diaper dandy
Definition: (noun phrase) A college freshman basketball star
Example: Turner wasn’t a diaper dandy, but he was on the All-Avis Team.
Quote:
“If you want to know about a talented diaper dandy at guard, just call Rutgers coach Gary Waters. He saw quite a performance from Notre Dame's Chris Thomas. Thomas scored 32 points, hitting 7-of-9 trifectas, and dished out 11 assists against the Scarlet Knights.”
Vitale doesn’t just use that expression – he invented it. After working for many years as a coach, he got a job announcing college basketball games for ESPN in 1979. The king of colorful sports language, Vitale has created many terms that are now well-known to B-ball (basketball) fans.
For example, he calls large players human space ships, for obvious reasons. An unpredictable player is called a Dow-Joneser in Vitale-speak, because his performance goes up and down, like the stock market. A good jumper is a Skywalker (like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars) and an impressive slam dunk is a dipsy-doo dunk-a-roo.
He also has many complimentary and insulting names for the teams themselves. A team with great players in every position is an All-Rolls Royce Team. The All Avis Team is the team that tries harder, like the slogan of the Avis rental car company.
A. C. Kemp | February 19, 2004
