Vitale judges Jayhawks

ESPN commentator Dick Vitale has some fun with the Kansas student section prior to tipoff against Florida on Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 at Allen Fieldhouse.

• Box score

Dick Vitale — whose new book is entitled, “It’s Awesome, Baby: 75 Years of Memories and a Lifetime of Opinions on the Game I Love” — definitely has an early-season take on Kansas University’s basketball team.

“Perimeter shooting … I’m a little questionable about that one. I saw them against Michigan State (in KU’s title game victory at Orlando Classic),” the ESPN color announcer said Friday night before working the KU-Florida game in Allen Fieldhouse.

KU rallied for a 71-65 victory after hitting 41.7 percent of its shots, 28.6 percent of its threes.

“I know the kid — give me the right pronunciation; Bill (Self) told me to call him Svi (Mykhailiuk) — Svi can shoot the ball, and he’s still a kid,” added Vitale, who turned 75 on June 9. Mykhailiuk is just 17.

“(Frank) Mason is up and down. He is a driver, slasher. (Wayne) Selden is up and down shooting the ball. They are good athletes. They are tough kids. They are very aggressive, and I like their inside play. (Cliff) Alexander is going to be a star, and (Perry) Ellis is a veteran who knows how to maneuver inside. I said on Twitter before the game, ‘Can Florida find a way to negate the inside game of Kansas?'” Vitale added.

Vitale mingled with and took pictures with fans before the game.

He has written a whopping 12 books. This one may prove to be his favorite, because it is an endeavor for charity. All of Vitale’s proceeds from the sale of the book will go to pediatric cancer research through the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

“It’s a great Christmas gift. Every penny I make from that book, not 80 cents, not 90 cents, but every penny goes to kids battling cancer,” Vitale said. “The book is basically all my opinions in 75 years of life, one-and-done (rule), how Bill Self should be in the Hall of Fame. Bill Self, Billy Donovan and Tom Izzo …. they are the next three Hall of Famers, in my opinion.

“Being bullied as a kid. All my opinions in 75 years.”

Of college hoops this season, Vitale said: “Right now, Kentucky has been a step above everybody — nine McDonald’s All-Americans … the talent level … defensively they may be the best team I’ve seen. The beauty of college basketball, as good as they are, college basketball is not 4-out-of-7 (series). If it was 4-out-of-7 like the NBA, ship them the trophy right now.

“Duke is for real again, (Jahlil) Okafor is a tremendous freshman. There are a lot of quality teams again this year.”

To get a personalized copy of Vitale’s book go to dickvitaleonline.com. It’s also available at amazon.com and various stores.

Vitale, who has been part of ESPN’s broadcast team since 1979 and actually called the network’s first game — Wisconsin at DePaul — on Dec. 5, 1979, has no plans to retire soon.

“It’s been a love affair for me,” he said. “I tell my bosses — they gave me a big extension recently — ‘I’ll never allow you to be embarrassed.’ People may disagree or may not like your style, that’s part of the business. If I ever got to the point I had (problems with) memory recollection, what’s happening, names out there, I’ll not embarrass myself. I’ll be out of there.”

He has worked close to 1,000 games on the network.