Brent and Steve Back Together for the Big Ten Tournament

LavinBurger is back together with Erin Andrews today and tomorrow while announcing the Big Ten tournament. We'll get 3 chances to see them in action:
Thursday at 2:30
Friday at 1
Friday at 2
The Big Ten tournament will finish on Saturday and Sunday on CBS.

Beware the Spartans Come the Tournaments of March

-Brent Musburger: Master of the English language

Tuesday's game was a matchup of the best and worst teams in the Big Ten, but it was worth watching since Indiana was within 2 with 3 minutes left. According to Steve, the Hoosiers refused to go quietly into the night.

Brent and Steve were very calm, could it be because Erin Andrews wasn’t around?
Also, everyone who is fast is a “beep beeper” to Steve, as in they are roadrunners.
And everything is always old-fashioned to Steve.

Final: Michigan State 64, Indiana 59

Smashmouth. Basketball.

The Big Ten is known for its rough style of play (smashmouth according to Steve) and tonight's game between Michigan and Michigan State was no exception. Brent and Steve were even comparing Big Ten basketball to hockey.

"It's a different game my friend" - Brent
"Well, it get's pretty fiesty on the floor" - Steve

And then later on Brent says: "We're at a Big Ten game and a hockey game broke out."

Other quotes of the night:

"Splendid work" - Brent

"He takes the croutons that fall off the rim and makes a meal of it" - Steve

Adventures in sideline reporting:
Brent and Steve send it down to Erin, who reports that a player from Michigan just threw up in a garbage can by the bench. After she sends it back to LavinBurger, Steve says with no emotion at all, "What a great story."

Michigan State wins 54-42

Brent and Steve in Mad-Town

LavinBurger was announcing from Madison, Wisconsin tonight. A night in Brent's favorite town usually means craziness by the announcing duo, but from what I saw, Brent was very subdued and professional tonight, and Steve was too.

Wisconsin ended its 6 game losing streak by beating Illinois 63 - 50.

No Brent Tonight

Dave O'Brien announced the Ohio State vs Purdue game with Steve Lavin tonight since Brent announced the Tennessee vs Oklahoma women's basketball game with Bob Knight on Monday. We'll see Brent and Steve back in action together on Thursday for Illinois vs Wisconsin.

"You Gotta Love It Here In PackerLand"

"Bring out the boxing gloves, this one's going to be tough." - Brent

Tonight's LavinBurger game was a good Big Ten match up between Purdue and Wisconsin. Wisconsin was coming off a 4 game losing streak; the 1st time the Badgers lost 4 consecutive games under Bo Ryan, and Purdue made it 5 games in a row, but Wisconsin kept the game close to the final seconds.

We got a few good Brent and Steve moments tonight, but I expected more crazy drunkenness from LavinBurger considering they were in Brent's favorite city. Apparently, Brent was hanging out in "town" all day listening to people. Brent mentioned how he heard somebody in town discussing how the Badgers are not making it to the free throw line as much as they used to, and how their opponents are getting there more. And Brent knows that Jordan Taylor is a good player because "everybody in town talks about his toughness." I would love to go to Madison on gameday and just see Brent wandering the streets.

Being in Madison for a Badger game, LavinBurger couldn't help but reminisce about the Polar Bear and the Iceman. No ice fishing this year, my friends.

"The bank is open in Madison, my friend." - Brent

I would love for Brent to describe me as a "dead-eye cold-blooded shooter" like he did to Etwaun Moore.

Later on we found out that Brent is on Mount Rushmore of Steve's mentors. That's dangerous. Steve should be more careful in picking mentors.
We also heard about how those "youngsters" really enjoyed Steve giving them a speech the night before. I guess Steve missed out on partying with Brent at the bars because he had to give a speech to the business club. That must be why Steve wasn't crazy during the game. At least he got good reviews from the business club.

Brent was really excited by the end of the game. You can tell he loves partying it up in Madtown.

64-63: Purdue over the Badgers

Brent and Bob

Thursday night Brent shunned Steve Lavin and announced the Minnesota vs Purdue game with Bob Knight. I was not able to watch the game, but supposedly it was not a disaster. Here's the link to Awful Announcing's analysis.

You Got That Right, My Friends

It seems as though Brent and Steve didn't get wasted on Saturday when they announced the Wake Forest vs Clemson game so they would have more to drink tonight for the Ohio State vs Illinois game. Lavinburger stayed in the new hotel in Champaign and Brent was excited about getting a wine guide at the hotel. This is the 2nd Super Tuesday in a row that Brent has mentioned wine.

Steve was missing Chief Illiniwek and was hoping he would come back from the dead and perform at halftime: "Hail to the chief. What better day than inauguration day."
Brent and Steve talked more about the inauguration:
"We have a new sheriff in town. Didn't you get the memo?" - Brent

"God bless America, Brent." - Brad Nessler
"You got that right." - Brent

Steve is very jealous that Bob Knight is announcing with Brent on Thursday and how much attention and promos they are getting. Poor Steve is heartbroken.
"Guess I'm on the JV, Brent." - Lav
Bob Knight is going to destroy the Lavinburger relationship!

"Pow!" - Steve

In other news, Thad Matta must have done something mean to Brent or Steve since he got neglected by Lavinburger compared to all the attention they usually give him.

Illinois beat Ohio State 67 to 49.

Barnstorming the Big Ten

It took a while for LavinBurger to warm up after the long off season, but we knew they were back in the game when Steve was singing.

"Oh this one must be a blowout. We're talking about Steve Lavin's diet." - Brent making fun of himself (perhaps unknowingly).
"If Steve Lavin wrote down everything he ate it would be like a Steven King novel." - Brent
That mention of what Steve eats came up because Brent and Steve are intrigued by Thad Matta's life (including his diet) and make sure they inform America about it.

Since it was a blowout, it's no surprise that there was no basketball talk for several minutes during the end of the game. Then Brent says, "Tom Crean is still coaching away over there." Brent acts like it is ridiculous that someone is still paying attention to the game that's going on.

As for the game, Ohio State dominated poor Indiana 77-53, but Indiana didn't look as pathetic as you would think they would.

Lavinburger Is Back Tonight

Super Tuesday is back with Brent and Steve announcing the 7pm Ohio State vs Indiana game on ESPN. Steve will be announcing Purdue vs Northwestern with Dave O'Brien on Thursday night, and Brent and Steve will be back together on Saturday for the Wake Forest vs Clemson game. Unfortunately that game will be on ESPN Full Court.

In other Brent news, the American Sportscasters Association released a list of 50 top announcers and Brent came in at 44.