Dan Bonner
Gminski
I like Spanarkel, but seldom hear him
Usually like Doris Burke, but sometimes not
Gminski is consistently excellent.
He is the best. But no soup for you: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...113-story.html
ESPN will not be using Knight to cover ACC games. Big Monday ACC crew will be Sean McDonough and Shane. Wednesday Night Hoops ACC games will be covered by Bob Wischusen and LaPhonso Ellis. Saturday Showcase ACC games will be Dave O'Brien and Doris Burke. Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas will cover Saturday Primetime for all conferences.
I'll subscribe to all of this except for the Gottlieb thing. I think he's a tool and not good at his job.
I generally don't care who's broadcasting. It's not really my focus, and I kind of tune them out anyway. But I can easily live with Bilas, Burke, Greenberg, Shulman, Gminski, Spanarkle, Knight, Raftery (kinda), Fraschilla (kinda), Dan Bonner and Ian Eagle. I think Bilas, Burke, and Shulman are particularly good, but the rest are fine too.
Dickie V. I like him the way I like wind blast on a fast motorcycle: Kind of fun at first, but gives me a headache. And after 30 years of him, I need a break.
BUT: I think Ryan Craig and Chris Spatola both have futures in broadcasting. They get the job done and have fun too. The schticks about palindromes and Semi's muscles were pretty funny. Spatola was self-deprecating about the latter, and I liked that too. He's Coach K's son-in-law, and he referenced his wife in the back and forth, which was funny.
Bonner has long been my favorite. Affable, brings insight to what he's watching, has no biases that I can discern - all-around pleasant to listen to. Gminski is a close second, for basically the same reasons. #3 for me right now is probably Corey Alexander.
Bilas is a bit full of himself but I like him too. He does overcorrect to avoid the appearance of Duke bias at times.
Knight was enjoyable at first but I got weary of him relatively quickly. His in-depth analysis of the game was a welcome counterpoint to Vitale's empty schtick but he's really dry. He also seems to have a lost a step relative to a few years ago - there was a game last season (?) where it was pretty clear he didn't understand a shot-clock issue near the end.
Burke is OK. Nitpicky thing, but I just don't like her voice. Her demeanor and analysis are fine - she's not the best but she's far from the worst - but I just don't like her voice.
Vitale's routine got old around 1997 or so. He actually didn't bother me much during the MSU game. Obviously he's not offering any insight into the game - it's all a performance - I understand why that has some value to a more casual fan but it has little for me.
Elmore is the worst. Seriously - the worst. It's not even just the blatant Duke hatred - he is a poor analyst. He misses a TON of what's going on and badly mis-inteprets much of what he doesn't. I actually thought he was okay when he first started calling games but it seems like he stopped accruing basketball knowledge sometime around the early 90's. He's now the one guy I will go out of my way to mute.
I'm not a Jay Williams fan either. Now, Jason Williams - that guy was awesome.
I still miss both Brad Daugherty and Terry Gannon, and wish we could get them back.
Could not agree more. Knight provides really interesting insight, but his voice is robotic. He's basically the ant-Vitale: no passion, no catch phrases, great insight, doesn't praise anyone (except Duke).
I'm like Goldilocks: I need the balance between passion and insight. Burke provides that for me.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
I'm okay with Burke, although she doesn't have a great voice and she tend to have her list of ten things she has to get in to the broadcast. My son is still irritated with her incessant stories about MP3 fighting with his brothers.
Elmore requires me to mute the sound. Will have to try that TuneIn approach that someone suggested upthread.
I love the approach of Bilas and Shulman. Can't stand Vitale, but who can?
I wish Bones McKinney were still alive and doing games: "Well, I'd just throw it in to the big man!"
I hate it when there is a foul / turnover or something happening on the court and the announcers are so busy blathering about something else that they don 't tell us who the foul is on or exactly what is going on. Vitale is the worst. Sometimes it is like they are not even watching the game.
Wasn't there a game a couple of seasons ago that was broadcast w no announcers only referee voices and the squeek of sneakers and crowd noise? Not a Duke game though...
I smell a pay-per-view goldmine.
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
I want my main man Gus Johnson on any and every game possible. Why he started calling soccer games is beyond me, however he has recently stepped down as Fox Sports soccer lead play by play. So hopefully sooner or later CBS and everyone else will get their stuff together and get the man calling tourney games again.
Gus called the U of Arizona football game last weekend. I was thrilled to see him! I love him!
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
Could be worse. We could still be listening to Packer.
Talk about a negative guy! Every great offensive play was a missed defensive assignment. Every steal was a failure to protect the ball. Every fast break was a failure of transition defense.
To Packer a sunny day was a cloud cover failure!
Couldn't stand him.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
The thing that really bugs me is the guy will go on and on about the Jason Williams, Dunleavy, and Boozer teams for 10 minutes. When those guys were actually playing, he would go on and on about Laettner, Hurley and Hill. Two or three years from now, while the future incarnation of Duke is on the court, is he gonna be talking about Okafor, Winslow, and Jones and how "special" those three were?
Why not just talk about the team that is on the court right now, and what they are doing?
Sometimes I think that these guys go into "filler" material in the second half anytime the score has more than a two point discrepancy either way. Like the viewer is going to change the channel because they're bored, except... wait!... Dickie V is telling a story about the steakhouse he ate in while he was in Tampa for the Yankees spiring training! Hold on, I'm staying right here to take in this incredible anecdote!