Certainly, Jim Nantz could fill an evening weaving tales of the great games and buzzer-beaters he’s had the privilege to see, and call, over a storytelling career that made his the voice of March Madness for nearly four decades.
But when asked about his favorite moments as he prepared for the 354th and final game of that journey — Monday’s title game — he brought up Delaware State.
The Hornets were a 16 seed when they made what is still their only NCAA appearance back in 2005. They were going against Duke in a first-round game hardly anyone remembers now. Nantz was certain he’d see those Duke players again.
“But those Delaware State kids, they’re on CBS, and I envisioned that someday, they’re going to have the VHS tape to be able to show their grandchildren and say ‘I played in the NCAA Tournament,'” Nantz said during a courtside conversation with The Associated Press the day before the start of his last Final Four. “This tournament is their ‘forever.’ I always wanted to make sure that I do justice to their story.”
The 63-year-old traces his own path to the announcer’s table to when he was 9 and living in New Orleans. His dad took him to his first college basketball game.
Working the sideline was a bear of a coach who had a red, polka-dotted towel draped across his shoulder. About 10 years later, that coach, Guy Lewis of the Houston Cougars, would give Nantz, who played golf at the school, a job as the public-address guy for home games at Hofheinz Pavillion. A year after that, Nantz was still living in the dorms at UH when Lewis asked him to host his coach’s show.
Nantz’s might very well be the voice American sports fans know best. He has guided them through six Super Bowls on CBS and walked with them among the towering pines at the Masters since 1986, when Jack Nicklaus won his sixth green jacket. He’ll continue on those assignments for the foreseeable future, but this 37th run through March Madness will be his last.
Some said it might have been perfect if his alma mater, which came into the tournament as a No. 1 seed, was playing in its hometown in the final game of Nantz’s basketball journey. That didn’t happen, but Nantz believes there’s something fitting about a Final Four that came out of the blue like this, with three schools that had never been this far before, and no team seeded better than No. 4 UConn.
He has always loved the underdog tales.
“Storytelling paradise,” Nantz called it.
It’s been wild, emotional and a little awkward for a man who concedes he likes to tell the stories, not be part of them.
He got a key to the city Friday. Two streets on an intersection outside the stadium were renamed “Jim Nantz Way” and “Hello Friends Boulevard.”
“Hello friends”
“Hello Friends” is the comfy-as-a-slipper welcome he coined about 20 years ago. It gives Nantz a moment to connect with the audience and think of his dad, who passed away in 2008 after a long bout with Alzheimer’s. The Nantz National Alzheimer’s Center is based in Houston.
Nantz’s welcome-in message to the telecasts might be planned. Other things aren’t.
His call of Saturday’s buzzer-beating shot by San Diego State’s Lamont Butler in the semifinals — Nantz estimates he’s had 20-something such last-second winners over his years in the tournament — plays back like a master class in what his job should be: simple, urgent, much more about the moment than the person talking about it.
“It’s Butler. With two seconds. He’s gotta put it up. Aaand. He wins it! He wins it! With the jumper!” Then, five seconds of silence, followed by, “A San Diego State miracle!”
Transfer portal lifts SDSU, UConn
Dan Hurley knew in the wake of a first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament last year that his Connecticut team had to find more perimeter punch to surround his top NBA prospects and match opponents.
Similarly, Brian Dutcher quickly went about luring a new point guard to San Diego State.
So both teams went shopping in the transfer portal, scanning the names of available talent in search of the skillset and fit that would plug gaps in their rosters in the college equivalent to free agency. And while purists grouse about nomadic players destabilizing programs facing constant roster churn, there’s no denying its targeted use has worked perfectly for the Huskies and Aztecs: they’re the last two teams standing in the NCAA Tournament, playing for the national title Monday night.
“(UConn) needed more offensive weapons and they went to go get them,” said Aztecs wing Micah Parrish, who joined San Diego State after two seasons at Oakland. “They needed some more people here for the defensive style and 3-point shooting, and they went to go get us. It just shows that no matter what the team needs, the (portal) can get.
“I feel like there’s good things and bad things about it, but in this situation, I feel like it worked out good.”
The sport is two seasons into the portal era, allowing players the one-time exception to move freely to another school without sitting out the year-in-residence requirement that for so long was part of the deal. It’s given coaches the ability to dramatically reshape rosters in short order or hit the market to find the right one or two pieces to elevate a team in a more subtle tweak.
The Huskies found help with four perimeter additions in graduate transfer Joey Calcaterra (San Diego), Nahiem Alleyne (Virginia Tech), Tristen Newton (East Carolina) and Hassan Diarra (Texas A&M).
The Aztecs added a starting point guard in Darrion Trammell (Seattle) and a rotation guard in Parrish.
San Diego State’s Final Four run boon to MW
The joy around the Mountain West Conference is palpable, stretching from the league office to each of its member schools.
After numerous near-misses, San Diego State gave the conference its first Final Four and national championship game team.
“There’s so much excitement, especially in the Mountain West office, because we’re so good in basketball and to finally break through and get this far is just amazing,” Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said. “Couldn’t be happier for San Diego State. We’re super excited.”
They should be.
Getting a team through to the Final Four is a major boost for mid-major conferences — financially, promotionally, for visibility on a national scale, event attendance and recruiting.
Units = windfall
The financial windfall comes from what the NCAA calls “units,” a tally of wins, automatic qualifiers and at-large bids that determine how much conferences are paid. Each distribution year is assigned a value for a single unit, which is paid to the conferences over the next six years.
The deeper a team goes in the bracket, the more units they accumulate. In other words, more money — well into the millions.
Larger conferences already have large coffers and distribute the money entirely to their member schools. Smaller conferences use some of the money to cover expenses and distribute the rest to the schools.
The additional money allows mid-major conferences to be bolder on the promotional front and upgrade league tournaments.
Schools often use the influx of money to upgrade facilities, increase campus video production, even on an extra charter flight here or there.
With each unit at $2 million for this year’s NCAA Tournament, the Mountain West Conference will pull in an additional $16 million, thanks in large part to San Diego State’s run to the Final Four.
