2015-2016 Announcer Thread

[MChambers]

Post your thoughts on all announcer matters here.

To get things started, I see that Shane is no longer with ESPN. Sounds like he wanted more time at home.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-year-at-espn/

[weezie]

I stopped getting the wapo many years ago, partly because of it's pathetic excuse for a sports department. Adam Bonehead must have either forgotten or decided to overlook the fact that Shane and his family suffered a tremendous blow with the loss of his brother, a man who also had children of his own, who might actually need their uncle's emotional support.
Shane Battier needs to do whatever the hell he wants to do and should so without the whiny blatherings of this pinhead.

But, otherwise, it's great to see this thread reappear with the falling leaves...hoops season is upon us!

[luburch]

Post your thoughts on all announcer matters here.

To get things started, I see that Shane is no longer with ESPN. Sounds like he wanted more time at home.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-year-at-espn/

I really wanted to like Shane as an announcer, but he was hard to listen to most times.

[CDu]

I had the misfortune of getting to listen to TNT's coverage of the Bulls/Thunder game. They had Reggie Miller (who is awful) and Charles Barkley (who is hilarious in studio) doing combined color commentary on the game. It was abysmal.

Barkley is really good in studio - very funny, and actually pretty good at analysis. But in games, he just picks his talking points and uses every possession to talk about those few talking points. Last night, it was "Westbrook and Durant need to get their teammates involved more". This despite the fact that Westbrook is leading the NBA in assists right now, and he and Durant are by far the two best scorers on the team. He would go on and on arguing about this with Miller while the game is going on, rather than talking about the game.

And basically everything he said about either team was a simple criticism of "that's a bad shot", or "that was a bad decision." It was just awful to listen to, especially since the game itself was a well-played, close, exciting game. The broadcasters managed to make a really fun and exciting matchup less fun - basically they did the opposite of what you want your broadcast crew to do. They were making folks want to turn off the TV.

Thankfully, the game itself was good enough and close enough to get through it. And it helped that I was invested as a Bulls fan. But I can't see how a casual fan would want to listen to that. And that's the fanbase you want to cater to with a national broadcast.

[Edouble]

I really wanted to like Shane as an announcer, but he was hard to listen to most times.

He was really hard to listen to, but not any worse than a lot of announcers their first year (eg Jay Williams).

I think it was surprising, given what we know of Shane, that the transition to being an awesome broadcaster wasn't incredibly smooth.

I am excited to see what his next move will be. He's one of the great, great Blue Devils and I wish him the best of luck!

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

He was really hard to listen to, but not any worse than a lot of announcers their first year (eg Jay Williams).

I think it was surprising, given what we know of Shane, that the transition to being an awesome broadcaster wasn't incredibly smooth.

I am excited to see what his next move will be. He's one of the great, great Blue Devils and I wish him the best of luck!

I didn't catch a lot of him, but early on it felt like he was talking over the heads of the audience with his word choice and language, and later on it felt like someone got his ear and was telling him to "dumb things down a bit" which was even more awkward.

Regardless, Shane has a bright future. I'm confident that if he decided to pursue broadcasting he could make it work.

[SCMatt33]

From now on, I'm imagining that Jay spends all of his free time snapchatting with Mark Alarie (1:30 mark, though it's worth watching all of it). You can tell that the people who wrote the script went a little heavy on the promo type stats, but Kennedy does a good job.

[sagegrouse]

I didn't catch a lot of him, but early on it felt like he was talking over the heads of the audience with his word choice and language, and later on it felt like someone got his ear and was telling him to "dumb things down a bit" which was even more awkward.

Regardless, Shane has a bright future. I'm confident that if he decided to pursue broadcasting he could make it work.

Shane is a very serious guy and sports broadcasting is beneath him. After all, there can only be one Jay Bilas.

[Edouble]

I didn't catch a lot of him, but early on it felt like he was talking over the heads of the audience with his word choice and language, and later on it felt like someone got his ear and was telling him to "dumb things down a bit" which was even more awkward.

Regardless, Shane has a bright future. I'm confident that if he decided to pursue broadcasting he could make it work.

He was always so good at answering questions, but he was pretty terrible at asking them, as evidenced by his rough start on ESPN at the 2013 NBA Draft.

As much as Shane seems like a pretty humble guy, the fact of the matter is it just seems like he is better at talking about himself than about others. Some people are like that.

[captmojo]

I really wanted to like Shane as an announcer, but he was hard to listen to most times.

I think that it was NOT WHAT he was saying. Rather, HOW his voice was not properly projected through the microphone, during games.
I struggled with trying to understand what words were coming out of his mouth. He's a little hard to hear.

[gumbomoop]

Imported from UK-Duke thread --

Am I the only one who found Bilas to be more than painful to listen to? I reached the point of muting the TV. He just never shuts up.

No, you are not alone in this. I could use about 1/3 fewer game-flow observations from Bilas. [I harbor the nagging suspicion that this board might be able to handle comfortably the disappointment of 1/3 fewer posts from me, too, so...]

I guess Bilas has risen to the top of ESPN's college bball experts. As such they presumably encourage him to spout prolifically; and he doesn't seem to need much encouragement. IMO, he's dangerously deep into role-playing the role of playing Jay Bilas on the tele, and the interwebs, too. He's plenty insightful, but his overconfidence is only partially leavened by the pattern of charming self-criticism. [Again, I know about this stuff. See above.]

More Dan Bonner. His goofy smile looks genuine to me. How else explain it?

[AtlDuke72]

[QUOTE=gumbomoop;839479]Imported from UK-Duke thread --



No, you are not alone in this. I could use about 1/3 fewer game-flow observations from Bilas. [I harbor the nagging suspicion that this board might be able to handle comfortably the disappointment of 1/3 fewer posts from me, too, so...]


Is there any place that counts the number of words saaid by an announcer during a game? My guess is that Doris Burke says about twice what Bilas says - she NEVER shuts up.

[MChambers]

What happens if you use the TuneIn app to listen to Bob Harris while watching ESPN? I assume it isn't synced to the TV broadcast. Is it ahead or behind?

[bedeviled]

While watching the Duke game and playing in DBR Chat, I was using one eye and one earbud to pay attention to USA's CONCACAF soccer match on the beIN television network (which is a very legit source for soccer).
The in-studio breaks and halftime report were handled by two young females and a lot of empty space much like in this pic:
CUEEiyqW4AAm2yw.jpg
I found it interesting that an international soccer match was anchored solely by two women, only one of whom (Ali Krieger) is a former player. The other woman (Terri Leigh) is a correspondent/reporter/anchor who came to beIN from the FOX network.
Unfortunately, it didn't work so well, with Krieger responsible for filling too much time between Leigh's questions. Lots of space in that show

[walras]

"Is it ahead or behind?"
Harris is ahead by several seconds.

[weezie]

... [I harbor the nagging suspicion that this board might be able to handle comfortably the disappointment of 1/3 fewer posts from me, too, so...]

...More Dan Bonner. His goofy smile looks genuine to me. How else explain it?

I dunno, maybe a man crush?! But, as to your posts, never think that!

[BigWayne]

While watching the Duke game and playing in DBR Chat, I was using one eye and one earbud to pay attention to USA's CONCACAF soccer match on the beIN television network (which is a very legit source for soccer).
The in-studio breaks and halftime report were handled by two young females and a lot of empty space much like in this pic:
CUEEiyqW4AAm2yw.jpg
I found it interesting that an international soccer match was anchored solely by two women, only one of whom (Ali Krieger) is a former player. The other woman (Terri Leigh) is a correspondent/reporter/anchor who came to beIN from the FOX network.
Unfortunately, it didn't work so well, with Krieger responsible for filling too much time between Leigh's questions. Lots of space in that show

I would venture that beIN has assessed that the audience for CONCACAF soccer in the US shares similarities with the audience for Univision weather reports.

[BigWayne]

Is there any place that counts the number of words saaid by an announcer during a game? My guess is that Doris Burke says about twice what Bilas says - she NEVER shuts up.

What's the over/under on Duke games covered by Doris in some capacity? I would bet it will be 20+. She's like the bad penny of announcers.

[sagegrouse]

What's the over/under on Duke games covered by Doris in some capacity? I would bet it will be 20+. She's like the bad penny of announcers.

She gets points from me for being the first person on national TV to call Grayson Allen "Alan Grayson."

BTW do you notice what gasbags the football color men are for both college and pro football. I mean, we saw the play, just shut up and let us look at the field while the teams are forming up for the next play. The classic announcing style, of course, was Ray Scott, who reportedly called a Green Bay play back in the day in three words: "Starr... Dowler... touchdown."

[CameronBornAndBred]

No, you are not alone in this. I could use about 1/3 fewer game-flow observations from Bilas.

My name in our chat last night was ShutUpJay.