Dick Vitale

Maybe it's our obsession with getting an NFL team. Maybe it's the anticipation of seeing the Orioles enter the free-agent market. Or maybe it's just all the excitement surrounding the NAFTA vote.Whatever it is, the college basketball season has seemed to sneak up this year.But ESPN already has carried two nights of basketball, so there's no time to waste. Drastic measures are needed. Only one thing to do: Get on the phone with Dick Vitale.ESPN analyst Vitale is in midseason form. He calls at 8:30 a.m. after working the North Carolina-Western Kentucky game the night before.

Durham, N.C. -- He has grown up right in front of our eyes, like some teen-age star of a hit television show. From a pouting, whiny 18-year-old who was thought to be overrated to a reasonably mature 21-year-old who some believe could be the best point guard ever to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.He has come full circle: As a freshman, Duke's Bobby Hurley was unsuccessful in his attempt to gain control of the team. Now a senior and the undisputed leader of the Blue Devils, Hurley is trying to delegate more responsibility to his teammates in an attempt to lead Duke to its fourth straight Final Four.

NEW YORK -- Jim Valvano is battling a virulent form of cancer called metastatic adrenal carcinoma and it has apparently spread along his back, according to his brother, Bobby Valvano.Valvano, the former basketball coach at North Carolina State turned broadcaster, is living with relatives in New York City while he receives out-patient chemotherapy at Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.Valvano's doctors have told him and his family just what he is dealing with. "Metastasize means that it has advanced, it has spread," said Bobby Valvano.

CHICAGO -- "Championship Week" began on ESPN yesterday morning, usually a joyful time for college basketball analyst Dick Vitale. But not this year. A couple of incidents this winter have left the usually manic Vitale "depressed."Instead of preparing to work with longtime pal Jim Valvano in the ESPN studios, Vitale has to defend himself for using an obscenity-laced statement during a commercial break of a recent cable telecast.The trouble started Jan. 14 when Vitale made an off-the-cuff remark about Ohio State forward Lawrence Funderburke's play against Indiana.

CHICAGO -- "Championship Week" begins on ESPN Saturday morning, usually a joyful time for hyper college basketball analyst Dick Vitale. But not this year. A couple of incidents this winter have left the usually manic Vitale "depressed."Instead of preparing to work with long-time pal Jim Valvano in the ESPN studios next weekend, Vitale has to defend himself for using an obscenity-laced statement during a commercial break of a recent cable telecast.The trouble started Jan. 14 when Vitale made an off-the-cuff remark about Ohio State forward Lawrence Funderburke's play against Indiana.

Thump, thump.You hear that?Thump, thump.There it goes again.Thump, thump.It's getting louder.Thump, thump.It's getting closer.Thump, thump.It's right on top of us.Thump, thump.Look out. . . .Thump, thump.Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!Thump, thump.College basketball is back. Tonight at 9 on ESPN, it's UCLA and Indiana in the Tip-Off Classic. You've had a half-year to rest your eyes and ears. I've had a half-year to store up repeating letters and italics in preparation for Mr. Enthusiasm, Mr. Decibel, Mr. PTP-er, the V-Man, Dickie V. -- ooooooooooh, it's awesome, bay-bee -- Dick Vitale.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Randy Milligan's debut as an outfielder with the Orioles was postponed yesterday because of an injury to David Segui.Segui pulled a buttocks muscle that could keep him sidelined several days and was scratched as one of the starting first basemen in yesterday's intrasquad game. "It's not a bad pull, but it's deep," said manager Frank Robinson. "That makes it difficult to treat."Milligan, who was supposed to play leftfield, replaced Segui at first base.* THE HITTING EDGE: Each side had 12 hits as coach Elrod Hendricks' team beat the one led by Cal Ripken Sr., 8-6. Sam Horn had a homer and double and drove in three runs and Mike Devereaux had three hits for the winners.

There's supposed to be a line in a country song that goes something like this: "I don't know whether to kill myself or go bowling."But, hey, spare me that kind of gutter talk.They have it all wrong. Bowling isn't some retro-'50s remnant. It's a game for the '90s, for the MTV generation, for television sports viewers with itchy remote-control fingers. You can check your attention span at the door.As Nelson Burton Jr., ABC's bowling analyst, said this week: "In bowling, we give you a fresh game every 16-17 minutes."

A few short takes while digging out Super Bowl Cheez-Its from between couch pillows:* He doesn't scream as loudly as Dick Vitale -- of course, short of Sam Kinison, who does? -- but Len Elmore is deserving of more attention as a college basketball analyst. Take Wednesday night, for instance. At the end of the Duke-Georgia Tech game on ESPN, Vitale was emoting on the wonderful play of Bobby Hurley and Thomas Hill to set up Hill's game-winning, last-second basket inside the lane. Meanwhile, on the Jefferson-Pilot telecast, Elmore was pointing out the defensive lapse by Tech's Jon Barry in allowing Hill to establish position so near the basket.