2016-2017 Announcer Thread

[MChambers]

Post here your comments on radio and TV announcers and commentators You know, comments like "Why does Jay Bilas keep ranting about needed rule changes?" Or "why does Bilas like UNC so much?" Or, "is Cory Alexander Len Elmore's son?" (As a side note, I've generally like Alexander's announcing, so am surprised to read all the recent complaints.)

So comment here on Bilas, Alexander, Elmore, Vitale, Gminski, Spanarkel, Jason/Jay Williams, Seth Greenberg, Seth Davis, and the rest.

[budwom]

our in house MVP continues to be the mute button, I'm afraid it's going to wear out.

[subzero02]

Cory Alexander isn't just Elmore's son... he's his attention starved and pretentious middle child.

[Pghdukie]

Worst announcer I've heard in awhile is Brock Hueart. A football announcer that should go back and do Jr Hi games. Absolutely the worse. Alexander has him beat 10 fold.

[killerleft]

How many times will we get to hear Alexander tell us that HE won two out of the three games he played at Cameron? Then again, he seems to wear out his bullet points every game, such as the trouble Coach K will have blending in the injured freshmen as they return.

Maybe Dickie V is training him up.

[budwom]

The only announcer news I really want to hear is who is going to succeed the irreplaceable Mr. Bob Harris?

[gam7]

Cory Alexander isn't just Elmore's son... he's his attention starved and pretentious middle child.

Agree that Cory Alexander was not great overall, but his on-mike demeanor is a lot more positive than Elmore's. He joked around about his commenting about winning 2 of 3 in cameron - saying something like, "I definitely was going to get that fact in there yonight, and now I've done it twice!"

One thing I really liked (and did not realize until Alexander started talking about it during the game) was his unique perspective on Giles and, to a lesser extent, Jayson. Cory coached Giles (and I think Tatum) on Team USA, and also was an assistant coach at Oak Hill last year when Harry tore his second ACL. In fact, he was the coach who went back to the locker room with Giles to test out his knee after he came out of the game because of the torn ligament. He definitely had some interesting first hand input.

The only announcer news I really want to hear is who is going to succeed the irreplaceable Mr. Bob Harris?

Ryan Craig? He is young, and he did postgame interviews with players on goduke/DBP for a few years and is now doing some play by play for espn. In fact, he did the Marist-Duke game with Chris Spatola doing color. He is solid. He does not, however, say "D'yuke."

[elvis14]

Ryan Craig? He is young, and he did postgame interviews with players on goduke/DBP for a few years and is now doing some play by play for espn. In fact, he did the Marist-Duke game with Chris Spatola doing color. He is solid. He does not, however, say "D'yuke."

I really enjoyed Chris Spatola's insight when he did the Marist game. Wish we could get more of him commenting games.

[SCMatt33]

I agree he sentiment about Alexander's demeanor being much more positive. It has that self-deprecating tone that Jay Bilas has used well. It was along the lines of "heck, even I was able to make two out of three here" in reference to Cameron's supposed soft rims. Where is went off the rails for me is when they went on for a good 3 or 4 minutes about football. I blame this more on Anish Shroff who needs to have awareness that his color guy doesn't really know much about it and steer the conversation away.

[OldPhiKap]

I thought Cory did well. Some of the things he is getting ragged about came, I think, from trying to fill time once the game got lopsided.

I thought his insight about playing in CIS was interesting, and he was not being a jerk about his record there. He brought it up in response to the other announcer making some comment about losing there I think.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

It felt like Alexander had a conflict of interest. I know Harry is a great player and I can't wait to see him but Alexander's gushing seemed like he was trying to help Harry's draft position.

[freshmanjs]

Brando was truly awful yesterday.

- Clueless on Kennard foul situation
- Multiple times whining about their location in the arena
- Exaggerated how "horrible" it was for Wake when Collins got 2 fouls, when Kennard was already on the bench with 2
- Over the top refusing to have any empathy for Grayson
- Complete miss of what happened with Childress / Grayson

[kmspeaks]

Brando was truly awful yesterday.

- Clueless on Kennard foul situation
- Multiple times whining about their location in the arena
- Exaggerated how "horrible" it was for Wake when Collins got 2 fouls, when Kennard was already on the bench with 2
- Over the top refusing to have any empathy for Grayson
- Complete miss of what happened with Childress / Grayson

- Confused Giles, Jefferson, and Tatum with each other more than once, he may have called Frank somebody else once as well but I can't remember

[lotusland]

- Confused Giles, Jefferson, and Tatum with each other more than once, he may have called Frank somebody else once as well but I can't remember

Yes he thought Jackson was Tatum. Also confused Giles for Amile once but Gman corrected him so he said he was confused because Giles had come in for Jefferson but, in fact, both Giles and Jefferson were both still in the game.

[Olympic Fan]

I usually like Brando, but I agree that he was awful Saturday, Never seen a first-rate play-by-play man confuse so many players. His whining about the location of the broadcast booth was childish.

Also last night, I was watching the late SportsCenter when they did the Duke game. Not surprised that the focus was on Allen and not the game. When they get to the scrum in front of the Duke bench, they spotlight Allen, which clearly shows that he does nothing ... then the female announcer (didn't get her name) showed the Childress takedown -- describes it right, that Childress wrapped him up and threw him down, then added "that's what you have to do with Allen, wrap him up like a baby then lay him down."

[CDu]

Yes he thought Jackson was Tatum. Also confused Giles for Amile once but Gman corrected him so he said he was confused because Giles had come in for Jefferson but, in fact, both Giles and Jefferson were both still in the game.

I would say the bolded part happens just about every other game. The announcers are at times terrible at recognizing when subs come in. They will usually (not always) get the first subs of the half right. After that, they stink at it. I'm sure it is a difficult job to call a game. But these are some of the mistakes I notice that are made a lot.

[budwom]

Meanwhile, speaking of announcers and confusion, does anyone have any notion as to who will follow the esteemed Mr. Bob in the Duke broadcast booth?
I imagine it'll be someone we've never heard of...

[kmspeaks]

I would say the bolded part happens just about every other game. The announcers are at times terrible at recognizing when subs come in. They will usually (not always) get the first subs of the half right. After that, they stink at it. I'm sure it is a difficult job to call a game. But these are some of the mistakes I notice that are made a lot.

The mistakes with subs is understandable, especially if they weren't seated court-side. Brando was saying the wrong guy's name when they had the ball though. Tatum had the ball on a fast break, took the ball to the basket and was fouled but he said it was Giles.

[elvis14]

The problem with Brando last night wasn't simple mistakes. It was his tone. When WF scored or made a good play he was loud and cheering. When Duke would score he was just ho hum: "and Allen hits a three on this end" vs. "Collins DOWN THE LANE WITH CONVICTION!!!! Duke HAS NO ANSWER FOR HIM TONIGHT. That young man is so talented!!!!" etc. etc. If there's one thing we knew by the end of that game, it's how great each and every WF player is and could be.

He claimed that Jayson threw an elbow (on a "foul" where the WF player hit his face on the ball). He was anti-Grayson Allen all night. He said nothing when GA was tackled (Childress should have been ejected, BTW, that wasn't a simple reaction trip he ran across the floor grabbed another player and tackled/threw him into the chairs). There was no talk of how outrageous Childress' actions were. I never knew TB was a Duke hater...he was last night.

My best friend generally thinks I'm too sensitive about the anti-Duke announcers. He hears it but doesn't think there's much too it like I do. He texted me last night that he wanted beat Brando with a baseball bat (he's normally the more reasonable between us). That put the hack job that he did last night in perspective for me.

[AFL]

The problem with Brando last night wasn't simple mistakes. It was his tone. When WF scored or made a good play he was loud and cheering. When Duke would score he was just ho hum: "and Allen hits a three on this end" vs. "Collins DOWN THE LANE WITH CONVICTION!!!! Duke HAS NO ANSWER FOR HIM TONIGHT. That young man is so talented!!!!" etc. etc. If there's one thing we knew by the end of that game, it's how great each and every WF player is and could be.

He claimed that Jayson threw an elbow (on a "foul" where the WF player hit his face on the ball). He was anti-Grayson Allen all night. He said nothing when GA was tackled (Childress should have been ejected, BTW, that wasn't a simple reaction trip he ran across the floor grabbed another player and tackled/threw him into the chairs). There was no talk of how outrageous Childress' actions were. I never knew TB was a Duke hater...he was last night.

My best friend generally thinks I'm too sensitive about the anti-Duke announcers. He hears it but doesn't think there's much too it like I do. He texted me last night that he wanted beat Brando with a baseball bat (he's normally the more reasonable between us). That put the hack job that he did last night in perspective for me.

I totally agree. I have never been a fan of Tim Brando, but after yesterday, I like him even less. He was totally anti-Duke in his comments yesterday. He kept going on and on about Duke not stopping Wake from driving to the basket, when he knew that Duke was saddled with foul trouble and couldn't afford to foul anymore.