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Dick Vitale to be honored at SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament
By Keith Farner
Published:
Dick Vitale, the ebullient basketball commentator for ESPN, will be honored at the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament this year.
The tournament is scheduled for Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, which happens to be near Vitale’s home. The tournament will tipoff on Wednesday, March 9.
Vitale is one of the most vocal supporters of college basketball, and is also known for raising millions of dollars for childhood cancer research. Vitale last month announced that he would not broadcast any games for the rest of the season in order to rest his vocal cords.
He recently had surgery to treat dysplasia and ulcerated lesions of the vocal cords.
Vitale announced that during a follow-up visit with Massachusetts General Hospital throat specialist Dr. Steven Zeitels he was advised to give his voice “an even longer ‘T.O., Baby!'” in anticipation of undergoing surgery in the near term.
“While I’m heartbroken that I won’t appear on ESPN for the rest of this season, I’m encouraged by the progress,” Vitale said, noting that going on vocal rest the past three weeks reduced the inflammation in his throat by 60 percent.
Once the inflammation heals, a date will be set for surgery.
“My throat’s condition is clearly moving in the right direction, and Dr. Z. is very optimistic that this can be successfully treated to have me strong for the 2022-23 season on ESPN,” Vitale wrote.
We will honor @DickieV at the 2022 @SEC MBB Tournament.
Doing some research, did you know that his record at @DetroitMBB was 79-29?
The 1976-77 Titans were 26-3 and advanced to the Sweet 16.
As he says, he was a ‘Frank Lloyd Wright’, an architect!
Get better, Coach! 🙏
— Dan Leibovitz (@DLeibovitzSEC) February 25, 2022
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
