Courtesy the North County Times

(March 18, 2011) For more than two decades, Dick Enberg was one of the great voices of college basketball. There was no better broadcasting team in any sport at any time than Enberg, Al McGuire and Billy Packer when they called college basketball.

But Enberg, now the TV voice of the Padres, walked away from the national scene after last year's NCAA tournament. His final national game was Kentucky-West Virginia in the East regional final.

Jim Nantz, the lead play-by-play man for CBS, paid tribute to Enberg last week, saying it's too bad that some of the pioneers of the NCAA tournament -- people like Enberg -- did games that were regionalized for years. In the new four-network format this season, all games are shown nationally.

"That's very nice of Jim to say that," Enberg said.

Asked if he'll miss not being at the tournament this season, Enberg said: "Maybe just a little. The one thing I won't miss, though, is the first day of the tournament when you called four games. That was a tough marathon. You did a lot of homework. But by the end of the fourth game, you had no idea who was playing, what the score was or what team was white or dark. No, I won't miss that."

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