours truly two be nominated for two Emmy's in the same category--in two different sports. Our college football broadcast, Central Michigan at Georgia, and our NBA telecast, Boston at Atlanta in Game Six of the playoffs last year EACH won last night for Outstanding Achievement: Television News and Program Specialty Excellence; Sporting Event/Game-Live/Unedited.

It was a thrill to join Executive Producer Hammond Reynolds and Co-ordinating Producer Rohan Backfisch on stage to accept the dual Emmy's.

On the SEC football game, it was a pleasure to work with one of the game's top analysts in Dave Rowe, plus our great production team of producer Joe Vencius and director Ric LaCivita.

My Hawks team also won for the second year in a row with a telecast from that thrilling Hawks-Celtics seven-game series from 2008. Kudos to Steve Smith, producer Jay Hoover and director Gary Lehman.

More pictures and stories to come!

Congratulations to all of the nominees and Emmy award recipients.

Why I Love The NHL

Last night, Toronto's GM Brian Burke was booed by the Montreal fans when he took the stage to make the Leafs pick.

The boos were the loudest of the night at the Bell Centre, reserved for the Canadiens arch rival.

Here is Brian's rebuttal:

"I don't give a rat's (behind) about that stuff. I will tell you this, the best hockey fans on the planet are not in Montreal, they're in Toronto. When we host this event in a couple of years and Montreal goes up to pick, this will seem like child's play for the booing they'll get in Toronto."

Now I ask, dear readers, in what other sport will a GM make a comment like this about another teams' fans?

Photo: CBC. Quotation: Sporting News Today 6/27/09

The Biggest Factor

There are many reasons for the Atlanta Hawks improvement in the win column from last season to this, going from 37 wins to 45: no season-ending injuries, great success at home, better defense.

But the biggest factor for the Hawks in improving by eight in the win column was the club's dramatic increase in three point field goals made.

Here is a chart perparred by the folks at STATS, LLC that spells it all out:

Largest Increase in 3-PT FGs From Previous Season - All-time

(W-L in parenthesis)

 

                      Previous     That Season     Diff

2007-08 Magic        342 (40-42)    801 (52-30)    +459 (+12)

2004-05 Suns         415 (29-53)    796 (62-20)    +381 (+33)

1995-96 Mavericks    386 (36-46)    735 (26-56)    +349 (-10)

2008-09 Knicks       490 (23-59)    823 (32-50)    +333 (+9)

1999-00 Mavericks    202 (19-31)    519 (40-42)    +317 (+21)

 

The Hawks had the league’s second-largest improvement from the 2007-08 season.

 

Largest Increase in 3-PT FGs From Previous Season – 2008-09

(W-L in parenthesis)

 

                  2007-08     2008-09          Diff 

Knicks         490 (23-59)    823 (32-50)       +333 (+9)

Hawks          384 (37-45)    597 (47-35)       +213 (+10)

Clippers       350 (23-59)    535 (19-63)       +185 (-4)

Nets           498 (34-48)    652 (34-48)       +154 (0)

Cavaliers      552 (45-37)    656 (66-16)       +104 (+21)

 

With the draft over a week away and free agency looming, it will be imperative that the Hawks maintain a roster with enough outside firepower to maintain or increase those numbers next season. Take a page from the Magic, the Celtics, and the Cavaliers: if you want to be among the elite, you must have the three-point shot as a major weapon in your arsenal.