In my opinion, Bill Raftery doesn’t get his due as a college basketball analyst. Known as the poor man’s Dick Vitale, Raftery, in his gruff raspy voice, provides us with some of the best one liners we have come to love like “Throw it down big fella”, “With a kiss”, and my personal favorite,“Send it in” while always giving us excellent in-game commentary.
Even at his ever increasing age, he comes across as everyone’s loveable, fun loving, and knowledgeable grandpa, whom you could sit down and watch the game with on a Saturday afternoon.
It’s always enjoyable when Raftery is on a telecast since their is always some sort of joke or skit involved during some point of the broadcast.
During a recent game between Big East heavyweights Syracuse and Georgetown, Raftery was at it again. As usual, he provided the viewers with a hilarious on air skit during a dull moment of the broadcast.
Between Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson’s first and second free throws of a one-and-one in the first half, the Kiss Cam supposedly accidently panned across the ESPN announcers table. In an obvious set-up, the camera first focused on Sean McDonough, who was promptly smooched by one of the home team’s cheerleaders and immediately gave the camera the thumbs up sign. The same scenario followed with Jay Bilas, with Raftery due up next.
Then the camera moved on to the elder statesman of the group, where instead of one of the young, hot cheerleaders giving “Raffy” a peck on the cheek, an older female fan, dressed in Syracuse orange gear, plants a big wet smooch upon Raftery’s right cheek.
Viewers were supposed to believe that the skit was spontaneous, but it was revealed later in during the game that Raftery had set the whole thing up.
Check out the video:
Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own site, Hoops Haven.
