ROME -- Hold the onions. Don't mention the lingerie. But maybe "a little kiss" of the pope's ring.
Bill Raftery is considering dialing back some of his famous catchphrases for his first broadcasting assignment of the college basketball season.
That's because Pope Leo XIV could be listening.
Raftery will be the Fox analyst when Leo's alma mater, Villanova, meets fellow Catholic university Notre Dame in Rome on Sunday. The Eternal City Tip-Off was created to honor the first American pope.
Raftery is known for phrases such as "onions!" for clutch baskets and "lingerie on the deck" for when a defender figuratively gets faked out of their shorts by an opponent. And of course: "With a little kiss" for old-school bank shots off the glass.
"I've got to refrain from some probably in deference to the pope," Raftery told The Associated Press before flying to Rome. "But something might pop out that might cost me a day in the confessional booth."
Because, as Raftery explained, "anything I've ever done has been spontaneous."
More than halfway through his fifth decade as a college basketball commentator, Raftery is relishing his first trip to Rome since his 1969 honeymoon.
The event -- a doubleheader between the Villanova and Notre Dame men's and women's teams, though Raftery will call only the men's game -- includes a private audience with the pope on Saturday for the four teams and their fans.
"It's a business trip, but this one's got side doors to go out and see some incredible sights," Raftery said, adding that between his wife, Joan, four children and multiple grandchildren, "over 10 of us will be there."
Raftery wishes one more person could experience the trip too: Rollie Massimino, the coach who guided Villanova to the 1985 NCAA title in one of the greatest upsets in the history of college basketball. Massimino died in 2017.
"I would love to see Rollie [meet] the pope. He would be advising him on church matters, business matters, basketball," Raftery said. "And food too."
After coaching Seton Hall for 11 seasons, Raftery started commentating on games in the 1980s. Along with Dick Vitale, he was a pioneer in bringing catchphrases into the expanding college game and became a beloved fixture.
"Part of what you're doing, not that you think of it as entertainment, but it's to make the audience enjoy what they're watching," Raftery said. "I can't express deep enough to just be a small part of a lot of kids' lives and a lot of great institutions. It's like you got on the bandwagon and you never got off. Everything I did or said was to be said succinctly and with meaning -- to get in and out of the play-by-play man's way."
Despite his longevity and dedicated fan following, Raftery wasn't elevated to CBS' lead Final Four analyst until 2015. Raftery is in his mid-80s but keeps his exact age a mystery: He says he was born in April 1941 but that he's 86.
Raftery left ESPN in 2013 when the Big East's media rights switched to Fox. Now Fox has multiple conferences and he calls games across the country with play-by-play partner Gus Johnson, who has plenty of fans of his own for his unabashed approach to calling games.
"The biggest thing, no matter what game you do, it's a really important game for a lot of people. Whether it's the schools, the towns, the communities," Raftery said. "I've never really delineated what the league is when I'm going in as much as trying to do as much good for these kids and these programs that their performance will allow."
So what does Raftery make of the current college landscape, which is dominated by roster chaos thanks to the transfer portal, name, image and likeness payments, and conference realignment?
"I don't know of anybody who likes it, but if you're in it, you've got to play by the rules," he said. "A lot of coaches have left. Some can afford to leave. ... My only concern is these kids that don't make it to the level that they're all playing for. And are they sure they have a degree? Are they sure that they have a major that will help them contribute in life, raise a family?"
Those concerns fade away when game times come around, though.
"The greatest thing for anybody that does what we do is between 7 and 9 [p.m.], nobody cares about the rules, the eligibility," Raftery said. "They just want to watch the game."
So might Raftery be considering retirement as he prepares to call his first game in Rome?
"What a way to go out, right?" he said, but added that he has no health issues and prefers to wait until his employers decide that he's done.
"I'm just as enthusiastic as I was when I started," Raftery said. "I enjoy what I'm doing. It keeps you young, interested, and you feel like you can still contribute. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that until the bell rings."