[bballref3966]

For all the crap that we (rightfully) give commentators like Jay Bilas, Doris Burke, and Doug Gottlieb, I must say that I enjoy listening to Fran Fraschilla. He knows the rules better than any other commentator I've listened to (though not perfectly), he will often commend the officials for how they deal with a situation, and will rarely be overly critical if he disagrees with something. In the West Virginia-Texas game tonight, he praised one of the officials for bringing two players together and telling them to knock off the nonsense, and even used one of our favorite terms, "preventive officiating." Seconds later (13:46 first half), two players were whistled for a double technical, and he correctly stated, "This will just be a point of interruption situation." He then went on to say that the onus is on the players to adjust to what the officials will and will not tolerate, and that he has "no problem" when officials use technical fouls to deal with nonsense.

There is hope for commentators everywhere.