No matter how noble the cause, it’s never easy to ask for money. Nobody in sports does it better than Dick Vitale.

Here’s how the beaming, bald, Vitale goes about asking for the order: He is generous with his time to those interested in interviewing him about the No. 2 passion in his life, college basketball.

Then, after he’s given everything the inquiring party wanted of him and more, he asks for a little help with the No. 1 passion in his life, which is fighting cancer.

Vitale, who lost close friend Jim Valvano to the disease in 1993, said his goal is to raise $1 million for the V Foundation through his Web site, dickvitaleonline.com, which lists where to mail the check.

Valvano’s daughter Jamie, mother of two small children, was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2005, learning the news the same weekend she was working at the Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic that raised $11 million for cancer research.

“Good news,” Vitale reported. “The cancer is in remission. Phenomenal.”

The original purpose of the phone call to Vitale’s home office in Sarasota, Fla., was to find out where he keeps the bronze Jayhawk presented to him last season by Kansas University athletic director Lew Perkins.

“I’m looking at it right now,” Vitale said from his desk. “It’s right next to the picture of me being passed down the crowd by the Duke people, and just to the right of that is a picture Jimmy V.”

Vitale is in town for tonight’s Big 12 game between Texas A&M and Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse.

“I feel in my last chapter I want to be able to give back,” Vitale said of his push to raise money for cancer research. “Basketball has been so good to me. I’ve exceeded any dream I ever had. Never in my wildest dream when I was a sixth-grade teacher in 1970 chasing a dream coaching in high school did I think I would get where I am today. I feel so lucky.”

Before getting to his No. 1 passion, Vitale hit on several college basketball topics.

“What about Kevin Durant,” Vitale said of the Texas star who dropped 37 points and 23 rebounds Wednesday night, and in the second half outscored Texas Tech by two points in the Longhorns’ victory in Lubbock. “Give me a break. The Vitale Bald Dome Index is starting to sway that Durant is the national player of the year. To do that on the road against a Texas Tech team that beat Kansas and Texas A&M? He is the best offensive big perimeter-skilled player I have seen in the last 10 years.”

Vitale on A&M coach Billy Gillispie: “I told Billy when he took that job he was making a major mistake. Now they’re challenging Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas. They defend so well. They understand shot selection. And they play with such great inspiration.”

Vitale on tonight’s matchup: “The key to the game is one word: Tempo. If Kansas can get up and down, they’ll be tough to beat. They take the turnover and go the other way with it as well as anybody in the country. If Texas A&M can control the tempo, slow it down, they have a good shot.”

Vitale on Vitale: “I’ll be 67 and I’m acting 12. I’d like to think I haven’t lost my energy.”

He certainly hasn’t lost his passion for aiding cancer research and college basketball.