Ed Note: This is Part II of a college basketball media roundtable along with our friends at Bloguin’s college sports hub The Student Section. You can read Part I here that focused on how to improve the sport on television and just how much we hate mandatory TV timeouts. Part II below focuses on the broadcasters themselves, including our current and former favorite announcing tandems.
Question 1: What’s the best move ESPN made in aligning its various announce teams and personalities this season?
Matt Yoder
On Twitter @myoder84
The time is right to pass the torch from Dick Vitale to Jay Bilas as the network’s number one analyst. Bilas has never been better, both from a pure X’s and O’s standpoint and from his continued public stand against the NCAA. With Vitale in the twilight of his career and Bilas entering his prime, now is the time to make that move. It allows Vitale to still play an integral role at ESPN while letting Bilas step into the Saturday primetime booth. The rare succession plan in college athletics that looks like working!
Matt Zemek:
On Twitter @SectionMZ
Dan Shulman being liberated from Dick Vitale and being paired with Jay Bilas in a two-man crew is an inspired choice. In the world of showcase-event play-by-play today, Al Michaels is the best voice in America. Bob Costas gives baseball a heavyweight presence. Brent Musburger still has “it” for football, though he’s sadly no longer given the chance to call top games. Beyond those elite voices, Shulman is right there — he doesn’t have the iconic stature of those other three men, but he can call anything and is thoroughly unflappable in any broadcast setting. He controls a broadcast when it needs to be controlled without getting in the way. Bilas is, quite simply, one of the three best analysts in college basketball, Bill Raftery and Fran Fraschilla being the other two. A Shulman-Bilas pairing is worthy of the Final Four… it would be better than what CBS has.
I’d say that’s pretty good.
Scott King:
On Twitter @BearcatsBlog
Sean McDonough is my favorite play by play announcer. Having him with Battier could be a bit of a mess. Bilas calling the biggest and best games is great though. He’s really turned into a major voice for college basketball. Brad Nessler has to be thanking his lucky stars that Jimmy Dykes is off to coach and no longer calling SEC games. I wish Mike Patrick and Elmore were still calling the crap ACC game that I wouldn’t watch because my favorite team is in the AAC and will have them, with Bob Knight, calling games. That won’t be fun. Also, Fran Fraschilla is awesome.
Steve Fetch:
On Twitter @13fetch
I’m going to echo the Shulman and Bilas pairing. Watching them during the Kansas-Kentucky game was a treat. Bilas is probably my favorite color guy who is freely accessible. He knows how and when to keep it light but also knows both Xs and Os and stats very well. You’ll never hear me say a word against Dick Vitale, so it’s not anything against him, but I want to see more and more Bilas.
Question 2: College basketball broadcast team power rankings — past edition. Give your top three broadcast teams (no longer together) from the past, with one sentence about each.
Steve Fetch:
1) Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas – The best by far and it’s not even close. They had great banter, both Raftery and Bilas know their stuff cold, and McDonough did a great job playing their foil.
2) Marv Albert and Steve Kerr – Were great in the NCAA tournament. Even though he wasn’t an NCAA guy, it was easy to tell that Kerr knew the game and also brought some unique insights to broadcasts that we wouldn’t otherwise get.
3) Ron Franklin and Jon Sundvold – Growing up watching Big Monday games, these two were a big part of my childhood. I honestly couldn’t tell you much about them specifically, so this is mostly a nostalgia pick.
Scott King:
1) Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery, Jay Bilas – the Big Monday team from the expanded Big East era was my favorite. Humor, insight, filling the dead time, making blowouts fun, they did it all. Too bad they are no longer all together.
2) Marv Albert and Steve Kerr – They had great chemistry because of their time on TNT. What they lacked in college knowledge, looking at you Marv, they made up for by knowing calling the games the best they could. That goes a long way. It’s easier to recover when you just call the games instead of being in the studio and breaking it down.
3- Late 90s Dick Vitale – I didn’t know any better. Young me liked Dickie V yelling and rambling and carrying on during games. He always made games back then feel bigger. I appreciated that. Dickie V shooting free throws at halftime was never not entertaining.
Matt Zemek:
I’m old school. I’m also focused on intelligence more than joy in a broadcast, though joy certainly has its place. Hence, my answers:
1 – Dick Enberg, Al McGuire, and Billy Packer – Quite simply, this is the announce team that made college basketball come alive as a television product and carried it into the modern, big-dome, ESPN era of college basketball.
2) Brent Musburger and Billy Packer – From 1985 through 1990, this was the Final Four’s television pair, and since Musburger crushes Jim Nantz by any measurement, this was CBS’s best Final Four pair as well.
3) Sean McDonough and Bill Raftery – This pair was (is) better than Verne Lundquist and Raftery if only because Lundquist doesn’t have his fastball these days.
Matt Yoder
1) Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery, and Jay Bilas – Everything great about college basketball. One of the best 3 man booths you’ll ever hear.
2) Marv Albert and Steve Kerr – Loved their work during the NCAA Tournament the past few years as they brought some gravitas over from the NBA side.
3) Ron Franklin and Jon Sundvold – I feel a little conflicted about this given Franklin’s disgraced firing from ESPN… but growing up as a Missouri Tigers fan, these two were the soundtrack for Big 12 basketball so often. I’ve never understood why Sundvold didn’t get a bigger role at a network.
Question 3: College basketball broadcast team power rankings — present edition. Give your top three active broadcast teams, with one sentence about each.
Scott King:
1) Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas – Shulman is solid and Bilas is the best.
2) Brent Musburger and Fran Fraschilla – They deliver on Big 12 Monday nights.
3) Dave O’Brien and Doris Burke – I think Doris is really good, O’Brien is fine enough as a play by play guy.
Steve Fetch:
1) Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas – Shulman is probably my favorite current play by play guy and as I’ve already stated, Bilas is a phenomenal color guy.
2) Dave Pasch and Bill Walton – I can’t get enough of Bill Walton. Some people apparently don’t like his schtick, but I could listen to him talk about basketball, or anything else, on an endless loop.
3) Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery – Since his soccer fiasco I have cooled off Gus a bit, but Raftery is my favorite color guy of all time so it’s an easy addition to the list.
Matt Yoder
1) Dave Pasch and Bill Walton – The most fun listen in sports, you never know what you’re going to get on a nightly basis.
2) Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery – Simply put, the college basketball dream team.
3) Mike Tirico and Dan Dakich – Maybe the most underrated pairing out there. Tirico is excellent no matter what he does and the give and take with the outspoken Dakich makes for a terrific, insightful listen.
Matt Zemek:
1) Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas – These guys are both extremely good at what they do, period.
2) Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery – These are two old men who make themselves — and all of us — remain young whenever they broadcast a game.
3) Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel – In looking for a matched pair of a play-by-play voice and an analyst, it’s often the case that one half of the equation is really good while the other one isn’t; both halves are solid here.
Question 4: Few issues have perplexed and frustrated college basketball fans more than CBS’s handling of Final Four announce teams over the past several years. Would CBS/Turner/TruTV really be betting against themselves on a collective level if they jettisoned the “local broadcaster” angle for the Final Four and allowed Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery to appear on one of the channels, so that Raftery could get his first Final Four TV assignment?
Matt Yoder
Fans would love that and it would be well-deserved, but I don’t see CBS going with Verne and Raft for any kind of alternate broadcast that would merely duplicate what they saw with Jim Nantz and (presumably) Greg Anthony. If CBS is going to provide a second feed, they’re going to distinguish it beyond “here’s a different set of announcers you might like better.” I wasn’t that fond of the Teamcast, so it’ll be interesting to see if CBS/Turner tries something new once again. Unfortunately, it likely won’t involve Verne and Raft. I hope I’m wrong, though.
If there is a hope for onions aficionados, it’s that CBS decides to stick with a three-man announcing team for the Final Four and has Raftery join Nantz and Anthony, which would be a great broadcast crew.
Matt Zemek:
If anyone in a position of influence at CBS is reading this, can I say something very simple?
You don’t have to lock Raftery (and Uncle Verne) into a multi-year plan. Both men have, individually, put in nearly a third of a century working for your network (at least a third of a century’s worth of Marches). You don’t have to commit to them long-term. However, they both deserve their moment at college basketball’s signature event. Lundquist is given the chance to call SEC football, and he used to be part of the NFL’s number two announce team back in the day. He’s called Olympic figure skating and has had his day in the sun on several levels. Bill Raftery, though, has called Final Fours for your company (CBS) on the radio side. That’s nice and all, but it’s not television.
Give Raftery his moment, CBS. As Sam Rutigliano says in the memorable NFL Films clip, “One time. One time. ONE TIME, BABY! ONE TIME!”
I want to eat #ONIONS when watching a Final Four. I want to be able to do this before I leave these earthly bounds, and I know tens of millions of college basketball fans feel the same way.
Scott King:
I would love for Raftery to be in the Final Four. Even with Nantz, it would be great. Maybe Jim would stop announcing like a tool. Plus, Greg Anthony is one of the worst to me and I could do without him. CBS has a huge problem with horrible commentators. ESPN found a way to let Vitale call a Final Four, CBS needs to let Raftery. #FreeRaf #FreeOnions
Steve Fetch:
I feel like I am alone on the not disliking Jim Nantz bandwagon. I think he’d be the perfect play by play guy to pair with Raftery. The great thing about Raftery, and why he definitely needs to call a Final Four, is while he knows the nuts and bolts of the game as well as anyone, he can also explain it to the casual fan who is more likely to be watching the Final Four.
