Goring takes MSG viewers inside the play

PERHAPS I’ve been at this too long, but when I hear Islanders’ MSG TV analyst Butch Goring, I think of Jerry Girard.

Girard, the Ch. 11 sports anchor who died in 2007, knew that by Monday night during the NFL season we’d already seen — six, seven times — highlights from Sundays’ Jets and Giants games, including 1-yard touchdown dives and last-play, chipshot field goals.

Thus, he had us focus on plays that led to the scores, significant plays that explained the win or the loss.

Perhaps Goring has always done this during Islanders’ telecasts, but this season, with the Isles’ surprising ascendance, we see and hear it quite often.

Working beautifully with the alert folks in the broadcast truck, Goring quickly points to the play that led to the play, thus, after a goal is scored and a couple of replays of that are shown, we’re given all the goods.

Last week the Isles beat Colorado in overtime on a

Ryan Pulock goal off a quick cross-ice pass from

Casey Cizikas. Almost instantaneously Goring noted Brock Nelson’s role.

And then there it was: Nelson had won the puck along the far boards, skated a few steps to draw Avalanche players toward him, then passed it straight ahead to Cizikas.

Good games are accidental. Good TV isn’t. Given that colleges are growing increasingly unaf- fordable and that college basketball is ostensibly an amateur sport fronted by academic institutions that often lose millions to fund basketball, what would happen if the NCAA capped all coaches’ salaries at, say, $1.5 million per?

No perks, no bonuses, no outside contributions from boosters, no personal sneaker deals in the school’s employment. Just $1.5 million as per IRS filing.

How many coaches would quit? How many would say goodbye because they couldn’t get by on $1.5 million per?

There are now roughly 50 coaches, many within taxpayer-funded colleges, paid a base salary of at least $2 million per.

No college president or trustee would ever admit that winning ballgames is their school’s greatest priority. Perish the thought! It’s higher education!

Then why are their basketball and football coaches, by far, their highest paid employees?