ESPN announcers’ grade: D-

[shizam]

I agree. A bit of homers, but you have to expect that when they are working for Pac 12 Network.

I agree. A bit of homers, but you have to expect that when they are working for Pac 12 Network.

I watched the USC UCLA game last night. Not a great game but I was so impressed with the contrast of announcing of that game and the ESPN SC/UConn game. The Pac 12 crew knew so much more about the players and their backgrounds and they found ways to integrate it into the game for viewers to keep things interesting. They have the advantage of having less teams to cover. One thing too is the announcing teams aren't assigned the same teams like I notice the ACC is. Thus, no homers or announcers that know one team much more than another. They know all the players and the Conference overall so much better. You don't hear fundamental errors on names like I hear in ACC games all the time.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Let me clarify. The announcers on Pac 12 Network aren't homers for a particular team, but they are definitely waiving the banner for the conference. I agree with you, I do enjoy listening to the games. I think Elise Woodward and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude are my favorites, although all of them are good as far as I've noticed. Ann Schatz is another one that is entertaining, she's very enthusiastic.

 

[Gus Mahler]

Biggest win of this year and we get almost 50 posts about the announcers. However bad you folks perceive them to be, I enjoyed the hell out of the game and hardly noticed the announcers

I enjoyed the game, too. Immensely. But I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the announcers had called the game, and had given credit to players who had made a good play while they were jabbering.

 

[Gus Mahler]

Nan you are 100% correct as usual. May I add the sideline reporting was also not up to our normal SNY standards.
I feel bad for Lobo it's really not her fault.

We should always have Culmo and Friel.

Would you be biased?

At least Holly sounded healthy. Hope that's the case.

 

[Gus Mahler]

The announcers stayed focused on the game until the score got out of hand.

? They started the game with a lengthy editorial on the spitting situation. Two fine plays were made (at least) while they were doing that.

 

[shizam]

Let me clarify. The announcers on Pac 12 Network aren't homers for a particular team, but they are definitely waiving the banner for the conference. I agree with you, I do enjoy listening to the games. I think Elise Woodward and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude are my favorites, although all of them are good as far as I've noticed. Ann Schatz is another one that is entertaining, she's very enthusiastic.

I don't know any of the names mentioned above but I'm sure I've watched games they've worked. Another good one is the great Kate Scott. Also, I concur, they all carry the Pac 12 banner understandably so . A goal of every broadcast is to pump up Pac 12 basketball.

 

[Gus Mahler]

Oh my! Can you imagine the pairing of Lobo and Walton? Yikes!

Or Doris and Walton trying to out-comport each other?

 

[Gus Mahler]

Let me clarify. The announcers on Pac 12 Network aren't homers for a particular team, but they are definitely waiving the banner for the conference. I agree with you, I do enjoy listening to the games. I think Elise Woodward and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude are my favorites, although all of them are good as far as I've noticed. Ann Schatz is another one that is entertaining, she's very enthusiastic.

I don't know the last one, and I think I've seen the second one, but Elise, yes, she is terrific doing the Storm games. I would love it if she were ESPN's main color woman.

 

[HuskyNan]

I like LaChina Robinson. I haven't seen her lately - I hope she isn't stuck doing small regional games.

From her Twitter feed:

 

[BrianF]

Where is Dan O'Brien and Doris Burke when you need them? At least they attempted to keep you engaged in the game itself. ESPN has really dropped the ball talent wise. I agree with boreifs, keep Rebecca and Kara in the studio where they are a dynamic team, two color analyst can't even help the male announcer who is absolutely terrible. SNY all the way.

I shudder to think this may be the team for Columbus. I would pay money into a GoFundMe to get Doris Burke there doing game color.

 

[j66kicker]

I like LaChina Robinson. I haven't seen her lately - I hope she isn't stuck doing small regional games.

From her Twitter feed:

View attachment 28297

She’s doing the Stanford-Oregon game on ESPN2 today at 3:00

 

[Phil]

I think the lopsidedness of the score lent itself to the crew straying from the game but it that still was no excuse for the poor all-around job.

Count me as a big fan of both Lobo and Lawson, but I agree this was not a great performance. I re-watch the game and pay particular attention to the announcing.

I get that when the game margin gets well over 20 points, there may be a tendency to talk about other things, but in the opening minutes, when the game was very close, they went on an extended discussion of the South Carolina Missouri incident. I understand why they wanted to talk about it but save that for later in the game. There were some great plays in that opening sequence and they were blathering on about a different game.

 

[Phil]

I did not notice it while the game was live, maybe because I was enjoying watching the team execute so well. However, after watching it a second time, I heard what so many are complaining about. To me it was bad and it started before the game got out of hand. I'm glad I did not notice it live.

Same here.

I was a but surprised by this thread, and only when I re-watched it, did I get it. Like you, I probably tuned out the announcers and enjoyed the plays the first time.

 

[ME Husky Fan]

Count me as a big fan of both Lobo and Lawson, but I agree this was not a great performance. I re-watch the game and pay particular attention to the announcing.

I get that when the game margin gets well over 20 points, there may be a tendency to talk about other things, but in the opening minutes, when the game was very close, they went on an extended discussion of the South Carolina Missouri incident. I understand why they wanted to talk about it but save that for later in the game. There were some great plays in that opening sequence and they were blathering on about a different game.

I too was puzzled as to why they went off on the South Carolina/Missouri incident. I think Lawson's support of Staley was off the mark. The AD from Mizzou said it happened and he felt the way Staley waves her arms to get the crowd going may have helped to fuel the flames, not that she directly had say into what reportedly happened.

 

[donalddoowop]

I like LaChina Robinson. I haven't seen her lately - I hope she isn't stuck doing small regional games.

From her Twitter feed:

View attachment 28297

I heard Sue Bird doing color at the NYC boys high school game on Friday or Saturday between Arch Bishop Malloy and Christ The King. I thought she did a good job.

 

[shizam]

I heard Sue Bird doing color at the NYC boys high school game on Friday or Saturday between Arch Bishop Malloy and Christ The King. I thought she did a good job.

I find Sue Bird bland doing color. I know that won’t go over well

 

[Mlb0814]

I agree. The game was essentially over midway into the second period and how much analysis was required to note that South Carolina’s defensive strategy was to prevent Uconn from making shots within 10 feet of the basket. So, Lou committed her third foul and that fact was not emblazoned on the screen. Again, the game was decided and, other than hardcore BYers, who cares. Kara and Rebecca tried to maintain some level of interest in the proceedings and cannot be blamed that the game was no contest.

But they should get blamed for talking about dogs wearing clothes... Really?