Beck Bennett was great in those commercials. He was so deadpan that I was sure he would eventually get the Weekend Update desk once "Saturday Night Live" hired him. Instead he sort of got stuck doing end-of-the-episode sketches with Kyle Mooney. His talent was somewhat wasted there, I thought.
That said, I remember his AT&T ads differently. For months the campaign was about Beck Bennett interacting with children, but they went next level during March Madness by keeping the classroom set, but replacing the children with NBA legends. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's YouTube account (!) has a video of outtakes.
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.
NCAA: Tip times and announce teams set for NCAA tournament Sweet 16 coverage
EAST (New York City): Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson, Allie LaForceFollowing are the tip times and commentator assignments for Thursday and Friday’s Regional Semifinal games. Game matchups for Saturday’s Regional Finals – beginning at 6 PM, ET on TBS – will be announced on Thursday after the conclusion of the night’s games. Sunday’s Regional Finals – beginning at 2 PM, ET on CBS – will be announced on Friday after the conclusion of the night’s games.
(3) Kansas State vs. (7) Michigan State, (4) Tennessee vs. (9) Florida Atlantic
Starts Thursday at 6:30pm ET on TBS
WEST (Las Vegas): Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, Stan Van Gundy, Lauren Shehadi
(4) Connecticut vs. (8) Arkansas, (2) UCLA vs. (3) Gonzaga
Starts Thursday at 7:15pm ET on CBS
SOUTH (Louisville): Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel, Evan Washburn
(1) Alabama vs. (5) San Diego State, (6) Creighton vs. (15) Princeton
Starts Friday at 6:30pm ET on TBS
MIDWEST (Kansas City): Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill, Tracy Wolfson
(1) Houston vs. (5) Miami, (2) Texas vs. (3) Xavier
Starts Friday at 7:15pm on CBS
The Final Four announcing team should be obvious. Jim Nantz is a Houston guy (he graduated from UH in 1981 and played varsity golf for the Cougars) and he's retiring.This year’s NCAA Men’s Final Four National Semifinals on Saturday, April 1, along with the National Championship on Monday, April 3, will air on CBS.
Great footage of Kevin Harlan/Stan Van and Bonner calling the end of Virginia/Furman
https://twitter.com/KevinOConnorNBA/...551954434?s=20
https://youtu.be/MMPKSZjGB4E
Around the 5 minute mark Bilas calls out the refs in the Tennessee Duke game for letting it be a rugby match. He is such a homer.
I would have been very interested to see how he would have called that game live if it was on ESPN. I wouldn't him want to take a stance that Duke was getting screwed over. Luckily, I don't think I ever have to worry about him saying anything like that. I think a lot of DBR people that have taken that stance sound like Carolina fans after a loss to Duke. Greenberg seemed to have the best take, saying it was a horribly officiated game, but within that horrible officiating, Tennessee won fair and square. Saying that if things were called tighter, Duke would have won is a bunch of coulda, woulda, shoulda. Yeah, if we shot 100% from 3, we would have won too. Who cares?
Anyway, I wonder how far he would have gone in-game to critique the officiating. ESPN showed a replace of Bacot shoving his forearm into Lively's throat during a game this year, and Bilas was completely silent, so I can't picture Bilas saying during the game that the officials are doing anything wrong. I see him taking more of an analytical approach like he did after the game and saying "when a flagrant foul wasn't called here, that set the tone for how the game would be called." I respect that approach entirely. It's not really his job to critique the officials. It is his job to explain to the viewers how the officiating decisions impact the game. The part I have a problem with is that he seems very willing to critique the officiating when it goes in Duke's favor.
Sage Grouse
---------------------------------------
'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
This thread doesn't cover much radio announcing, so here you go.
Sporting News: How FAU radio narrowly avoided disaster after losing power prior to final call of Elite Eight win vs. Kansas State
Awful Announcing: FAU announcer shares how he almost lost Final Four call due to power outageFlorida Atlantic secured a historic victory over Kansas State on Saturday, with the Owls earning the program's first trip to the Final Four in the process. And the team's radio announcer nearly missed it.
Ken LaVicka, who was calling the game on the FAU Radio Network, relayed afterward how he narrowly averted disaster in the waning moments to salvage the final call.
Get this man an assistant! He's broadcasting the Final Four next week!Following the game, LaVicka spoke with Andy Katz and described what happened.
“All of the ethernet along this front row here at Madison Square Garden went out with 18.6 seconds left. And we actually got saved by a Kansas State layup and a timeout called by Jerome Tang. That gave me time to scramble. And you saw me, Andy. It was getting a little rough. A life’s dream is crumbling before me. I grabbed from that second table an ethernet cord, plug it into my broadcast equipment. One of my teammates from ESPN West Palm in West Palm Beach sitting next to me, held the comrex unit while I called the final 15 seconds of the game and the day was saved.”
I really, really like Stan Van Gundy as an announcer. Sees and communicates the game from a coach’s perspective and does so without shtick or hyperbole but still he’s loose and entertaining. Has a pretty good rapport with Bonner and Harlan. Overall, I like this group more than the Nantz-Hill-Raf group. Feels more organic and less mechanical especially Nantz and Grant. Those guys are fine, but I think SVG is a star.
SVG doesn't say much but makes pithy observations, something every other color commentator should aspire to do
Spanarkel is the best.