A Great Stephanie White and Joey Galloway Conversation...

[Huskies Rule]

During Q3, while the Huskies were stretching the lead to 69-39, asked what they appreciate about UConn:

Joey Galloway (ESPN football analyst and former buckeye): "Make no mistake about it. I'm a buckeye fan, and
I'm here tonight rooting for the buckeyes. But this UConn team is a machine. I've never seen a
basketball team play with the intensity they play with. You can't make a mistake. If you make a
mistake, not only do they take the ball, but they score it on the other end... Ohio State has made
too many mistakes, and UConn has made them pay."

White: "I think that's one of the things that separates Connecticut. You have to play a 40 minute ball game of
almost perfection to be able to give yourself a chance to win. You have to play both sides of the basket-
ball. You have to be efficient. You can't allow them to make those runs because once they smell blood,
they just get after you."

Galloway: "And it's fun to watch. I'm not rooting for UConn, but it is fun to sit here and watch their intensity
level. And the way they play- all five people on the court are playing with a hunger. They are trying
to put you away, every single possession. The scary part about UConn, with UConn there's no weak
links on this team. If defensively you wanted to find a weak link on this team, I just don't know how
you'd find it. When you look at UConn, I don't see a weak link."

Damn right!

 

[msf22b]

During Q3, while the Huskies were stretching the lead to 69-39, asked what they appreciate about UConn:

Joey Galloway (ESPN football analyst and former buckeye): "Make no mistake about it. I'm a buckeye fan, and
I'm here tonight rooting for the buckeyes. But this UConn team is a machine. I've never seen a
basketball team play with the intensity they play with. You can't make a mistake. If you make a
mistake, not only do they take the ball, but they score it on the other end... Ohio State has made
too many mistakes, and UConn has made them pay."

White: "I think that's one of the things that separates Connecticut. You have to play a 40 minute ball game of
almost perfection to be able to give yourself a chance to win. You have to play both sides of the basket-
ball. You have to be efficient. You can't allow them to make those runs because once they smell blood,
they just get after you."

Galloway: "And it's fun to watch. I'm not rooting for UConn, but it is fun to sit here and watch their intensity
level. And the way they play- all five people on the court are playing with a hunger. They are trying
to put you away, every single possession. The scary part about UConn, with UConn there's no weak
links on this team. If defensively you wanted to find a weak link on this team, I just don't know how
you'd find it. When you look at UConn, I don't see a weak link."

Damn right!

Thanks for transcribing that
It was hard to hear on my set with the crowd noise and all.
Good points by both

 

[seeya27]

I too loved that discussion with Galloway. It brought to mind Jay Bilas' comments while commentating the Duke game.

But speaking of the ESPN audio -- what is going with their audio mix on sporting events? Sometimes their announcers are barely audible as the crowd background noise dominates.

 

[UcMiami]

But speaking of the ESPN audio -- what is going with their audio mix on sporting events? Sometimes their announcers are barely audible as the crowd background noise dominates.

That is often an advantage!

 

[msf22b]

Happens a lot these days
I was listening to a radio broadcast of the NY Giants football last week
And couldn't hear a thing; well not much anyway.
They did much better 50's to 70's
You could always hear Marv Albert's Knicks voice amidst the bedlam or Marty Glickman at the old stadium

 

[BigBird]

But speaking of the ESPN audio -- what is going with their audio mix on sporting events? Sometimes their announcers are barely audible as the crowd background noise dominates.

ESPN is basically in retrenchment mode. They are hemorrhaging money and currently jettisoning staff. Clearly, judging from some of their work, some of their production staff are either spread thinly or just marginally competent.

Also, a great deal of sports field production is actually done by sub-contractors, who hire locals (who may either be either pretty good or totally clueless) and with mixed results. As far back as the mid-80's, ABC would hire my broadcast students to assist with football and basketball productions. It was a good experience for them, and they rubbed elbows with the big names for a day or two.

The problem of "bad audio" has a second layer, and it is this. Today, those colleges that still offer media degrees use courses in video and convergent media (think Ipad, Iphone, etc.) as an attraction for would-be majors. But they long ago dumped the requirement that before you learn video, you need to learn audio. The current generation is a visual one in term of media choices. Radio just isn't hip enough anymore. The job market has shifted, too.

Finally, please Consider contemporary film. How often do you rent a movie or buy a ticket, only to be annoyed that key bits (or more) of dialog are incomprehensible? It's not your ears that are defective. Someone's education was.

 

[2Husky]

ESPN is basically in retrenchment mode. They are hemorrhaging money and currently jettisoning staff.

They just posted better than expected profits and remain disneys most profitable division. They may be trying to cut costs and laying off staff, but its not because they are poor.

 

[BigBird]

They just posted better than expected profits and remain disneys most profitable division. They may be trying to cut costs and laying off staff, but its not because they are poor.

ESPN paid (and some think overpaid) for various sports broadcast rights. Disney seems to want to recover these "losses" by cutting costs. This is a retrenchment. As to being profitable in a given quarter (or even year), this can be an illusion. Front end cost cutting looks like gain initially, but when all those fired people aren't producing for you anymore, and audiences are indifferent after the hundredth replay of the "Fab Five" documentary, the picture changes. But I could be wrong. It's happened before.

 

[Boreifs]

During Q3, while the Huskies were stretching the lead to 69-39, asked what they appreciate about UConn:

Joey Galloway (ESPN football analyst and former buckeye): "Make no mistake about it. I'm a buckeye fan, and
I'm here tonight rooting for the buckeyes. But this UConn team is a machine. I've never seen a
basketball team play with the intensity they play with. You can't make a mistake. If you make a
mistake, not only do they take the ball, but they score it on the other end... Ohio State has made
too many mistakes, and UConn has made them pay."

White: "I think that's one of the things that separates Connecticut. You have to play a 40 minute ball game of
almost perfection to be able to give yourself a chance to win. You have to play both sides of the basket-
ball. You have to be efficient. You can't allow them to make those runs because once they smell blood,
they just get after you."

Galloway: "And it's fun to watch. I'm not rooting for UConn, but it is fun to sit here and watch their intensity
level. And the way they play- all five people on the court are playing with a hunger. They are trying
to put you away, every single possession. The scary part about UConn, with UConn there's no weak
links on this team. If defensively you wanted to find a weak link on this team, I just don't know how
you'd find it. When you look at UConn, I don't see a weak link."

Damn right!

The big problem is that this exchange took place while the game was going on, in some instances with the camera on the commentators instead of the players. As a result, there were no substitutes identified, no commentary about defenses being used, etc., etc. He was also there to hype the college football playoff show, and that conversation was much longer than this exchange. This should have been at halftime; I certainly can't be the only one who resented the intrusion. Just because he said something complimentary about UConn and the game was already decided doesn't make this interaction anything but totally inappropriate.

 

[Kibitzer]

I have always admired the work of Beth Mowins, basketball and football. Her signature is the evidence that she has done her homework as she recites interesting facts about players, coaches and teams while describing the PBP nicely. A real pro.

The game wasn't two minutes old and Stephanie White had already identified the key to the game -- UConn's suffocating defense and superb execution on offense vs. OSU's disjointed offense and permissive defense -- with keen analytic precision. We can't blame Mowins and White for the steady barrage of pop-ups and promos or the Galloway interview. When left alone to do the game, they were superb.

 

[Huskies Rule]

I have always admired the work of Beth Mowins, basketball and football. Her signature is the evidence that she has done her homework as she recites interesting facts about players, coaches and teams while describing the PBP nicely. A real pro.

The game wasn't two minutes old and Stephanie White had already identified the key to the game

Kib- I have always admired your work, you always do your homework, and you are universally respected as the BY grammarian. And yes, Stephanie White is outstanding. But c'mon, Kib- Mowins? She is a complete hack whose signature specialty is geography, incessantly identifying athletes' hometowns while virtually ignoring in-game action. She adds nothing to the broadcast. She may have played a little ball in her day, but she's clueless when it comes to pointing out the nuances of the game to the viewer. And football? Fuggedaboutit! When she covers football, she adopts an entirely different voice, she really does- with phony vocal inflection, a twangy modulation that is annoying, unlistenable, and simply fake. Like she was from Texas, not upstate New York. She is a total lightweight who may "do her homework," but it takes a helluva lot more to knowledgeably and intelligently cover the complexities of a football game with so many moving parts. When she's on a game, I switch channels or risk

The only likeable thing about her is that she attended Cicero-North/Syracuse HS... home of the Stewie.

I simply cannot fathom your 'admiration' of Mowins...unless, ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, I get it... you two must have a romantic thing going on. Good luck with that, Kib.

 

[BigBird]

...But c'mon, Kib- Mowins? She is a complete hack...

I think that's a bit much. "Hacks" seldom work as play-by-play broadcasters for major sports networks. The ESPN's of the world can, after all, pretty much have their pick of the talent pool. Yes, Mowins does get a little extra-topical at times. And that's a fair enough criticsm. The "different voice" schtick is something I've noticed too. Neither fault though makes her a hack, in my view. She is a successful female in a profession that badly needs gender diversity.

As I've said before, if you think broadcast PBP is easy, get a cheap digital audio recorder and go sit in a high school gym and let your broadcasting talents shine forth. And while you attempt to tell the story you see on the fly, have a friend sit next to you and whisper in your ear to simulate "the guys in the truck," who are your producer and director. Don't forget to keep scratch notes and stats. Good luck.

I did radio PBP for most of 40 years, and I tried very hard to master that craft. I am absolutely certain that I never did. The best I can say is that I got almost no hate mail. But my wife points out that it might have been because I had no audience. Just can't win, right?

My first mentor in broadcasting taught me that, "When you go on the air, a third of your audience will love you no matter what you say, a third will hate you no matter what you say, and the remaining third won't give a damn about you one way or another." Pretty accurate, I think.

 

[Geno-ista]

Happens a lot these days
I was listening to a radio broadcast of the NY Giants football last week
And couldn't hear a thing; well not much anyway.
They did much better 50's to 70's
You could always hear Marv Albert's Knicks voice amidst the bedlam or Marty Glickman at the old stadium

In addition - our ears wee 30-40 yr's younger!!!!

 

[Geno-ista]

I have always admired the work of Beth Mowins, basketball and football. Her signature is the evidence that she has done her homework as she recites interesting facts about players, coaches and teams while describing the PBP nicely. A real pro.

The game wasn't two minutes old and Stephanie White had already identified the key to the game -- UConn's suffocating defense and superb execution on offense vs. OSU's disjointed offense and permissive defense -- with keen analytic precision. We can't blame Mowins and White for the steady barrage of pop-ups and promos or the Galloway interview. When left alone to do the game, they were superb.

Right on- Mowens is great and White is always in awe of the play of UConn!