17.9 seconds flash across the scoreboard and ribbon boards in Madison Square Garden as FAU’s Michael Forrest headed to the free throw line with his team up a point. It’s Saturday Night in the East Regional Final with a trip to the Final Four on the line and FAU was just seconds away from doing the unthinkable. The college basketball world stood still. Things were about to stand still for Owls radio voice Ken LaVicka, too.
The first attempt from Forrest went in easily, barely even touching the rim. The second attempt was just as smooth. 17.9 seconds is left with FAU up three on Kansas State. Everyone in The Garden is on their feet as K-State brings the ball up the floor on the next possession.
Everyone, except for one person. Instead of being glued to the final seconds like everyone else in the building, LaVicka is frantically searching for an ethernet cord underneath his seat on press row.
Full panic mode had set in for LaVicka. He’s off the air because all of the internet has gone out in his row of media seating. He’s scrambling to find a way, any way, back on the air. Amidst digging through wires from the TBS television broadcast, he hears a loud cheer from underneath the table on press row. K-State just made a layup. The score is 77-76 with 8.6 seconds left. A sinking feeling then overcomes LaVicka which he’ll never forget.
“It crossed my mind that, after 17 years of doing this, this is the ultimate moment and it’s not even going to happen,” LaVicka said. “It was a stomach churning, awful low point feeling.”
Just when that feeling was settling in, Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang called a timeout immediately after the made layup. It couldn’t have come at a better time for LaVicka. The situation allowed him to mentally reset for a second and figure out another option to get back on the air.
“It was only 45 seconds where the game was stopped at that point, but that gave me enough time to think ‘Wait a minute, we’re in a big arena, there’s no way the second or third row of this media setup is being fed by the same internet source that this first row is’,” LaVicka said. “The problem was, as I started to grab for the ethernet cord above me on the second row behind me, there’s no way there was enough slack to reach my equipment.”
At this point, LaVicka is calling the game from his cell phone. He tried this last resort option when the problems initially began, but his in-studio producer didn’t know the phone number for the call-in line. He’s an employee at the radio station, but not during live weekday programming, more weekends and after hours. Not being able to immediately call in was the moment the full-on panic set in for LaVicka.
But after finally getting the call-in number a few minutes later, LaVicka stood there with his phone in one hand explaining the technical difficulties and updating the game to the best of his abilities and holding the Comrex in the other hand. All the while, his headset is still on. It’s complete broadcasting chaos.
The ethernet cord he finds on the table behind him is taped to the table. Maybe he doesn’t realize it in that instance, but if this cord also doesn’t work, there’s a high likelihood his call of FAU reaching the Final Four will be from his cell phone.
“I’m ripping and ripping and ripping,” said LaVicka. “I finally got it loose and I have the Comrex in my arm. I turn around, plug it in, and sure enough I see the green and yellow flashing lights and there’s internet connection. It was a wave of relief and also a bit of urgency, like ‘Alright, let’s go’.
“I sort of tried, in the most professional way possible, just making up broadcast terms and saying, if we could have the main feed on the FAU Basketball Radio Network from Learfield. I don’t know what that means, I’m just making it up to make it sound as professional as possible, so I can avoid saying ‘Turn the phone down and turn me back up’!”
LaVicka was connected and back on the air. His heart was racing because he just pulled off a massive hail mary. Everything sounds good and clear, but there’s another problem. LaVicka couldn’t bring the equipment back to his spot on press row, because there wasn’t enough length on the ethernet cord.
That’s when a teammate of his at ESPN West Palm stepped in. Along with calling games at FAU, LaVicka hosts Ken LaVicka Live from noon to 2 PM every weekday on the station. His partner on the show is Theo Dorsey, who was also at Madison Square Garden covering the game for a local TV station in West Palm Beach.
Dorsey saw LaVicka scrambling to get back on the air and offered his assistance to help in any way he could. LaVicka just didn’t initially see any way his ESPN West Palm partner could help. That was until LaVicka found an ethernet connection that worked. This was Dorsey’s chance. When his partner needed help more than ever, he held the Comrex in place so LaVicka could walk back to his seat and call the final seconds of the game.
“I said ‘Don’t move this or wiggle the cords’, because I didn’t know how good our connection was,” said LaVicka. “He was cradling that thing like a baby.”
LaVicka got back on the air and was situated in time to call the ensuing possession after the Kansas State timeout. FAU hit another pair of free throws to go up by three with 6.9 seconds left. After KSU couldn’t get a shot off on its final possession, LaVicka gave the call he’d been waiting 17 years for.
“Florida Atlantic! Florida Atlantic is going to the Final Four! One of the most improbable stories in college basketball history has just played out in New York City! Houston you have a problem. Florida Atlantic is coming to town looking for a trophy!”
It was clear, itt was concise, it was perfect. Amidst the craziest and most stressful moment of his broadcast career, LaVicka was able to deliver the call of a lifetime just a few seconds later.
There’s something to be said for how he handled that moment. Not only his ability to get back on the air, but to compose himself enough to deliver the call that college basketball fans will never forget. Making all of that happen just might be a bigger Cinderella story than FAU reaching the Final Four.
“As much as I didn’t want to, I went back and listened to the final four game minutes and I was off the air for a total of about three and a half minutes but missed about 12 seconds of actual game time,” said LaVicka. “It was 18 and six-tenths of a second. I will have looking at the scoreboard etched into my brain for the rest of eternity.”
LaVicka has a few people to thank for their assistance, either directly or indirectly, for his completion of a broadcasting hail mary. There’s Matt Norlander and Andy Katz, who were both sitting next to LaVicka on press row and let him try their ethernet cord, unfortunately to no success. There’s Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang who indirectly helped by taking a timeout, which allowed LaVicka to collect his thoughts and find a solution.
There’s also his producer, who isn’t a full-time employee at the flagship, who notified LaVicka he was initially off the air. And then there’s Dorsey, who held the Comrex so his colleague could be in a position to make the best final call possible.
“I told him that night I owe him the expensive steakhouse dinner,” laughed LaVicka. “I felt bad because the whole time he was asking what he could do to help and I’m like ‘Buddy, there’s nothing you can do’. But then he definitely came in handy and allowed me to turn around and do the call.”
It’s a moment the two will never forget and the fact they do a radio show together at ESPN West Palm is poetic. It’s a story that’s gone viral and it absolutely made the radio show on Monday when the duo was back on the air together for the first time.
“We did the first half hour on it,” said LaVicka.
Media requests have flooded LaVicka’s inbox since Saturday night to talk about the moment. Sure, LaVicka is proud he found a way back on the air and delivered the final call, but not so much for himself. He believes FAU and its fans deserved that moment. In fact, he feels even a little embarrassed for being such a big part of what happened in the Elite Eight.
“I want to emphasize, I feel so unbelievably silly for being a part of this Final Four story with FAU,” LaVicka said. “I know FAU fans appreciate I’ve been there for a long time, my passion for the school and how I call games, because I like to think it’s very elite level for a school like Florida Atlantic, at least in its basketball history. Now I’ve sort of become a side story. I don’t love it because I don’t want to take away from what actually matters here.”
This story relates to so many play-by-play broadcasters, regardless of status. Just about every broadcaster, if not every single one, has dealt with in-game issues that knocked them off the air. It’s the single-most stressful thing that can happen doing play-by-play. This was far from the first time LaVicka experienced a situation like this. The only thing that makes this case unique, was because of the timing of the incident.
“In the broadcast realm, so many can relate to what I’ve gone through before,” said LaVicka. “But this happens at UTSA, or East Tennessee State, it never happens at Madison Square Garden in the final moments of the Elite Eight. If this happened at the 12:05 mark of the first half, who cares. The fact it happened with 18 seconds left and FAU up 1, I can’t believe how terrible the timing was.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
