OPINION

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 11:25 a.m. ET July 15, 2008

Mike DeCourcy

Kansas coach Bill Self won the last Final Four game Billy Packer broadcast for CBS, although no one knew it at the time. Self has watched that game more than once in the time since, and he delights each time he hears Packer make the comment "What a game!" before leaving the air.

"That's what I'll remember about him on that night," Self said Monday. "He did something that I thought was cool after that game. When they were interviewing us and everything's over, he said to me, 'Hey, nice job, Bill.'

"He's meant a lot to our sport over time."

Billy Packer broadcast 34 consecutive Final Fours, keeping alive that string even when the NCAA changed networks from NBC to CBS. Nobody ever saw a college basketball game more clearly or communicated his knowledge more succinctly than Packer.

His run is over, as SportsBusiness Journal reported Monday morning that Packer is out at CBS and will be replaced by studio analyst Clark Kellogg.

"I've had always the utmost respect -- anybody that can test time, through three decades, doing what he did," ESPN analyst Dick Vitale said of Packer. "Whenever you do things for a long period of time, you're going to have people who disagree with you. You just can't please everyone."

Long before the arrival of Facebook, Google and iTunes, the Internet was loaded with loathing of Packer. He may be the most unpopular analyst of any sport on any network, which is hard to believe given that Bill Walton still gets paid to talk hoops.

The folks at Deadspin have a "Media Approval Ratings" feature that asks their readers a simple question regarding various media figures. More than 90 percent denounced Packer. Only two others have gotten lower scores than Packer, and they're both sportswriters, so condemnation is to be expected.

One of the problems was that Packer, a brilliant man, allowed himself to be placed in position to comment on aspects of the game in which he had little expertise. He clearly was not a student of the NCAA selection process nor versed in the brand of college basketball being played below the best-known conferences. And yet each year he would sit next to Jim Nantz on the CBS selection special and, too often, disparage the selections and seeding.

He was harshly critical of the decision to award a No. 1 seed to Saint Joseph's in 2004. He blasted the inclusion of at-large entrants from the Colonial Athletic Association and Missouri Valley Conference in 2006 - the year that the Valley wound up with two Sweet 16 teams and CAA member George Mason went to the Final Four.

Because college basketball was a side enterprise for Packer, his overall knowledge of the politics and mechanics of NCAA basketball was somewhat limited. His various business interests kept him from paying close attention to "Bracketology" or the list of top 10 recruits at Scout.com.

When he was assigned to a particular game, however, he recognized the dynamics of that game as well as anybody who's ever broadcast major events in this country. He didn't always seem to be having fun doing this job, which was one of his few failures as a broadcaster. He definitely loved the game and loved being courtside to talk about it.

"Though we may be different in styles ... the one common denominator is we really have a great passion for college basketball," Vitale said.

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It would have been nice had Packer communicated that passion to viewers as effectively as he did the specifics of a 2-3 zone defense.

There are lots of people who know Packer's work better than I do. Because I've been in attendance, I haven't watched him call a Final Four game since the 1993 championship between North Carolina and Michigan.

I'm sure in the years since he's given people reason to be angry, such as when he declared this year's North Carolina-Kansas game to be "over" in the first half. He looked bad when Carolina made its comeback to cut the KU lead to four points; in the end, he was right.

When Billy Packer stuck to what he knew best, he usually was.

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