NCAA Basketball: Dick Vitale steps away for remainder of 2021-22 season

NCAA Basketball legend Dick Vitale will not be calling for games for the rest of the 2021-22 as he continues to recover from treatment.

Love him or hate him, there is no denying that Dick Vitale is the voice of NCAA Basketball. Over the last 40 years, he has been employed by ESPN and He has been on the sidelines and has been on the call for some of the biggest regular-season games in the sport.

That is my entire life, and most of us grew up and are still listening to Dickie V call basketball games. If it is a big game then you can almost guarantee that Dickie V is going to be on the call. Duke and North Carolina just wouldn’t be the same without him giving the patented “OHH OHH OHH” or the occasional “Its Awesome Baby” throughout the game.

As it is old news now the iconic announcer is currently fighting a battle with cancer. Vitale didn’t do many games early on in the year as he was still battling cancer and he was not cleared by the doctors. However, when he was finally cleared to return to the air, it was one of the most emotional college basketball games I can remember. Everyone in the college basketball landscape had nice words to say and it all ended with Vitale giving a speech that ended with him getting extremely emotional and being brought to tears.

The tears were expected as the announcer was torn away from the game and the job that he loves and was torn away unexpectedly. It was nice for Dickie V to be back even if it was for a brief time. It was announced a few days ago that the legendary announcer is going to step away from the game for the remainder of the year as he needs to have some surgery and continue his cancer treatments.

I can speak for everyone at Busting Brackets and say that we all wish Vitale the best of luck in his treatments and hope for a speedy and quick recovery. I can’t wait until he comes back full time and starts calling games full time again. It is always refreshing to see someone with that much passion for the sport who isn’t calling the games just for the paycheck.

Dickie V isn’t just a basketball fanatic he is a sports fanatic and he is a huge Tampa sports fan. The 83-year-old is very involved in the Tampa community, often going to Rays games, and can be seen at many Tampa Bay Buccaneers games. Dickie V also runs his foundation which was started in 1993.

The foundation helps fund cancer research and was started as a tribute to his late friend and former NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano. The foundation is something that Dickie V is very passionate about and has still been very active with the foundation even through all of his own cancer treatments.  You can find out more about his charity efforts and his health both on his personal Twitter page and his Instagram.

I don’t know Vitale personally and probably never will, and I don’t always agree with everything he says. Off the record getting an interview with Dick Vitale would be the highlight of my writing career to this point.  He has said some controversial things at times. Even still there is nothing negative that anyone can say about his love and knowledge of the game.

There are not many announcers who have had the success that he has had. He is still the best coach that Detroit Mercy has ever had as he guided them to the Sweet 16. He also coached the Detroit Pistons in the NBA for two seasons before he started working at ESPN. Even if I don’t always agree with what he says I will always learn something on one of his broadcasts. He helped me get into this beautiful sport and I do enjoy the games he does.

No matter how you feel about the way he calls games or the things he said, he makes basketball fun, and the sport feels normal to me when he is calling games. I hope that he gets back in that chair next year and calls the biggest games in the sport. Dickie V. we miss you and the sport needs you back.