If Greg Gurley played to a bigger audience, he might really be in Kansas University basketball coach Roy Williams’ doghouse.
“I know coach Williams, and I know how things work,” said Gurley, a former KU player who serves as color commentator for Sunflower Cablevision’s replays of Kansas’ home games. “I think I add an inside view, but I have to be careful.
“Early in the year, I was describing plays so well, coach Williams came up to me and said, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t give away so much.’ He gave me a little jab. I know not every coach is watching Sunflower Cable, but I got the point I should stop giving away their plays.”
Gurley, in his first full season as a Cable Six throatman, knows his KU hoops. He played at Kansas from 1992-95 and was a captain his senior year.
“The game has changed, but then again, it hasn’t,” Gurley said. “Coach Williams will not get away from the basics. He has a system. There are hundred of options within that system, but the core of plays are the same. I know when Kirk Hinrich dribbles to one side and makes a motion with his hand, I know what’s coming. I try to tell that to the audience. It’s fun to be able to do that.”
Gurley’s biggest challenge is not coming across as a homer.
“It’s hard to be unbiased,” he said. “Hey, I want Kansas to win. But sometimes it’s hard not to get on the officials or whatever.”
Gurley has no idea how far he’ll go in broadcasting.
He lives in Overland Park, and his primary paycheck comes from Prairie Graphics, for whom he’s a sales representative.
In addition to his part-time Cable Six gig, Gurley appears on a Sunday night Kansas City studio sports show, and he has taken a few turns at the microphone for Metro Sports.
Former KU player Greg Gurley
“It is something I’d like to get into,” Gurley said. “Of the guys I played with, very few of us are not in the NBA, so I have to find a way somehow. It’s something I enjoy doing. I’m a sports freak. My wife hates me for it, but I watch sports all the time.
“I do have some knowledge of sports. How good am I? I don’t really know. A lot of people tell me I’m really good, but unfortunately those people are my family and friends. It’s hard to get an honest answer out of your wife. She’ll always tell you you’re the best.”
Gurley took the Cable Six job as a replacement for another former KU player, Mike Maddox.
“He changed jobs and it was hard for him to do it every game,” Gurley said. “They came to me and I jumped at it. It’s a good opportunity. I get to do analysis for one of the Top Five programs in the country. It’s definitely a good start for me.
“But I really don’t have any set plans of what I’m going to do. I’ll just hang out and see what happens. I won’t force myself on anyone. You have to pay your dues. You just don’t go out and do a Big Monday game right away. Maybe a radio job will come up. If it does, that’s great. I’m not the best-looking guy. Maybe radio is the answer.”
Ex-Jayhawk Greg Gurley
Gurley has worked every KU men’s home game this season and four KU women’s games. The latter proved challenging for the rookie broadcaster, who filled in on a couple of broadcasts two years ago.
“It is a challenge,” Gurley said. “I don’t know a lot about women’s basketball. I haven’t really been around it. But it’s something you have to do. You have to learn the personnel.
“With the Kansas men, it’s easy for me. I know all the guys. I know what they can do, what their skills are. When I do a women’s game, I don’t know who they are or what they can do.
“For Metro Sports, I did a North Kansas City-Raytown women’s game. I don’t know anything about either of those programs. That was a test for me. The score at halftime was 12-12. That was a real test.
“But somebody told me to treat every game like it’s the Final Four, and I try to do that.”
Whatever his over-the-air future, Gurley figures it will be in commentating, not in providing play-by-play.
“I’ve always done color,” he said. “As a color guy, you just chime in whenever you want. But play-by-play guys are tough. They’re talking the whole time.”
Gurley relishes both his jobs right now.
“Both jobs involve Kansas athletics,” he said. “That’s something I’d like to be around my entire life. I’m not fit for coaching, so I have to find other ways to be around the guys. It’s not just the team. It’s the support staff, the people around the program when you were playing. I don’t plan on moving. It’s a part of me, and it will be a part of me forever.”
