We complain a lot about the low level announcers around here, so I'll just throw this out there-
This backup ESPN crew was actually pretty decent, I thought. Quoted some of the advanced Ken Pom stats, talked about pros and cons BMac had done in some earlier games this season, dropped a few season long or single game stats that clearly showed at least some element of pre game research, mentioned a couple plays in past games, and generally speaking didn't seem completely clueless. They could have paid a bit more attention to Pardon's burgeoning block #s in the 2H, but they did mention our team block stats multiple times during the game so that was good. They commented on some of Collins's interactions with the team, our energy level, and how we needed to use ball fakes more - all helpful color. In the pregame they mentioned that Rutgers was a hustle team that does well on the O boards - which I initially kind of scoffed at, but it did prove to be a problem for us in the first half so that turned out to be good analysis. There were still a couple points where things happened on the floor and they got distracted with their side conversations and didn't explain them well (notably that random technical mid-to-late 2H on us, what the heck happened there?), but generally speaking with the backup crew you expect they are still getting the finer points ironed out. I was at the Minny game, but a friend told me the same crew also called that one and similarly was pretty decent.
So while the AV production quality was pretty amateurish, just wanted to be balanced and try to give credit where due- I thought this announcing crew was better than my baseline expectation for this type of late night, 2nd tier game. Thanks ESPNU (and whoever the announcers were, I don't know their names)!! Given how sloppy some of these lower level crews are, I almost wondered if there was a place to send in to ESPN thanks for these guys putting the time and effort in to make a decent broadcast...
