The Bucket List

ESPN sent Dan Shulman and Bob Knight to cover the Duke/Maryland game, which is one of their better college basketball crews. Shulman has become one of the best play-by-play announcers for the network and does a great job covering multiple sports. Bob Knight, while somewhat brash, provides thorough analysis and sticks to the focus of covering the game.

That being said, it'd be great for Bob Knight to expand his vocabulary. During the second half of last night's game, I began to notice Knight's constant use of the word "bucket." Nearly every possession involved phrases such as - "great job of getting to the bucket," "he worked hard for that bucket," "a good possession that ended in a bucket," "he kept his man from making the bucket," or "they could really use a bucket here." With 7:15 remaining in the second half, I decided to keep track of the amount of times "bucket" was said. Through less than a fourth of the game, Knight used the word 13 times and I'm pretty sure he said it at least ten other times in the 2nd half before I started keeping track. There might have been more "buckets" than there were points. By the time the game ended, my bucket was overflowing.

As I said, I think Knight is one of ESPN's better college basketball analysts. He focuses on the game (paging Dick Vitale), he doesn't spend most of the time criticizing the players and officials (looking at you, Len Elmore), and he doesn't try to come up with useless, creative phrases (I'm tired of hearing about "valentines,' Jimmy Dykes). It just sounds like he needs someone to send him a thesaurus. Until then, I expect "The Bucket List" drinking game to become a popular aspect of any ESPN game covered by The General.