Dick Vitale, Bob Knight and Arizona

Dick Vitale will be broadcasting the UCLA-Michigan basketball game for ESPN on Thursday from Madison Square Garden. The game will be the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic basketball tournament. Bob Knight will handle the Duke-Southern Illinois semifinal.

During a conference call today, Vitale said he's no longer calling doubleheader games after undergoing last year's throat surgery to remove some pre-cancerous lesions.

Vitale also dropped an interesting nugget about Knight, who is becoming more involved in broadcasting now that he's out of coaching (for the time being, anyway).

"I was really shocked that Arizona didn't go after Bob Knight," Vitale said. "He would have been the ideal guy to have stepped in, and I firmly believe he would have accepted that role, taken that role until they hired another guy in the future."

Since Vitale broke the news of Lute Olson's retirement last month, one suspects he knew that Knight wanted the job. Probably, Knight has some selfish interest in more coaching -- like increasing his lead when it comes to the most college coaching victories. But if Arizona could have brought in Knight for this season, what a boost it would have been for the Pacific 10 Conference.

Ben Howland versus Knight twice during the year? The publicity value for a conference that is so easily ignored on the national scene because the Pac-10 broadcast contract is with Fox instead of ESPN, as well as because of late-night starts in the rest of the country?

Knight teaching basketball instead of, um, uh, oh yeah, Russ Pennell? What do you think? Would Arizona have lost to UAB by a point Tuesday night because of a series of incredibly bone-headed plays at the end, including an intentional foul committed with less than a second left that gave UAB the winning free throws?

Well, maybe. But if Knight were coaching, the aftermath might have been noteworthy. Thrown chair? Choking someone? Kicking megaphones, shoving faces, giving suggestions to rape victims? The possibilities are endless.

But the coaching matches this season would have been interesting too. Knight against Howland, USC's Tim Floyd, Cal's Mike Montgomery? In my mind those would be three of the top 10 or 15 coaches in the game right now. Too bad the Pac-10 couldn't have ordered Arizona to hire Knight for a season.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: From left, Rece Davis, Dick Vitale, Bob Knight and Digger Phelps on the ESPN "College GameDay" set in an April file photo. Credit: Darren Abate / ESPN