Megan Culmo

[diggerfoot]

Looks like you indeed got the dislikes you anticipated. Let me come to the rescue a little bit.

When I first listened to Culmo, along with Gorman as part of the CPTV team, I thought they were one of the best pairs I ever heard calling a game. Over time I felt less like that about Culmo, but no doubt a large part of that just has to do with me wanting fresh perspectives.

The one complaint I have that is not my problem seems to be the opposite of the OP’s concern. Culmo knows what the program’s talking points are at any particular point and time. In her analysis she will bring up those talking points even at times when they do not really apply.

To keep things anonymous, let’s say Player A needs to work on Attribute B. During the game Play C occurs in which Attribute B does not apply, or Player A may indeed be exhibiting it, but Culmo will bring up that talking point anyways.

Otherwise I’ll echo what others say, I find her to be both very knowledgable and personable, the type of person I would like to have as a neighbor.

 

[Wonder 12]

For me, Meg has been a little tougher to listen to this season. Too often she seems to be stating the obvious. And she has replaced some analysis with just one sentence comments. And a little repetitive. I think she's been better.

I feel like she has changed as well. I used to really enjoy her calling the game.

 

[ME Husky Fan]

I like Bestwick fine and announcer preference is a personal matter. To me, comparing someone to Dave O'Brien is as bad as it gets. Just to date myself more, O'Brien is what you get if Ted Baxter did play-by-play.

At least then we’d get a few laughs. I think by all accounts O’Brien has a great announcer’s voice but I find him terribly annoying, regardless of what sport he’s announcing. I too, as was mentioned by another poster, miss Eric Fried but I think he got a higher paying gig.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Marked myself "SAFE" from the Meghan Culmo whining topic!!

 

[Cornell Lt]

I turn the volume off on the SNY broadcast and listen to the Uconn radio network. I'm not a fan Meg's voice or her "insights"

 

[JavaMan]

I think she rehashes info more now because she is trying to cover for Bestwick. This doesn't help her much, but it may be helping him. He's seems to me to be the type of guy that would be a great neighbor. But, as an action sport broadcaster, he's not in the top percentile. Kudos to Meg for supporting her partner. I echo a lot of the positive attributes that have already been attributed to her. But one that hasn't that I will add is that I think she comports herself extremely well.

 

[HuskyNan]

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Do you guys listen to any other announcer 25-30 times a season? Maybe they’d be just as annoying and repetitive if you listened to them all the time

 

[pk1234]

She seemed pretty cranky yesterday, at least in the first half, but her criticism of the team was probably warranted.

I enjoy her calls, personally. Not the best color person in the world (Lobo is better, as are most of ESPN's team), but she's fine and knowledgeable

Bestwick is pretty terrible. I miss when women's basketball had the best play by play guy in the world in Adam Amin. He was soo good for the National games. He and Lobo were a dream team.

 

[MD#12Fan]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Same IMO for the Boneyard. We all have different perspectives and expectations. I think we have to be aware of that.
If something comes across as too critical for your blood, ignore it.... too homerish, ignore it....
IMO the job of an analyst is to teach us something we didn't already know. Style and voice in that regard is irrelevant.
Example- MNF- Rams vs Cards, LB Floyd rushing Kyler Murray left his lane outside and tried to get to Murray inside, leaving a side of the field for Murray to run. 18 yards, like taking candy from a baby. MNF crew, which is not the first string, was all over telling us about Floyd's mistake. About 10 plays later, same thing happened on the other side, with Von Miller, and Miller stayed in his lane and brought Murray down (which isn't easy) for a loss. Now I understand the responsibility of the outside rusher besides getting to the QB.
Poster: try to get a seat in the parent section, so you can sit up there and gush about your children for two hours. Some of us want insightful analysis.

 

[browns]

I feel like she has changed as well. I used to really enjoy her calling the game.

I agree..have enjoyed listening to Meghan for years but I think she's slipped a little this year

 

[browns]

At least then we’d get a few laughs. I think by all accounts O’Brien has a great announcer’s voice but I find him terribly annoying, regardless of what sport he’s announcing. I too, as was mentioned by another poster, miss Eric Fried but I think he got a higher paying gig.

Fried calls SEC games now and usually partners up with Tamika Catchings..I miss him too

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I like her although I agree she sometimes complains that the other team is hustling UConn on rebounds that bounce away from the UConn players who had no chance at the rebound. However, that is minor. Many announcers who call games on a school's network or works for a team are going to sound like they favor the home team. I see many games from all over the country from all P5 conferences except the Pac 12, and Meghan does not come close to being as hard to listen to than many of them are. Just listen to that Mary lady from the Pac 12.

She points that out, because it's the truth. And she's not saying anything that Coach Geno is also saying. Culmo is usually very supportive of the team, but even she reachers her breaking point. During the first half of the Creighton game, she focused on ONO and blurted out, "what is she doing?1?" She followed that up by doing replay in which ONO wasn't double-teaming the ball, but was falling way off the player she was supposed to be covering, who drained a three.

Calm knows what she's talking about, she's a wonderfully engaging commentator who enjoys the game, and tells those of us who aren't college coaches what's going on in detail. One of the best!!

 

[Vancat]

I think she rehashes info more now because she is trying to cover for Bestwick. This doesn't help her much, but it may be helping him. He's seems to me to be the type of guy that would be a great neighbor. But, as an action sport broadcaster, he's not in the top percentile. Kudos to Meg for supporting her partner. I echo a lot of the positive attributes that have already been attributed to her. But one that hasn't that I will add is that I think she comports herself extremely well.

Yes!!! And as a sidebar...Monica McNutt drives me McNutts

 

[FairView]

She's better than Bill Walton.

 

[FairView]

Yes!!! And as a sidebar...Monica McNutt drives me McNutts

It's funny you say that. I remember the first time I heard Monica I liked her. I said to myself, wow, this is different and somewhat entertaining. After the second time I had had enough.

 

[BobbyJ]

I think she rehashes info more now because she is trying to cover for Bestwick. This doesn't help her much, but it may be helping him. He's seems to me to be the type of guy that would be a great neighbor. But, as an action sport broadcaster, he's not in the top percentile. Kudos to Meg for supporting her partner. I echo a lot of the positive attributes that have already been attributed to her. But one that hasn't that I will add is that I think she comports herself extremely well.

I agree on Culmo. She's got her hands full educating Bestwick. He doesn't know a lot of BB, his background is auto racing.

 

[MD#12Fan]

She's better than Bill Walton.

Disagree. On a scale of analyst excellence Bill is an 11 on the scale of 1-10. Every game is like a Grateful Dead concert (and a small hit of LSD- just kidding). Basketball is fun. It's worthy of excitement, bravado, amazement.... I remember every live event I've ever been to and I go to everything. There's always something great that happens.
BTW Dave Pasch deserves an Emmy every year for negotiating the World of Walton and the game going on.

 

[Shenandoah]

I found it refreshing that Megan stated that UConn was doing a lot of standing around on offense. She also was right on the button with the refs "letting them play". I also watched the men's game the night before, and at times it seemed like a UFC match. Same with the women last night. It seems like the Big East teams have adopted the strategy to hack as much as the refs will let them get away with, seeing as very few teams have the talent that UConn has.

 

[Mdoggie]

I didn’t like what she was wearing. Lol good grief people!!

 

[KingKong139]

So this poster thinks that the long time UConn reporter and alum is biased AGAINST UConn?

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Couldn’t agree more. The announcers on the ND-NC State game were especially painful.

The old dude was hilarious to me. His superlatives were...uh, unique. And at times it sounded as if he was saying the first thing that came into his mind. lol

 

[MSGRET]

Culmo is nowhere near or will never come near ESPN commentators level of analysis ....

I would rather listen to Meg than many ESPN commentators. At least she's talking about what is happening during the game and not the BS that the ESPN commentators is spewing. They hardly talk about what is happening during the game.

 

[uconnfan68]

A lot of UConn fans love the team but don’t really understand the game. Meg points out details that will help explain the game to them. Maybe Caroline got away with a walk; when she’s called for it next time, fans will understand why.

You may be unaware Meg was an assistant for Geno years ago. She thinks like a coach and so makes coach-like statements. She also talks to Geno and CD and knows what they would say about the game. My opinion is that the thoughts going through Geno’s head during a game are probably similar to what Meg is saying.

And she used to live in his basement. ;^)

 

[msf22b]

To some extent, the opinions of Meg's elocution are colored by
the extent of each individual's sense of "fandom," a subject very much
on my mind these days with comments on this subject on this and other boards.

My sense of fandom has always been of the more limited kind:
screaming in pleasure at Maya's (for example) great individual exploits
and at the TV last night, during the term's splendid comeback...

But (on the other hand), I am remote from those who live, breath and die UConn uber alles.
I just never got it.

Especially these days, with the W, seemingly reshuffling the deck with free agents going hither and yon
And, professional football teams in Florida and Cleveland accused of throwing games...

How can the old sense of complete loyalty to a team continue to exist?

 

[hookshot]

I know this is a sensitive topic on the BY and may get me a ton of dislikes and much scorn.
For me, she is getting harder and harder to listen to. I just mute her mostly, but the best Womens program in history should have a better TV analyst.
I know how much she means to the UCONN WBB family and seems to be a very nice person, this is just a critique of her style.
First, can she call the game that is actually happening or on every play pretend she is the actual referee? CD makes a jumper at the foul line, Culmo states " I think she got away with a walk there".
Or a Creighton player stumbles in the lane and Culmo states, "Westbrook got away with a foul there".
Let the actual refs call the game, they are the only ones that count.
Also, you are not the coach, we make a three pointer, " That was bad offense as we were standing around" 3 points seem pretty good to me.
Lastly, I am not sure what she is seeing , an opposition three point attempt clangs 15 ft off the rim , directly to the other team..." Uconn should have hustled and got that rebound" . There wasn't a Uconn player anywhere near the ball.
I think I will maybe try what another person made a comment on and listen to Bob Joyce on the radio.

She was pretty much right on all those observations. She perhaps has the style of a knowledgeable fan, maybe could be more detached

 

[AgStatesman]

She's better than Bill Walton.

With Walton, the music never stopped. It's like he's standing atop Franklin's tower just staring at the scarlet begonias. He spends so much time talking about his Uncle John's band. It's almost like on his trip to the arena he got the walkin blues. Maybe all he needs is a little good lovin.

 

[CL82]

I agree, a top-shelf crew, though I will say I really miss Eric Frede's outstanding play-by-play!

Agree, sometimes Bestwick’s unfamiliarity with the game shows up. But, at least to me, it seems like he has put in a lot of time to improve his fluency with basketball concepts.

I enjoy Meghan. The only thing that I would get rid of is her using the Telestrator. That’s actually painful.

 

[CL82]

Yes!!! And as a sidebar...Monica McNutt drives me McNutts

She’s an acquired taste, I guess. You know…. sometimes you feel like McNutt, sometimes you don’t.

 

[Papa33]

From my perspective, Meghan is among the very best play-by-play announcers for basketball. She knows the game inside and out, appreciates fine playing, but notes when our players make mistakes. She keeps her focus on the game-- not drifting into wordy biographies that, like other commentators' meandering ignores what is happening on the court! She is not an overheated homer, so her judgments about the good and not-so-good of our players' efforts ring true, with knowledgable insights and perspectives. I have a big-screen tv that is great for watching games, but even so, the players are about 6" tall, so I'm glad she's there to tell me/us what is so much more "real" from a courtside seat. Perfect? no, but way better than most.

 

[Notyetready]

A lot of UConn fans love the team but don’t really understand the game. Meg points out details that will help explain the game to them. Maybe Caroline got away with a walk; when she’s called for it next time, fans will understand why.

You may be unaware Meg was an assistant for Geno years ago. She thinks like a coach and so makes coach-like statements. She also talks to Geno and CD and knows what they would say about the game. My opinion is that the thoughts going through Geno’s head during a game are probably similar to what Meg is saying.

Definitely. Also she has a terrific Husky laugh which is quite delightful to hear.