Sports editor Jim Rossow has picked 12 of his favorite stories from 2009. The list includes Bob Asmussen's behind-the-scenes trip with Flyin' Illini Stephen Bardo.

ESPN allowed staff writer Bob Asmussen and photographer Robert K. O'Daniell to tag along with on-air talent Stephen Bardo during a Feb. 14 game between Creighton and Southern Illinois at Carbondale.

"It's always a big game here when Creighton comes to town. These are the two class programs of the Missouri Valley Conference for the last decade or so. Despite the record, SIU will bring its best effort against its hated rival, Creighton."

— Stephen Bardo during ESPN's Feb. 14 telecast

By BOB ASMUSSEN

The career path didn't start in college. Or even in high school. It started in Stephen Bardo's Carbondale living room as a kid.

He would sit and watch basketball games with his dad, Harold. It might be Dick Vitale calling the game. Or Billy Packer. The Bardos had an opinion. They were calling the games, too.

"I was getting training that whole time," Bardo said.

Ten years later, a seminal moment in Bardo's life came while being interviewed by .. Vitale

Bardo and Illinois coach Lou Henson were on ESPN with the broadcasting icon. During the interview, Bardo said, "Dick, I want your job." Afterward, the ESPN producer praised Bardo for his responses.

Harold Bardo told his son to write a thank-you note to ESPN. College basketball players are not known for their thank-you notes, but Stephen followed Dad's orders.

A month or so later, Bardo received a letter back. Not from ESPN, but from ABC. And not from some assistant to the assistant intern, but from the president of ABC Sports, Dennis Swanson.

The letter basically said, "When you're ready to work, I'm ready to hire you."

"I thought to myself, 'Here's a good-looking guy, articulate, has got a great voice,' " Swanson said. "With all the skill there was on that '89 team, Stephen was the heart and soul of that team. I thought, 'Here's somebody who has the discipline to take the tools that he has and find a second career.' "

Swanson, a former Illini basketball manager, has a good track record of discovering talent. He encouraged Oprah Winfrey to syndicate her show nationally. And he encouraged Bardo to pursue sports broadcasting.

"I give him a ton of credit," said Swanson, now the president of Fox Television Station Operations. "Do you know how many of these players when they're done want to be analysts? All of them. Stephen had that mental toughness. He had that discipline. It's one thing to be tall, athletic, handsome and with a good voice. But it's another thing to do the homework, to do the studying, to do all that goes into it. Everything was there, he just needed to nurture it and grow it, which he's done. The result is that he's very successful as an on-air talent."

"That's what drives coaches crazy. They become follically challenged when coaching college basketball because you're either pulling something or your hair falls out. You've got the No. 1 three-point shooter in the nation and Bocot's lazy getting over the pick. That just won't get it done."

The little kid from Cardondale, the one who wisely wrote the thank-you note to ESPN, returned to his hometown in mid-February. To work the Southern Illinois-Creighton game for ESPN.

Fans at SIU Arena are excited to see him. Some nervously approach him for autographs. Others snap pictures.

"Oh, my God, that's Stephen Bardo," says one fan in the front row.

Southern Illinois athletic director Mario Moccia greets him. Though he played at Illinois, Bardo has deep Southern Illinois roots.

His dad is a longtime employee of the university, currently serving as the director of SIU School of Medicine's MED-PREP program. Harold Bardo also runs the clock at Southern Illinois games.

"People in this community are very happy and proud that he's doing that work," Harold Bardo said.

Stephen Bardo likes to mingle. He leaves time for it. If you stick out your hand, he's going to shake it.

Bardo enjoys the trips back home. Nothing better, Bardo said, than his mom Lana's cooking. He spent the night before the game at his parents' home, four minutes from SIU Arena.

"I grew up in this place," Bardo said. "I saw all of the Valley greats that came through here. Our seats are D section, 10th row. I grew up in those seats. Everybody that you'll see today that comes up, they take pride in what I've done because they helped me get to that point."

Of course, he is here to work. He takes a quick restroom break about 25 minutes before tipoff. Twenty minutes before the game, he's leafing through the Creighton media guide.

Bardo doesn't have many pregame rituals. He tries to drink about 100 ounces of water before he arrives at the arena. Which might explain the restroom break.

Illness hasn't been a problem for Bardo during his broadcasting career. He keeps hand wipes close.

"I gut it out," Bardo said. "I don't know any other way. Sore throat. Upset stomach. Go at halftime, lose my lunch, wipe my mouth out and come back out here and do it."

Creighton takes control early and delivers the announcer's worst nightmare, a blowout. That means less talk about the game and more talk about everything else.

"We call it 'earning your check' in these kind of games because you pull out everything you've got," Bardo said.

The game turns a bit sloppy, but Bardo and play-by-play announcer Eric Collins stay on point. They seem to be having fun in the second half.

Bardo chimes in on Creighton's NCAA tournament hopes (Bardo says the Bluejays are in), Evan Turner (Bardo calls him the Big Ten MVP) and Southern Illinois center Nick Evans' farming background ("He's not afraid of hard work").

"What you do is you try to go big picture," Bardo said. "You talk about conference play. You talk about some of the recruits. You go into Dana Altman and Chris Lowery. We promo games. I talk about Fran Fraschilla. I try to give him a jab because he dogs the Big Ten out."

The buzzer sounds at 5:50 p.m. and the home team loses by 22. A bunch of disappointed fans leave SIU Arena, many wearing "I Love to Hate Creighton" T-shirts. For some reason, one fan wears a bright green stocking from head to toe.

Bardo remembers feeling bad after his losses at Illinois. So, he talks to several of the Southern Illinois players and offers words of encouragement. He meets with Salukis coach Lowery, the former Illini assistant who is going through his first losing season with the Salukis.

With Bardo, it's all positive. The Salukis are young, he said, and will be good soon.

With his dad, Bardo walks out of the building at 6:25. It is dark and he has a long drive to West Lafayette, Ind., for a women's game the next day.

"He left some underwear on the deck on that one. Ryan Hare went south and Stinnett went north. That looked almost as good as a Tim Hardaway crossover. Broke some ankles over there."

To the outsider, college basketball analyst is the greatest job this side of candy inspector. You show up at the game 20 minutes before tipoff, apply a little pancake, gab for two hours and go home. With a really big check.

Bardo loves the work. He went from college player to pro player to college announcer. His dad jokes that he has yet to actually put in a day of real work.

But there have been costs to his personal life. During the basketball season, he is on the road constantly. Waco one day, Evanston the next. He doesn't get to see his two sons as much as he wants.

On the air, he'll wink or give them another predetermined signal to let them know he's thinking about them.

Divorced for three years, Bardo said his job took a toll on his marriage.

"But it was coming before I really got going," said Bardo, who maintains a good relationship with his ex-wife.

It's a business that chews up athletes. Even great ones.

Nobody in the history of the NFL has run for more yards than Emmitt Smith. But that didn't do him any good when he grabbed a microphone at ESPN. The network knew it had a problem early and tried to make the best of it. But when his contract was up, there was no chance Smith was getting a renewal.

Countless others have tried and failed. They use too many cliches. They convey incorrect information. They can't get their words out quickly enough. They don't mesh with their announcing partners. They use wretched grammar. They talk over the action.

Bardo doesn't have any of those problems, which explains why broadcasting has worked for him.

"I don't know if there's a recipe," said Dan Steir, ESPN senior coordinating producer for college basketball. "He's a good communicator. He's a good learner. He's been very receptive to feedback. He keeps on trying to get better in all aspects."

"Look at Woodfox, he wears those high socks, something he's done since he was 2 years old. He told me his dad used to do the same thing. I thought it was to hide those skinny little calves of his. He's got his own thing going and it's working."

His on-air partners believe in Bardo. A lot.

"He's got all the tools," ESPN's Terry Gannon said. "He's a guy who played the game. He's a guy who thinks on his feet. He's got a great perspective on college basketball. And he's a guy who has got the players' best interest at heart.

"He's going to go as far as he wants to go."

Bardo and Gannon have been a team for three years. They both played at a high level, with Gannon winning a national title at North Carolina State and Bardo reaching the Final Four at Illinois.

Their on-court exploits are a topic of conversation during the broadcasts. Often. And it adds to the chemistry. But they can just as easily talk about movies, politics or music.

"When they put Terry and I together, they didn't know we would blend like that," Bardo said. "They had an idea, but they didn't know we would hit it off like that."

Bardo and Gannon have come up with a term for their broadcast plan: edertainment.

"We try to educate and entertain," Bardo said.

They want it to sound like two guys sitting at a bar or barbershop, talking basketball.

Bardo and Gannon's relationship grew in 2007 during an ESPN version of "Planes, Trains & Automobiles."

Their ordeal started in Spokane, Wash., where they worked a Gonzaga game. The next assignment was across the country in State College, Pa. It took them 21 / 2 days.

The snowstorm of the year hit the Midwest and East. They got stuck at the Cincinnati airport, where plane and car traffic was stopped by the snow. They talked an innocent bystander into driving them to a hotel. The next morning, they talked somebody else into taking them to the airport.

They landed in Philadelphia, got in a car for the 3 1/2-hour drive to State College and had to deal with another nasty storm. They made it just before tipoff with two-day growths on their faces.

"Adversity brings people together," Gannon said. "We kind of found each other on that crazy trip. Under weird circumstances, you find out a lot about each other. He was totally calm. We were both kind of fatalistic about it. We kind of chuckled and broke out laughing at how absurd the situation is."

Bardo and his partners have experienced a frightening moment or two on the court.

Bardo and Dave Barnett were calling a late-season game in 2008 at Baylor. The Bears were fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament and the crowd turned surly, throwing bottles on the court.

After the game, Bardo was doing a spot for ESPN while Baylor coach Scott Drew was conducting an on-court prayer. Bardo felt someone close behind trying to quiet him and brushed the person away.

"I hit an old lady in the face," Bardo said. "I said, 'What the hell. I'm trying to do my job.' This guy walks up and said, 'If you hit my wife again, you're going to have problems.' I said, 'If you mess with me while I'm on the air, I'm going to whoop you.' "

Fans from nearby heard the exchange and started to approach Bardo. Barnett grabbed his partner and the two quickly walked across the court and away from the trouble.

"I didn't know (Drew) was saying a prayer," Bardo said. "She's thinking, 'Why are you talking while there's a prayer going on?' "

The next day, Bardo talked to his boss Steir about the incident. Steir was beyond sympathetic.

"He said, 'Kill them. Whatever you want to say about them, let them have it,' " Bardo said. "I came on that night and said that was the worst crowd I've ever seen in college basketball. I told the truth."

Mostly, fans are fun. Bardo has his favorites. Like Gonzaga.

"We have royalty status there," Bardo said. "They treat us great. I love going out there. Spokane, Wash., is a basketball-crazed area. People don't really know that around the country."

Bardo worked the Creighton-Southern Illinois game with Collins. They have Chicago in common. Like with the Bardo-Gannon pairing, the friendliness between the two comes across on the air.

"I love what I do and it's a lot of fun," Collins said. "But Bardo makes it more fun than it probably is. He's easy to work with. He finds things in the game that translate to everyone.

"I look forward to working with him. Not only is he a basketball guy. I just think he's an interesting human being."

"When you're winning, it doesn't matter. I wanted to win. You want to be on the floor, you want to contribute. We're looking at a 20-6 ballclub. I don't care what level of college basketball, when you get 20 wins that's a special team. There's a special feeling among the teammates so you pull for each other. You may get 15 minutes one night, you may get 25 the next."

His colleagues say it's hard to find anybody who will say something bad about Bardo. Part of that is Bardo's personality. He's one of those "never met a stranger" kind of guys.

Bardo's deep voice is easy to understand. He isn't on constant, excited hyperdrive like some of his peers. And he's comfortable being himself.

"I've always found him to be very competent, not trying to impress listeners with a bunch of fluff like some of his screaming counterparts on other broadcasts and instead providing well-thought insight, just like on the radio," said Dan Caesar, longtime sports media columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He's an easy listen."

Honesty is the key.

"There are a few analysts whose work has started to bother me because they never recognize poor play or decision-making," The Sporting News college basketball expert Mike DeCourcy said. "When a point guard passes the ball directly to a defender, that's not a great steal. That's catching somebody's huge mistake. I don't think Steve is afraid to tell us the truth. But he also has fun with the game, which is as it should be."

Sometimes, he has too much fun. Like the time in the studio when he used the term "Itch Slap" to describe West Virginia's win against Georgetown. The folks at ESPN thought he used a different term and it almost cost him a suspension.

"They said, 'OK, well just don't do it anymore,' " Bardo said.

During the Michigan-Connecticut game, Huskies star Hasheem Thabeet blocked a Wolverines shot.

"I said, 'Hasheem said get that weak shhhh..ot out of here,' " Bardo said "John Saunders about lost his lunch and the producer in my ear is laughing."

His boss Steir was laughing, too. But he also had a reminder for Bardo: "It was funny, but be careful." It could have slipped.

Dad knows there are potential dangers for a broadcaster, especially one with as much air time as Stephen.

"Every word uttered out of your mouth can end your career," Harold Bardo said.

Harold Bardo isn't as worried about nasty words being written about his son. If it happens, Harold figures, it means Stephen is doing something worthwhile.

Stephen Bardo learned how to deal with rejection during 10 years in pro basketball. He had a few sips of coffee in the NBA but was never able to stick long term.

"Getting criticism is not unusual to him and he's able to handle it pretty well," Harold Bardo said.

"If you have the effort, you can learn everything else. You can't put a motor in guys. They either have it or they don't."

Bardo is on the fast track at ESPN. His game assignments improve each year. He is getting quality time in the studio, a sign that his bosses like what they hear.

"I might argue Steve's rise has been too long in coming," DeCourcy said. "I thought he was a terrific analyst the first time I heard him doing regional games that were picked up on ESPN Full Court. I wondered then why he wasn't being given a shot at bigger games. I'm glad to see he's breaking in that direction."

"I don't think there's any ceiling for Stephen," Steir said. "At the same time, I think we've got a tremendous group of talent. I would say the same thing about any of the talent."

Bardo isn't making Vitale money, but the pay is good.

"I got paid to play a game," said Bardo, who spent 10 years in different leagues, including the NBA. "Now, I'm getting paid to talk about a game. Think about that for a second."

Every announcer has his own style. Vitale shouts. Bob Knight lectures. Jay Bilas calmly informs.

Bardo's niche is developing. A music fanatic, he uses his favorite artists and tunes during the broadcasts. He'll talk about pop culture and relate it to the on-court action.

"I can mention something musicwise from the '70s that attracts an older crowd," Bardo said. "I can say something recent because my son's 17 and he's up on all the current stuff. Music is a very strong connection for people, whether I'm talking Captain & Tennille or the Average White Band or Chicago or Fleetwood Mac. That's kind of my thing. My bosses laugh at me all the time about the stuff I say."

Bardo isn't satisfied with his current place in the profession. He asks advice from his family, friends, producers and directors. All with the idea of getting better. All with the idea of climbing.

"It's just like basketball, you can't stay the same place year after year after year," Harold Bardo said. "If you do, you're not going to play very long. People are going to go by you."

The dream is still out there for Bardo. The goal is the same one he had 20 years ago while playing at Illinois.

"I want to get to the highest level of college basketball," Bardo said. "Whether that's CBS, whether that's ESPN, it doesn't really matter. I just want to be the best."

Busy Bardo

Here was Stephen Bardo's (right) February itinerary:

Feb. 5 In studio, Bristol, Conn.

Feb. 6 "First Take," Bristol, Conn.

Feb. 7 Michigan at Connecticut

Feb. 9 Speaking engagement, BP Corp.

Feb. 11 Oklahoma at Baylor

Feb. 12 Illinois at Northwestern

Feb. 14 Creighton at Southern Illinois

Feb. 15 Illinois at Purdue (women)

Feb. 18 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech

Feb. 19 In studio, Bristol, Conn.

Feb. 21 Memphis at UTEP

Feb. 22 Mock NCAA tourney selection, Bristol, Conn.

Feb. 26 In studio, Bristol, Conn.

Feb. 28 Ohio State at Purdue