The Official Mike Reis Appreciation Blog

College basketball's championship week is one of the best weeks in the world of sports.

I feel as if the best part of the week is listening to the audio from the winning team's radio station over the televised highlights. Yet, when DePaul beat Cincinnati, ending its imperfect Big East Conference season, I was disturbed by the play-by-play call from the Blue Demons radio network.

If I were to wake up from a coma and that was the first thing I would have listened to, I would have thought the Blue Demons won the national title. And while avoiding a winless conference season is a miracle in its own right, it didn't deserve the kind of call it received.

I shouldn't have expected more, seeing that it was the Blue Demons radio network that asked Dan Bernstein to ease on his criticism of the Catholic church when it was having its problems with its priests allegedly diddling children.

So, today, all I could think about was about how much I appreciated Mike Reis, the Voice of the Salukis.

Before you ask, no, this isn't me being a homer. And no, it's not about me kissing Mike's ass because we're both media members. This is about what makes a great sports broadcaster.

Do you know why Cubs fans loved Steve Stone? He spoke the truth. He called out the team's shortcomings on the field and in the front office. He didn't toe the company line ... he stomped on it and basically spoke the frustrations of Cubdom.

Same for Len Kasper and Bob Brenly. It's so straightforward, it's painfully pleasing. By all accounts, Brenly would have been axed by many networks moments after saying you could throw a dart in the Cubs' clubhouse and find a better defender than Alfonso Soriano. That's something this era of sports broadcasters would not approach. In fact, they fear it and would be more likely to coddle Soriano's defensive deficiencies than knock them.

And that's not the way journalists are supposed to be. Because, that's what play-by-play and color analysts are supposed to be, in principle, broadcast journalists.

That's why Reis is great. He won't give you the "homer" call of Saluki basketball. If someone's not having a good shooting night, Reis would likely say he doesn't want the ball in their hand. If there's a questionable coaching decision, Reis is the kind of broadcaster that will first-guess the choice, instead of second-guess it.

So, sports fans, appreciate guys like Reis, Kasper and Brenly. Thankfully, they'll be around for a while because most announcers like them are riding off into the sunset.