There’s an art to being a good commentator for live sports, and in many ways, some people were born for it and others weren’t.
It’s also fair to say that being skilled in calling, say, baseball games, doesn’t translate to having a knack for calling basketball. Sometimes, being out of your element can cause a lapse in thought, and unfortunately for ESPN’s Karl Ravech, this is exactly what happened on Tuesday night.
ESPN has been drooling over SEC basketball for months now, and in recent weeks, social media has started to joke about the SEC being just .500 since conference play began.
Ravech fell for the gimmick—hook, line, and sinker—and in the final minute of the Alabama-Texas basketball game, he discussed how the SEC has just fallen off since January 4.
“We know how dominant they were in the nonconference part of the season, the SEC,” Ravech said. ““They were 185-23. Since January 4, into Tuesday, the SEC teams are 82-82. It’s not as if one team or two teams or three — they’re 82-82. There’s been no ability pull away, there’s no dominant group of teams.”
Miraculously, after five games on Tuesday, the SEC’s record is now 87-87—still stuck right at .500.
It was an unfortunate but hilarious moment for Ravech, who had little else to talk about in the moment with Alabama up 22 points against Texas with one minute left in the game. You can’t fault the guy for trying to fill the void, but man, somebody needs to help the guy understand how conference play works.
