Gus Johnson is a professional broadcaster and does a professional job when calling games, but he recalls one time when he had to tough through things.
Johnson was a guest on “Green Light with Chris Long” and was asked to recall the most hungover he’s ever been for a game he called. Johnson said that the most hungover he ever was came prior to a college basketball game between Arizona and Coppin State. Johnson pretty much fingered his analyst Bill Raftery as the ringleader in the operation.
According to Johnson, he went out with Raftery and the late Lute Olson for a dinner the night before the game. He says they had drinks, dinner, dessert, more drinks, and then things got problematic. Johnson says Raftery brought out port wine, and that’s when it got out of hand. He kept drinking and drinking it, and it finally hit him when he got back to his hotel room.
“I pass out, I wake up. Drink my coffee, I get to the game and I say ‘welcome to Tuscon!’ In my mind, I’m like ‘you are not in Tucson right now, you are on Pluto, so be cool and let (Raftery) talk.'”
Johnson probably still had a great call of the game.
Looking back at the records, the game was nearly 25 years ago. Arizona beat Coppin State 99-82 on Saturday, Dec. 13, 1997.
This would have been the season after Arizona won the national championship. That 1997-1998 team ended up being the No. 1 seed in the West and losing to Rick Majerus’ Utah team in the Elite Eight.
Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, Miles Simon and Michael Dickerson were some of the stars of that Arizona squad. Josh Pastner, now the head coach at Georgia Tech, was one of their bench players. The Utah team was led by Andre Miller, Michael Doleac and Hanno Mottola. Those were the days when college players stayed 3-4 years and college teams could really build programs and cohesion. College basketball was a lot of fun during those times, and it sounds like it was a lot of fun for Gus. Johnson ended up leaving CBS for FOX about 10 years ago, nearly 15 years after that game he recalled.
H/T Cordog
