Truly devastated just hearing the news in the last couple of hours about the death of @joedeanjr who spent the better part of 20 years with me calling @SEC 🏀. The former @HailStateMBK player and former Grad Asst. after graduation later joined Joe B. Hall’s staff @KentuckyMBB as an Asst.on their 1978 National Championship team. Joe’s career would lead him to bith @UCF_MBB and Birmingham Southern where in 6 years he built a Championship program that eventually led to multiple National Titles under Duane Reboul in 90 & 95. Joe had become their Athletic Director and was credited for that success and the hiring of Reboul a HS Coach at the time in New Orleans. Our first game together was an 11th hour quite by chance moment when Joe replaced @DickieV when winter 🥶 ice storm kept him from getting to a game in Tuscaloosa and he and I having known one another called Georgia/Alabama on an SEC Tuesday Night on @espn. It led to Joe being hired to call games (just as his best friend and Dad Joe Sr. had done for decades)then @RaycomSports/Jefferson Pilot brought him in to join Larry Conley, Tom Hammond and me as primary commentators thru 2009. Joe had dreamed of being just like his Dad and becoming Athletic Director at his alma mater. His health suffered in the years that followed and he was off the grid. He’s health was far more of an issue than most of us knew all those years ago, until recently when more information came to us after he suffered a stroke. Joe Jr. was a walking talking Memorial to his legendary Father, and he loved that. Now, he’s done suffering and is with his best friend “Mr.String Music 🏀”for eternity. We shared some awesome moments together covering SEC Basketball. Our hearts go out to his beloved wife Ellen, son Scott, and daughter Leslie. I’ve missed Joe for a long time already, but now I know he’s with his Pop and Mom both magnificent people whom We all loved on this earth.RIP Joe Joe and give your Dad & Doris a hug. 💜🙏