ESPN Commentator and sports talk radio host Dan Dakich is one of the most polarizing figures in all of college basketball. Just recently, he had a Twitter feud with the Mayor of Champaign over a controversial call in the Illini win at Michigan State.
And last month, Dakich had a big beef with Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery. If you weren’t sure of who to root for in that feud, McCaffery made the answer quite obvious with the way he mishandled his media relations in the wake of the Adam Woodbury eye-pokings.
Oh and an Iowa State trooper joked about having a sniper for Dakich in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, so again Dakich becomes a sympathetic figure.
Back to Fran.
McCaffery’s tone deaf, irritable and condescending attitude towards the media makes him now perhaps the most detestable coach in the Big Ten. Even those who loath Dakich will have to accept that. Love ’em or hate ’em, Dan Dakich really knows his basketball. I find his takes on CAPA, All Players United and the backlash against Aaron Craft to be horrifyingly wrong and morally cringe-worthy, but I still love his work as an analyst.
He is phenomenal.
Dakich calls it as he sees it, which is probably why he didn’t fit in as well at Big Ten Network. Instead he took a gigantic step forward in his career by joining ESPN. Remember, BTN is a promotional vehicle much more than it is a news outlet, and analysts almost always err on the side of being a cheerleader than they do on the side of being too critical. Dan Dakich’s talents and abilities are above that.
He also hosts a talk radio show on ESPN Indianapolis.
His son, Andrew Dakich is a sophomore guard at Michigan. We caught up to him after Dakich the Elder called a game Dakich the Younger was playing in for the third time this season. The Wolverines lost at Illinois 64-52 in overtime.
And no, Andrew Dakich is not aware of the drinking game that is played while viewers consume a college basketball contest called by his father. He actually said that his busy schedule keeps him from really getting to consume a whole lot of his dad’s work as a color commentator.
Dakich added “it’s weird, let’s just say that, to listen to him,” when asked about the experience of catching a game that his dad is doing on ESPN.
His father played at Indiana and later served as interim head coach in the wake of the Kelvin Sampson scandal. I asked Andrew what he’s learned about basketball from his father.
“Just stay in the moment, this is a tremendous opportunity for me, we just got to stay calm and cool and see what we can do,” he responded.
Dakich was considering red-shirting this season, but when Caris LeVert went down for the season, Michigan Coach John Beilein decided to burn his shirt.
His college basketball career has only just begun, there’s a lot ahead of him at Michigan. Maybe he’ll follow the career arc of Spike Albrecht? Not playing a lit when he’s young but seeing the floor quite a bit as an upperclassman. When he’s done with basketball, it’s coaching that Dakich is interested in, not broadcasting.
“Broadcasting is a heck of a gig, he (Dan Dakich) loves it, he doesn’t want to go back to coaching,” said Andrew.
Andrew was asked about what kind of experience he’s getting right now being on the Michigan bench (he’s only played 43 total minutes in 24 games this season) that prepares him for his next potential career as a coach.
“The cool thing is they actually like listen, about things I see differently or would do differently than the coaches,” said Dakich.
“They’re not like ‘oh. he’s a walk-on he doesn’t know what he’s talking about’, but I get feedback, and they talk to me about things because they probably know I want to get into this profession some day as well,” he continued.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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