Annual Announcer Kvetch Thread, 2022-23

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Originally Posted by sagegrouse

SVG doesn't say much but makes pithy observations, something every other color commentator should aspire to do

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Often, less is more. Mr. Bilas might learn that.

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Originally Posted by Indoor66

Often, less is more. Mr. Bilas might learn that.

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Well, JB knows more about basketball than SVG, so JB has more wisdom to impart on the unwashed masses.

The CBS announcing team professionalism and both play-by-play and color commentary far exceed anything the “Entertainment” network throws at us. Really enjoy watching and listening to these games.

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Originally Posted by arnie

The CBS announcing team professionalism and both play-by-play and color commentary far exceed anything the “Entertainment” network throws at us. Really enjoy watching and listening to these games.

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I guess Ian Eagle is to replace Nance starting next season. I’d like his partner Spanarkel to replace Rafftery sooner rather than later, but they'd never have 2 Duke guys on CBS’s lead team, and certainly not on the Final Four.

Kudos to Awful Announcing for putting together a compilation of calls of Lamont Butler's shot so soon after the SDU win over FAU. They've got the CBS broadcast, local San Diego sports radio, ESPN International, and Westwood One.

It's worth a click. Thanks to some embedded tweets, you can watch or hear them. Or read them -- each call is transcribed. Jim Nantz was a bit slow on the "Butler did it" line, not having it ready right after the shot, but said some interesting things beforehand. Dick Vitale was covering the game for ESPN International, and was highly subdued, for him.

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Originally Posted by brevity

Kudos to Awful Announcing for putting together a compilation of calls of Lamont Butler's shot so soon after the SDU win over FAU. They've got the CBS broadcast, local San Diego sports radio, ESPN International, and Westwood One.

It's worth a click. Thanks to some embedded tweets, you can watch or hear them. Or read them -- each call is transcribed. Jim Nantz was a bit slow on the "Butler did it" line, not having it ready right after the shot, but said some interesting things beforehand. Dick Vitale was covering the game for ESPN International, and was highly subdued, for him.

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Pretty excellent. Thanks for the link.

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Originally Posted by brevity

Kudos to Awful Announcing for putting together a compilation of calls of Lamont Butler's shot so soon after the SDU win over FAU. They've got the CBS broadcast, local San Diego sports radio, ESPN International, and Westwood One.

It's worth a click. Thanks to some embedded tweets, you can watch or hear them. Or read them -- each call is transcribed. Jim Nantz was a bit slow on the "Butler did it" line, not having it ready right after the shot, but said some interesting things beforehand. Dick Vitale was covering the game for ESPN International, and was highly subdued, for him.

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No thanks. I don't plan on ever watching that highlight again if I can help it.

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Originally Posted by gumbomoop

I guess Ian Eagle is to replace Nance starting next season. I’d like his partner Spanarkel to replace Rafftery sooner rather than later, but they'd never have 2 Duke guys on CBS’s lead team, and certainly not on the Final Four.

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Getting rid of Notecard Nantz ("his mother is a letter carrier!") is classic addition by subtraction. Leave that man in Augusta...

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Originally Posted by budwom

Getting rid of Notecard Nantz ("his mother is a letter carrier!") is classic addition by subtraction. Leave that man in Augusta...

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Or, at Pebble, where he lives.

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Originally Posted by budwom

Getting rid of Notecard Nantz ("his mother is a letter carrier!") is classic addition by subtraction. Leave that man in Augusta...

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I’m not a Nantz fan, either, and welcome his retirement and replacement by Eagle. I wouldn’t object to Raftery getting one more year, but that’s it. Grant Hill gets better, though I don’t prefer him to Spanarkel. I’ll hope that by the 2025 NCAAT (at the latest) Eagle’s partner is Spanarkel or Hill, with just maybe Jay Wright as 3d guy.

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Originally Posted by sagegrouse

Or, at Pebble, where he lives.

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I wouldn't mind taking a shot at his backyard.

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Originally Posted by sagegrouse

Or, at Pebble, where he lives.

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Nope, he actually lives in Nashville. He’s been all over the local CBS station this week.

I hope Jim Spanarkel gets the color job, sooner rather
than later! He’s the best in the biz- always focused on the game and very insightful. And maybe it’ll boost my decades long campaign to hang # 34 in the rafters!

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Originally Posted by TheDevilMadeMeDoIt

Nope, he actually lives in Nashville. He’s been all over the local CBS station this week.

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Does he still own the Pebble Beach house with the scaled-down par 3 7th in the backyard?

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Originally Posted by 75Crazie

I wouldn't mind taking a shot at his backyard.

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He has a practice hole in it.

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Originally Posted by brevity

Kudos to Awful Announcing for putting together a compilation of calls of Lamont Butler's shot so soon after the SDU win over FAU. They've got the CBS broadcast, local San Diego sports radio, ESPN International, and Westwood One.

It's worth a click. Thanks to some embedded tweets, you can watch or hear them. Or read them -- each call is transcribed. Jim Nantz was a bit slow on the "Butler did it" line, not having it ready right after the shot, but said some interesting things beforehand. Dick Vitale was covering the game for ESPN International, and was highly subdued, for him.

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Oof that San Diego local radio call was horrible

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Originally Posted by toughbuff1

Oof that San Diego local radio call was horrible

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Wow just terrible. The other two were fine.

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Originally Posted by sagegrouse

He has a practice hole in it.

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I know this may surprise some people but I do exhibit some signs of restraint.

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Originally Posted by brevity

Awful Announcing: Rate the 2023 NCAA Tournament announcers

They've put up a poll -- really, a Google Form where you assign each announcing team a letter grade. Unfortunately, they only list the names of the announcers, and not the location or games they were assigned. So...

Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson (Allie LaForce): Des Moines
Kansas/Howard, Arkansas/Illinois, Kansas/Arkansas; Texas/Colgate, Texas A&M/Penn State, Texas/Penn State

Lisa Byington, Avery Johnson, Steve Smith (Andy Katz): Denver
Baylor/UCSB, Creighton/NC State, Baylor/Creighton; Gonzaga/Grand Canyon, TCU/Arizona State, Gonzaga/TCU

Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas (Jamie Erdahl): Columbus
Purdue/FDU, Memphis/Florida Atlantic, FDU/Florida Atlantic; Michigan State/USC, Marquette/Vermont, Michigan State/Marquette

Spero Dedes, Deb Antonelli (AJ Ross): Albany
Miami/Drake, Indiana/Kent State, Miami/Indiana; St. Mary's/VCU, Connecticut/Iona, St. Mary's/Connecticut

Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel (Evan Washburn): Greensboro
Kentucky/Providence, Kansas State/Montana State, Kentucky/Kansas State; Iowa State/Pittsburgh, Xavier/Kennesaw State, Pittsburgh/Xavier

Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, Stan Van Gundy (Lauren Shehadi): Orlando
Duke/Oral Roberts, Tennessee/Louisiana, Duke/Tennessee; SDSU/Charleston, Virginia/Furman, SDSU/Furman

Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill (Tracy Wolfson): Birmingham
Alabama/TAMCC, Maryland/West Virginia, Alabama/Maryland; Houston/Northern Kentucky, Iowa/Auburn, Houston/Auburn

Brad Nessler, Brendan Haywood (Dana Jacobson): Sacramento
Missouri/Utah State, Arizona/Princeton, Missouri/Princeton; Northwestern/Boise State, UCLA/UNC Asheville, Northwestern/UCLA

Voting ends Friday. Grading each team is important. For Brendan Haywood, this may be the closest he will ever get to an official transcript.

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With the tournament completed, I thought I would follow up on this.

Awful Announcing: The 2023 NCAA Tournament broadcaster rankings

By popular vote, each team was given a letter grade for their job during the first weekend of the tournament. (You can see the sites and games they worked in the quoted post above.) Just like in school, the letter grades are then converted to numbers on a 0 to 4 point scale and then averaged, so think of each number below as a grade point average.

I'm just going to list the rankings; click over to see a further breakdown (most commonly assigned letter grade by vote percentage, past performances, and commentary).

8. Lisa Byington, Avery Johnson, and Steve Smith – 1.93
7. Spero Dedes and Deb Antonelli – 2.25
6. Brad Nessler and Brendan Haywood – 2.75
5. Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas – 3.00
4. Brian Anderson and Jim Jackson – 3.10
3. Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, and Bill Raftery – 3.36
2. Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, and Stan Van Gundy – 3.64
1. Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel – 3.73

You can also check previous years. 2021 is noteworthy because it was the year that Jim Spanarkel missed the first weekend due to COVID protocols and Grant Hill filled in. The Eagle/Hill pairing was a revelation and the #1 ranked team that year:

"Broken out of the trio he was in with Nantz and Raftery, Hill was able to shine in the first two rounds before being moved back into his long-time booth this week. Eagle’s NCAA Tournament broadcast teams prior to his partnership with Spanarkel show that he doesn’t have that kind of chemistry with everyone, but in Hill, he may have found a partner that is a more than adequate stand-in."

This bodes well for the future. We know that Ian Eagle is taking over for the retired Jim Nantz. While nothing more has been publicly decided, I doubt CBS will make further changes to the A-Team: it will probably be Eagle/Raftery/Hill next year. As for the trickle down, CBS will probably do the bare minimum here. After their call on the FDU-Purdue upset, Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas became overnight successes, years in the making. I expect both to team up with Spanarkel to be the new fourth team, one that gets to keep announcing in the second weekend. Then CBS has to put together a new eighth team, but they can just promote from within, given all the studio, radio, and website people on their payroll.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brevity

With the tournament completed, I thought I would follow up on this.

Awful Announcing: The 2023 NCAA Tournament broadcaster rankings

By popular vote, each team was given a letter grade for their job during the first weekend of the tournament. (You can see the sites and games they worked in the quoted post above.) Just like in school, the letter grades are then converted to numbers on a 0 to 4 point scale and then averaged, so think of each number below as a grade point average.

I'm just going to list the rankings; click over to see a further breakdown (most commonly assigned letter grade by vote percentage, past performances, and commentary).

8. Lisa Byington, Avery Johnson, and Steve Smith – 1.93
7. Spero Dedes and Deb Antonelli – 2.25
6. Brad Nessler and Brendan Haywood – 2.75
5. Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas – 3.00
4. Brian Anderson and Jim Jackson – 3.10
3. Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, and Bill Raftery – 3.36
2. Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, and Stan Van Gundy – 3.64
1. Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel – 3.73

You can also check previous years. 2021 is noteworthy because it was the year that Jim Spanarkel missed the first weekend due to COVID protocols and Grant Hill filled in. The Eagle/Hill pairing was a revelation and the #1 ranked team that year:

"Broken out of the trio he was in with Nantz and Raftery, Hill was able to shine in the first two rounds before being moved back into his long-time booth this week. Eagle’s NCAA Tournament broadcast teams prior to his partnership with Spanarkel show that he doesn’t have that kind of chemistry with everyone, but in Hill, he may have found a partner that is a more than adequate stand-in."

This bodes well for the future. We know that Ian Eagle is taking over for the retired Jim Nantz. While nothing more has been publicly decided, I doubt CBS will make further changes to the A-Team: it will probably be Eagle/Raftery/Hill next year. As for the trickle down, CBS will probably do the bare minimum here. After their call on the FDU-Purdue upset, Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas became overnight successes, years in the making. I expect both to team up with Spanarkel to be the new fourth team, one that gets to keep announcing in the second weekend. Then CBS has to put together a new eighth team, but they can just promote from within, given all the studio, radio, and website people on their payroll.

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Van Gundy was fantastic IMHO.