They almost suck as bad as Fiami

Joe Barry played at Ohio in the 1960's...then left and became a coach. Believe he coached at M*&*@ for 20+ years. He son - J. Barry - played on Trent's teams in the 90's.

Hurts a little to see that an alumnus has gone to the dark side!!

I believe Steve Baker's former partner was Joe Barry.

I do not know either but if the announcing was good in any manner then it could not have been the same thing.  The video of the game was very good but Reggie Keel and Nick Keller were never on the floor as far as I could tell.  Of course neither was DJ Cooper when one of the announcer claimed that he made "yet another turnover".  DJ did not appear to have a great game and the announcer called him out a lot...he might have looked at his line though before talking too much.

Just curious about issues with Russ and Rob.  I kind of like their broadcasts.

I remarked in the chatt last night how good the guys onthe broadcast were. I thought they did a nice jobon the color and play by play though they were decidely overly familiar with Miami and a bit homerish for a tv braoadcast. I expect that on hometown radio but less so on nationally broadcast tv.

Good stuff. Nice to have  aclear feed here in Switz but I admit after a full day in Milan starting at 7 am when the Cats went on the run early in the second half I was toast. Said ciao and went to sleep confident the dagger was well placed.....and turned. Dunno why all these months I thought the John Cooper we were talking about was the white version.

The guys on the Time Warner broadcast were simply the worst I've ever listened to at a college level or above.  They were definite Fiami homers, and they couldn't even pronounce simple names: Keely and Kellogg.  They didn't know who was on the floor -- blaming DJ for a turnover committed by Taylor when DJ was on the bench.  If I could send the folks at TWC an email and get it to the right person, I would let them know.


Now, onto more important things -- Talk about this "Superior to Russ & Rob" stuff and what leads to your opinion there.  I happen to think they do a fine job.  They know what they're talking about, they're entertaining (yes sometimes goofy, but so what), and they clearly do their homework -- i.e. can properly pronounce player/coach names, and know a little about the opponent.  In listening to other school's broadcasts (normally O$U and UC for me), they're comparable as far as competency and entertainment.  Paul Keels of course is excellent, but his color man is not.  Same applies at UC. Dan Hoard is pretty good, but the color guy there is horrible.

Agree Van. And the scouting and knowing the opponent part is something that shows whether or not the broadcast team did their homework.  Nothing fires me up more on a broadcast than a guy getting paid to call a game that can't pronounce the player's name correctly. 

Watched the TWC feed via ESPN3. Announcing was incompetent, but the broadcast was pretty technically sound for a local production. Was great to see the Cats beat up on Miami at any rate.

I guess we were lucky with the web experience.  Combined the best of both, good the good video quality from TWC and from what I am hearing the better commentary from the Miami guys vs. the cable guys.

This topic has been covered a few times annually on this board about Russ and Rob with the love 'em or hate 'em dichotomy.  I happen to be in the hate them group.  I'm not into the "shtick" mentioned above and find it kinda childish and embarrassing. But that's just me.

One thing I haven't ever heard mention is I feel like Russ's call is a little bit fast and busy for my liking. I know its a hard distinction to make but I notice a difference in pace between him and say an ESPN television broadcast.  I think the main reason for this is because on ESPN it's a telecast not radio.  Some details can be left out because the audience can see for themselves.  This is of course hard for Russ because the same audio is used for the video feed and on local radio. Either way I find the extra few words to be distracting and requires a lot of focus to actually listen to which I don't prefer.

Just my two cents.

Running through the list of questions above.......

Yes, if you watched online, you got the excellent Miami radio call over top of the Time Warner TV broadcast's video. Proud anytime we can be compared to Steve Baker's version of the show. He is the gold standard in this league in terms of professionalism & institutional memory. By my recollection, has been doing the Miami games the bulk of the last 20+ years, with only a short break for Brian Estridge in the middle, all the while mixing in some work at WOXY-The Future of Rock & Roll. Great pipes.

If I have to listen to a show that isn't Ohio's, the Miami version is the best in our league. Consider a lot of the younger guys at some other spots as friends, and some of them are still on an upward career trajectory. The younger guys at Buffalo & EMU are especially good dudes..........but the Miami show crew can still get Bob Donewald jokes.

If you watched on cable, or ESPN3, you got the Time Warner TV game with Miami's 2nd string announce team, albeit branded as a non-partisan show. Appears that latter part of the show was universally panned above and during the game on Twitter. Sorry to hear it.

Found it odd that TW used a satellite truck to get the signal up; Miami used to frequently use a fibre connection for their sports, in recent years' broadcasts on ONN. Didn't realize it had been turned dark.

Unsure what the future plan is for this Time Warner Sports product; originally believed they would win the bidding for STO/Indians. Now, unsure what they plan to do or if they can make any $$ taking up the sports broadcasts that ONN dropped. Did see some straggler employees I knew were unemployed from ONN/WBNS on the TW truck.

As far as the online show, Miami's internet stream usually doesn't 'look' as good as it did last night. They clearly were taking the feed from the TW TV truck. On a typical league game night, their setup looks a lot more like ours from the Convo. 2-3 student run cameras, minimal production values. Typical of the rest of the MAC.

While most schools in the league are frankly not attendance driven for hoops revenue, I get the feeling that the gentleman's agreement is out there to ensure the games make it to the web, are aired, but are only adequate in quality to document games, not to hamper any local attendance. It's a tight line schools have to tightrope, between giving fans a product they want and keeping lazy folks at home to watch.

Translated? The product on the web can't be too high quality/professional, or else ticket/concession/parking revenue get hurt. Much like some newspapers having content behind a paywall, it's not clear where the line needs to be for a MAC program yet that increases interest without killing revenues.

As far as not having a SW Ohio affiliate, am pretty sure we have had one during FB season in recent seasons that drops off for hoops season. Out in Brown County I think, so has been a rimshot into Cincinnati and Dayton. Honestly, with the fact that MAC schools have to spend hard dollars often to get on radio air in larger Ohio markets, we'd likely be better off educating our fans on the internet apps that allow most folks with a smartphone and Bluetooth to listen in their homes/cars via very modest cell phone bandwidth. Add in the coverage of adding the various WOUB affiliates now (Chilicothe, Zanesville, Belmont & Ironton), and we've got most of the rural downstate covered very well along with our commercial affiliates.

Based on the discussion above, folks seem to 'like' play-by-play voices at their various fanships, but not the analysts. The stark reality is this........when former athletes are found that are broadcast ready, they move up FAST. The skillset of being cogent, concise, yet complete, often in sub ten-second bursts, is rare in any performance field. It shows something when even 'bigger' programs like OSU or UC can't find/keep former players or coaches that sound as competent as their Play-By-Play wingmen.

Think that's most of it. Just glad enough folks are listening to have a strong opinion positive or negative on our shows. Available for your comments/suggestions/hate mail off line and happy to answer questions as best I can on any tech concerns above at tvsrob@gmail.com

Proud to do this job for our university, thrilled to have a good reason to come to Athens 30+ times a year.

--RC

Thanks for the info. I am a big fan of the broadcasts and enjoy both Russ and Rob's contributions. I like their overall presentation and the back and forth jokes between the two. I found myself muting the Miami announcers in the 2nd half (who were good too btw)  to listen to our announcers on a slight delay because I enjoy our announcers. Keep up the great work!

Good stuff, Rob.