Let's Skip The Vitale Info

Dick Vitale is a hot item these days, and isn't it nice that a guy with a balding pate, bulging eyes, a chalk-on-the-blackboard voice and preternatural enthusiasm has made the grade? But while giving Vitale points for not being the typical network smoothie, let's not ignore the fact that the ego of college basketball's frog prince is out of control and that his self-importance is starting to get in the way of his often perceptive commentary. Here's a selection of self-aggrandizing revelations that Vitale force-fed his viewers during last week's Michigan—Ohio State and Duke—North Carolina telecasts on ESPN:

Dick Vitale went to dinner with Ohio State coach Gary Williams.

Dick Vitale also went to lunch with Williams and Michigan coach Bill Frieder. Frieder bought.

Dick Vitale shot hoops with the Buckeyes on game day.

Dick Vitale conducted the Ohio State band before the game.

Dick Vitale has gotten to know all the players on the Michigan team and "they're really a bunch of nice kids."

Dick Vitale will be speaking at a luncheon in Madison, Wis. Dick Vitale "always has a great time" in Madison.

When Dick Vitale coached, he was "a wild, zany wacko."

Dick Vitale talked to Ohio State guard Curtis Wilson, and Wilson asked Dick Vitale to call him "the Colonel" on the air. And so, after Wilson made a jump shot, Dick Vitale said, "The Colonel! He said, 'Please call me the Colonel! My dad's a colonel!' He wanted me to call him the Colonel! Colonel Wilson!"

Dick Vitale visited with North Carolina coach Dean Smith and was mightily impressed with Smith's stupendous office.