BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
When the FAU Men’s Basketball schedule came out, I circled the date January 28, 2024 as I was looking forward to meeting former ESPN Broadcaster Dave Barnett, who is now the play-by-play voice for the North Texas Mean Green.
The Mean Green are Barrett’s Alma-mater and after a celebrated career in the national media, he decided to go home and do what he loves doing.
I did meet Barnett before Sunday’s game and we took a picture together. Barnett did an interview with me for the South Florida Tribune Broadcasting Network and anytime that I do a show, it’s my goal to eventually meet that individual.
I was hoping to do a pre-game interview with Barnett but he was busy preparing for the game.
But as classy as he is, Dave said my color analyst Hank Dickenson would be more than happy to talk to you. I was totally grateful for the opportunity to interview his color analyst, who has been behind the microphone broadcasting Mean Green Hoops for 28 years.
This worked out great as Dickenson and I talked about the following subjects:
*The Transfer Portal
*The two smaller schools playing in large metropolitan areas.
*The rivalry between the universities.
*Dave Barnett.
*Name, Image, Likeness (NIL)
*Big Name Coaches.
*Conference Changes.
*FAU Coach Dusty May and the Owls rise to an elite program and much more.
Enclosed in this story is the interview I did with Dickenson where we talk about the North Texas Hoops program. Dickenson had a lot of worthwhile and insightful comments.
During the course of the interview, I was totally amazed at the schools’ rivalry. He has seen a lot of change in the way the NCAA does business as evidenced in some of the things we spoke about.
I learned a lot about a program that is probably the best kept secret in Texas since there are a lot of renowned schools in the state.
Going into this game, FAU was (16-4, 6-1 in the AAC) and was ranked 22nd in the polls. The Owls were in second place.
Meanwhile, North Texas was in fourth place in the AAC with a (12-6, 5-1 mark).
The game was televised nationally on ESPN 2 and these two teams didn’t disappoint as FAU won a classic thanks to a buzzer beater by Johnell Davis with 0:00.05 left in the game enabling the Owls to come away with a 66-63 win.
After the game, I thanked Hickenson for his time and managed to speak with Barnett for about five minutes. I thanked him for his time when we did our show together. I told him that I wrote a book, “Lessons From The Microphone” and he was extremely encouraging. I also mentioned to him how much I learned from him during our interview and he was extremely pleased to hear this.
If there is a lesson to learn from this story is that even if your first plan doesn’t come to fruition, then it’s important to make sure that you go with the flow and see what falls into your lap.
It was great to interview Barnett initially and quite gratifying to do a show with his color analyst.
These type of situations are what keeps my passion for what I enjoy in the media. The ability to meet new people, build relationships and see that all of these aspects of content hunting successfully so that it’s a win-win-situation all the way around.
January 28, 2024 was another productive day at the office.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloridatribune@gmail.com and you can see his broadcasts by subscribing to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel.
His book, “Lessons From The Microphone” is available on Amazon and Kindle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZppVl5WonZA
