I just finished watching Baylor's upset of Tennessee in the women's NCAA basketball tournament and I have a thought. Do all good women's basketball coaches have a southern drawl when they speak? Kim Mulkey of Baylor. Pat Summit of Tennessee just to name a couple. Sherry Coale at Oklahoma is another one. Which leads me to this question? Why is Geno Auriema at UConn the most hated women's basketball coach in the nation? It can't be just because UConn is good year after year after year. I don't think he has alot of respect from some of his fellow coaches. Maybe that comes from beating them by 30 and 40 points every year. The men don't seem to have that one single coach you love to hate probably since Bob Knight retired. And now I think alot of people like him on TV. Face it, he is no phoney. What you see is what you get. My personal least favorite coach is Mike K (I could spell his last name but don't want to take the time to look it up) at Duke. Alot of people like him. I think he has alot of phoney aspects to him which is why I won't be spending $7 to run out to Rapid City and listen to him speak on April 29th. You've heard one motivational talk, you have heard them all. I don't have any real particular like or dislike for any other coach. I like Saul Philips at NDSU in a couple of times I have talked to him. Scott Nagy at SDSU, can be a hard guy to get to know. Aaron Johnston is kinda the same, but always makes himself available. Jim Boehiem at Syracuse, Tom Izzo at Michigan St., Jim Calhoun at UConn. I usually root against Syracuse the UConn because they are in the BIG EAST. I think one of the more overrated conference in the country based on what has happened in the NCAA tournament. Michigan St.? Depends on who they play. I pulled for Northern Iowa last night. I'll probably hope MSU wins tomorrow. Today I will pull for Butler and West Virginia. Butler cause they are the little guy left. West Virginia, cause they are playing Kentucky. John Calipari does not run a clean program and is a win at all cost and then get out kinda guy. Ask anyone involved with Memphis.
And play by play and announcing teams. I Don't mind Jim Nance. Clark Kellogg, I mind. Vern Lindquist, very good. Bill Raferty, Shut Up once in awhile and quit trying to be so cute. Dick Vitale is too rah rah of a guy. Jay Bilas knows more than we do, just ask him. He is a Coach K guy. Carolyn Peck is like that on the women's tournament. Just cause your a coach doesn't give you the right to be critical of what a certain coach is doing as far as x's and o's in the game. Kevin Harlan is good. Excitable when need be. Descriptive. My favorite was when he was the radio play by play guy for the Timberwolves. Tom Gugliotta is driving for a layup and just gets hammered. Harlan's description....." Gugliotta takes it to the basket without regard to life, liberty and the pursuit of his personal happiness." Might have had something to do with the part of the body where he got clobbered on the drive. And Gus Johnson needs to take a sedative before he begins a broadcast. Way to hyper. But that's me. I have favorite football and baseball and hockey announcers. I have tried to pattern my style after the late Lyle Bremser the legendary Cornhusker play by play guy for some 40 years or so. HiS decription of long exciting touchdown runs of "Man Woman and Child he's gone Touchdown" still bring goosebumps to me when I hear old tapes of Husker games. I have to say Harry Carray was a favorite for baseball. Sure he was partly if not mostly annebriated when he did games, but no body cared. He was a fan, you knew who he was working for and wanted to win. He probably would not have been a good national announcer like a say, Ray Scott or Curt Gowdy. No, I don't like the Cubs TV announcing team. Bob Brenley needs to think out what he is going to say before he says it sometimes. And Bert Blyleven with the Twins, I think he takes the same road to the ball park that Harry did. See you at Huberts before the game Bert. I might be wrong on that though. Vin Scully of the Dodgers is still velvet smooth and one of my all time favorites. I end this with the question, who are your favorite and not so favorite announcers, coaches, analist and the so forth? If you are not a normal responder to any of our post, here would be a nice way to get started and make some online friends or foes, depending on your mood. Have a good Saturday and again go Butler and WVU.
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I like Dick Bremer with the Twins. He's never developed catch phrases that become cliche and annoying, a la John Gordon (Touch 'em All!) John Gordon has to say "Touch 'em All" or the home run never happened. Bert is hit-or-miss, sometimes good, sometimes not. He's fine when he's not whining about being snubbed for the Hall of Fame year after year.
ReplyDeleteEven though each team has its own announcers, I don't like when they refer to the team as "We/us/our" as if they're the ones on the field that have anything to do with the outcome of the game. That's probably the biggest reason I hated the Cubs and Braves growing up - the announcers (both Carays). I'll never forget Harry Caray one day while the Cubs were playing the Expos. He spent a good five minutes trying to pronounce "Agarallag", which of course is Andres Gallaraga's last name spelled backwards.
I wish I had more exposure to Curt Gowdy - a little before my time. No one has ever better than Vin Scully in my opinion.
Brett
I have pretty much hated Jim Nantz ever since he started doing college basketball on CBS, and I'm not sure why. I think he was always pro-Big East; more specifically, pro-Georgetown, and that always annoyed the crap out of me. I've always liked him as a golf announcer, but never cared for him in basketball until a funny thing happened back in early February. Remember the commercial he did during the Super Bowl this year for that handheld TV product, whatever it is/was? He referred to a guy shopping with his wife (and missing the big game) as a guy without a spine. Whatever it was, I thought, maybe Nantz does have a personality after all, so now I'll at least give him the benefit of a doubt.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever had a sports broadcasting idol, though, the one guy I would love to sit and have a very long conversation with, would have to be Bob Costas. I just don't think there is anything he doesn't know about sports, but he never lets you think that is his actual view of himself. And I have always loved just hearing Vin Scully's voice, because that just simply means it's baseball season.