THIS IS GUS
Years removed, Johnson still known as voice of Big Dance excitement
Gus Johnson’s voice was devoid of its usual excitement and emotion as he spoke about his time calling the NCAA Tournament in a measured tone.
“The guys that do the tournament do a great job. I love listening to them,” Johnson said of his former CBS colleagues.
“It’s nice to be a fan to watch the guys out there playing. It’s nice to be remembered a little bit.”
For a generation of college basketball fans, Johnson epitomized March Madness and the thrills that came with it. The close games seemed to hunt him down in his 16 years at the network, almost knowing his voice was ideal for the tournament’s most climactic moments.
There are YouTube videos devoted to those calls. Mark Titus, an Ohio State benchwarmer turned columnist for The Ringer, lamented Johnson not calling the games on a podcast with Bill Simmons last week. Steph Curry — two MVPs and an NBA championship later — remembers who was behind the mic for his most memorable college game.
“I ran into him recently and I called his last college game for Davidson against Kansas [2008 Midwest Region finals] and he said to me, ‘Man, you’ve been a part of this for nine years,’ ” said Johnson, who is the Milwaukee Bucks’ playby-play man during his offseason from FOX Sports and saw Curry after a game in Oakland. “He even wanted to take a picture with me. In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘You want to take a picture with me? Mind if I take one with you?’ ”
Johnson left CBS for FOX six years ago, and has no regrets — aside from an ill-conceived turn as the face of the network’s soccer coverage — as he took over as the lead voice of FS1’s college basketball and football coverage, and continues in those roles.
Reliving some of his most famous NCAA Tournament calls — Princeton over UCLA (his favorite memory), Gonzaga over Florida (“the slipper still fits”) and UCLA’s comeback again Gonzaga (“what a game!”) — brought a bit of nostalgia and emotion into his voice.
“That’s probably what I miss the most is just getting swept away up in it, just totally allowing myself to be just a part of the energy and having no hesitations or reservations … in a way just suspending my disbelief. I was able to watch those games and let go,” Johnson said.
Johnson now calls Pac-12 and Big East games for FOX Sports through the regular season and Big East tournament. But he watches the NCAA Tournament just like a regular fan.
“I saw Northwestern’s game against Gonzaga, and I thought they had it,” Johnson said. “I thought CBS did a great job of capturing the emotion and the excitement of the fans between Julia LouisDreyfus, the kid who was crying, happy, cheering, crying, his mother is consoling him. That to me is what the tournament is all about.”
CBS and Turner add announcers to the tournament roster for the opening week of the tournament to cover the eight different sites. Johnson said “of course” he would consider returning in a guest role, but it is not something he is anticipating.
“Has it been talked about? Not really,” Johnson said. “They’ve got their guys and they do a great job. They are continuing to go in their direction with the broadcast, and I am going in my direction with my career. It was a great time, but this is a different time now.”