Megan Culmo

[JonathanXIV]

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.

 

[Nyskier]

Meghan is better than many of the ESPN analysts (besides Lobo).I can’t stand to listen to most of them.

 

[donalddoowop]

Thank goodness.

The only thing that really bothers me about SNY, besides the fact I can't get it or record it (so I have to watch it live or wait til the next day to see a game ) is the camera work. Pisses me off all the time. At least a few times a game we are watching someone in the stands or closeup on the coach while a play is being made. Then we get a replay of the play we missed while we miss another play going on. Their Technical Director or Camera Producer (or whatever they call it) is horrible. Just horrible. (And I hope you read this, you mindless idiot. ) ( I yell at the TV more for this than at the refs for calling traveling or 3 seconds.)

I agree with this minus the "mindless idiot" part. That also happens on ESPN stations.

 

[cookie447]

Meghan is clear, concise and quick with her analyses. Unlike so many other color commentators, she simply does not ramble on and attempt to be the star of the show. Moreover, she played at UCONN and coached at UCONN. She’s extremely knowledgeable and does a great job sharing her knowledge. I think she is great!

 

[Boreifs]

Meghan does a great job of describing what is happening. And her calls are mostly right on and honest. I think you should just cut the sound and analyse the game yourself. If you want to hear poor game analyst, watch ACC games, with the homer calls.

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

 

[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?