The argument can be made that no media person is as synonymous with any sport in the country as Dick Vitale is with college basketball. Some people love his genuine enthusiasm; others think he’s too bombastic, over the top and annoying. One thing’s for certain: he takes nothing for granted. Vitale went out of his way to ask me if I’d like to have a few minutes for an interview. Maybe he’s just used to the game. Regardless, with his voice clearly hurting from the day before (and he wasn’t even calling a basketball game), Vitale sat down and gave me 10 minutes amid the chaos of the NCAA tournament in the background.  No, he wasn’t loud. But he is Italian, and loves to talk with those hands.

My first question is: Do you like that you aren’t working The Tournament? I know you must get that question all the time.

Dick Vitale: [Nods] Obviously, my priority would be to sit at courtside and do the game. And be with the people. I love people. I love being around people. However, I also deal in a realistic world. We [ESPN] don’t have the tournament, so therefore, this is my option, and I love it. I come up and watch the games, see all the different people. I was really honored, to be honest with you, you may know this, several years ago CBS wanted me to do some of the guys like our other guys do. And ESPN called me up and said, ‘No. Dick, we’ll let the other guys do it, but we’re not going to let you do it.’ And I think they thought I’d resist, but I took that as a great compliment. That you think that much of me; that you want me to be solely recognizable as an ESPN guy. So I accept this. Would I prefer to have the tournament? Obviously. But I do accept what we do, and we get a chance, what we try to do here is develop trends. You can’t concentrate on just one game because there’s so much going on, so you develop a trend going on in different situations.

Talk about this year’s field and all that you see in it. Do you think it’s becoming harder and harder to look at a field and predict it?

DV: Yeah, I do. It’s a guessing game. You know, people think we’re “experts.” I like to share with people what I think are the strengths and weaknesses of a team. But as far as picking a winner or a loser, it is so difficult. And people that get them right are lucky, and people that get them wrong are unlucky. It’s as simple as that. You just have a lot of fun … there’s nothing like these three weeks. And we have so much fun here with Rece [Davis] and all the guys. Digger, Lee Fitting, our producer, myself. We just have a blast.

Throughout the month you’re on “SportsCenter” or ESPNews. It’s different from the rest of the season when you’ll be out covering a game, and they’ll throw it to you for three minutes before a game tips off. Talk about going from that kind of television to this, which is a lot busier and more frequent hours in front of the camera.

DV: It’s tough. Yesterday, we walked out of here at 10 after 2 in the morning. We started at noon. People don’t realize, the few minutes you’re on the air, the incredible emotion you feel. Because every word is being measured. You can say something that can ultimately affect your career, it can affect somebody else. The point is, you’ve gotta be focused; you’ve gotta be ready, and be ready to respond. And so much of what we do, too, is a lot of the spontaneous; you gotta be able to react. But I’ve been doing it for 30 years and it’s part of my personality. Guys like Rece, they put me in a comfort zone. I don’t write a lot down — I call it my “VBDI,” the Vitale Bald-Dome Index. In fact, Hubert Davis was teasing me last night. He was sitting next to me and [Vitale points to the table] my whole area was empty. The other guys have notes and all, and are looking at me. [Points to head] I said, “Right here.” Just give me the two things: the camera and a microphone. That’s all I need. And someone to set me up. That’s Rece. And I’m ready to roll.

What about Selection Sunday? It was excellent television with you and Jay Bilas. Do you know, going in, that something like that is going to happen? And when it is happening, are you aware that it’s going to have a lot of reverberation. The topic for the first half of the Monday after was the spat between you two.

DV:  You don’t go in there anticipating that at all. To be honest with you, I had just jumped in my seat because I flew from Atlanta and the ACC championships. So I get all these people handing me sheets; Howie [Schwab] is showing me who’s in the tournament, who’s not. Rece asked me to comment on who didn’t get in and who should’ve gotten in. I did my thing on Saint Mary’s, and obviously Jay felt Arizona [should have gotten in]. He and I talked after the show, laughed about, a healthy basketball debate. I feel very strongly about my situation. I feel very positive in my mind that I believe those kids got a raw deal. I will not change that. I still think, when you look at their body of work, they deserve to be in the tournament. I’ve always felt the Davidsons, the Creightons, the Saint Mary’s make our tournament special — and those kids can play. … And nothing against Arizona, in fact, on our show, I picked them to win tonight [Friday]. Arizona’s personnel is very good. But, in my mind, when you lose nine out of 11 on the road, five out of six out of your last games, how do you compare that against a team that’s won 26 games? But it’s history, it’s behind us.

A lot of coaches, like [Steve] Lavin, for instance, have an itch to get back into the game. At least it seems that way. But you seem to be very comfortable doing this. When was the last time you had a night where you put your head on the pillow and thought about getting back into the game? When did you lose the urge?

DV: I lose that urge, probably, in the mid-’80s. I think then I realized what I was doing fit everything I wanted to be part of. It was great for my family. I’ve always felt my personality — and I really mean this — had I stayed in coaching, I’d be dead by now. I couldn’t handle losing; it tore my insides right out. I was talking to Steve Lavin about this yesterday. What I miss is the high you get out of winning a game as a coach. But there’s also a low. What we [television analysts] do is basically in the middle. Unless one has been a coach, there’s nothing like the locker room after you win that big game, sharing it with those players. I miss that. The other thing I miss, there’s one emptiness in my career, and it’s pretty tough to say that after I was blessed enough to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but if there was one thing I wanted to have on my resume was that I coached at a major, big-time university. To be able to walk into a room and excite you when I came in the house that my school was that good. Whether it be a Michigan, Notre Dame, Kentucky, Carolina. At Detroit and Rutgers I was always fighting to get you to lift your head up. I had to get 20 visits in to lift your head up to even think about me! Jimmy V told me when I was taking the Pistons job, “Don’t take it. Don’t take it, man. You’re a college coach. You belong in college. If you’re patient, something good’s going to happen for you like it happened for me: from Iona to North Carolina State.” And I got impatient. I was blown away. In 1970 I’m teaching the sixth grade. I was told by people, my friends, “You could never be a college coach. You don’t know anybody.” That’s 1970. 1978, I’m in the NBA as a head coach. In eight years, it just exploded. Then it all went BAM! when I got fired. And then you find out who your friends are. Everybody disappears. And you battle your way back. And I never thought, when I started in TV; the furthest thing in my mind would have been Web sites, merchandise, basketballs, T-shirts, hats, movies. I get more offers now for doing things than I’ve ever gotten in my life, and I’m 69 years old.

Do you think people don’t give you enough credit for how seriously you take the game? Does that frustrate you?

DV: Yeah, to be honest, that does frustrate me at times. I think people that really know, big basketball fans, watch a game and I can talk the X’s and O’s of the game with anybody; what’s happening with the flow of the game. But sometimes I overshadow that, obviously, with my personality and some things I do. But would I change that? No, that’s who I am. And obviously it must work; the bosses here have thought that. They’ve basically given me a lifetime contract. Here I am at 69. I wouldn’t change that at all. You’ve gotta be what you are. I love the game, and I think anybody watching knows that. I have a passion for the kids that I’ve covered, like Jay Williams and Hubert Davis. The thing that amazes me: I can’t believe how the 30 years have blown by. From doing the very first game. I walked in, I didn’t know ESPN; I thought it was a disease, man. [Laughs] The first game ever, and nobody can ever take that away from me. I did the first game ever, and nobody can ever take that away from me. DePaul and Wisconsin, it was in Chicago. I walked in, had no idea what it was about, and now look what it’s become.

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