Gus and Len Elmore are calling the games in Minneapolis. This means four things:

1) Kansas is in trouble against North Dakota State. Gus always has an upset.
2) I might give up my courtside seat and watch on TV in the media room.
3) If you can’t make it to Minneapolis, this is the best you can do.
4) You need to ask the bartender to turn the TV up. Way up.

Of course, you also have to be prepared for your game to be incredibly tense and trade momentum 20 times in the final five minutes until it’s decided by a running 55-footer at the buzzer. It just happens with Gus. “Ha-haaaaa!”

A quick story. Gus had the Sweet 16/Elite Eight in the 2005 Tournament and just nailed both games, which were in his wheelhouse. I remember seeing him once before the Louisville game talking about how impressive WVU was and how much he enjoyed calling their games. They gave him moments to properly commemorate, I thought. It was a fit.

A year later, I was at the Big East Tournament watching the first-round games while WVU was on a bye. It was early and the assigned seats were not occupied. Out of nowhere, I hear, in a very familiar voice, “All right, let’s go partner.” I kne it was Gus, who was taking a seat next to me, and then extending a hand to shake. I’m a Knicks fan and Gus is the Voice of the Knicks. He was right next to me and I was, in one of those rare instances, a little awestruck.  OK, a lot.

It didn’t last long. In just a few minutes were were just two guys watching a game. He was friendly and conversational and really wanted to talk. He asked me who I covered, I told him and that opened a whole new alley. He raved about “The G Man,” Mike Gansey, and the way he remembered the previous year. I told him I was a Knicks fan and we went on some more about that. We ended watching most of the first game and then most of the second game until he had to leave.

I can assure you this: It is not an act. He was the same watching the games as he was calling them. Excited and excitable, funny, thoughtful, aware, so on and so forth. Anything you see on camera he was off camera. Consider yourselves in for a treat.