{"id":80017,"date":"2025-01-06T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/dick-vitale-named-mark-pope-his-dickie-v-coach-of-the-week\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T21:30:00","slug":"dick-vitale-named-mark-pope-his-dickie-v-coach-of-the-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/dick-vitale-named-mark-pope-his-dickie-v-coach-of-the-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick Vitale named Mark Pope his Dickie V Coach of the Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dick Vitale knows the Kentucky-Florida basketball rivalry well. He had the best seat in the house for several games between the Wildcats and Gators, including the \u201903 classic in Rupp Arena and many others for ESPN. Remember \u201cThis is an embarrassment!\u201d<\/a><\/em> when the Wildcats pummelled No. 1 Florida in Lexington?<\/p>\n

Another top-10 Florida team lost in Rupp Arena this past weekend, and though Vitale wasn\u2019t a part of the ESPN broadcast, he was impressed by what he saw from the game at home. So much so that on Monday, Vitale named Mark Pope his Coach of the Week across college basketball<\/a><\/strong>, one of four weekly Dickie V awards each week. Marquette\u2019s Kam Jones won Player of the Week, Ian Jackson was Diaper Dandy of the Week, and West Virginia was his Team of the Week for upsetting No. 7 Kansas.<\/p>\n

\n\n

My DICKIE V WEEKLY WINNERS! @MarquetteMBB<\/a> KAM JONES @UNC_Basketball<\/a> IAN JACKSON @KentuckyMBB<\/a> MARK POPE @WVUhoops<\/a> COACH DeVRIES pic.twitter.com\/ae9Y9FbNzz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dick Vitale (@DickieV) January 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Vitale pursuing a return to broadcasting<\/h2>\n

Dick Vitale remains optimistic about calling college basketball games again<\/a> despite a fight with vocal cord cancer. Now cancer-free, he says, Vitale believes he has more broadcasting in him at 85 years old. Vitale recently told Seth Davis<\/a> he hopes to be back as soon as the current season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will have a better feel after the scoping of my vocal cords in early January. He was very optimistic after he heard my motivational tip of the day,\u201d Vitale shared via text to Davis. \u201cIt really all depends on what happens during my exam with Dr Zeitels. Praying for good news!\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitale hasn\u2019t called a game since the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n

The post Dick Vitale named Mark Pope his Dickie V Coach of the Week<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dick Vitale knows the Kentucky-Florida basketball rivalry well. He had the best seat in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}