Need New Basketball Radio Play by Play

#1
M

madbamahater

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#1
Let me start by saying I love that Mike Keith is in Knoxville and calling football games. This is his specialty. He is a top notch professional at calling football.

However, basketball is not his strong suit. I have listened to a couple of bball games on the radio and it is very bad. I honestly just think Mike is not a basketball commentator. This is not a knock on him, I just think basketball is much harder to do radio play by play. You REALLY have to understand the game inside and out and the positions on the court and the areas of the court as to what they are referred to. It is so bad I'm not sure how it gets better.

Mike has just always done football and was obviously with the Titans for over 25 years. I feel it is unfair to Mike to have him do basketball. Redo is contract, make him exclusively football and hire someone else for basketball please.
 
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#4
#4
Yes, from an enthusiasm standpoint Mike is better in general. Basketball is just not his thing and that's okay and honestly he doesn't need to be doing basketball. I understand Kesling did both because they made him and John Ward did both because he wanted to. At this point in Mike's career he deserves to only be doing football.
 
#5
#5
madbamahater said:
Let me start by saying I love that Mike Keith is in Knoxville and calling football games. This is his specialty. He is a top notch professional at calling football.

However, basketball is not his strong suit. I have listened to a couple of bball games on the radio and it is very bad. I honestly just think Mike is not a basketball commentator. This is not a knock on him, I just think basketball is much harder to do radio play by play. You REALLY have to understand the game inside and out and the positions on the court and the areas of the court as to what they are referred to. It is so bad I'm not sure how it gets better.

Mike has just always done football and was obviously with the Titans for over 25 years. I feel it is unfair to Mike to have him do basketball. Redo is contract, make him exclusively football and hire someone else for basketball please.
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Petition UT to bring back you know who---would that make you happy
 
#6
#6
madbamahater said:
Let me start by saying I love that Mike Keith is in Knoxville and calling football games. This is his specialty. He is a top notch professional at calling football.

However, basketball is not his strong suit. I have listened to a couple of bball games on the radio and it is very bad. I honestly just think Mike is not a basketball commentator. This is not a knock on him, I just think basketball is much harder to do radio play by play. You REALLY have to understand the game inside and out and the positions on the court and the areas of the court as to what they are referred to. It is so bad I'm not sure how it gets better.

Mike has just always done football and was obviously with the Titans for over 25 years. I feel it is unfair to Mike to have him do basketball. Redo is contract, make him exclusively football and hire someone else for basketball please.
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Lord forgive me for saying this, but…Chris Lofton ain’t exactly helping matters.

Steve Hamer and/or Dane Bradshaw would be my guys, if one of them could get a little more seasoning as a play by play guy, rather than just a color guy.
 
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#7
#7
Mike has a real problem painting the picture in basketball, but he’s excellent in football. In basketball, for some reason he calls it like guys that do a TV broadcast.

I listened to Bradshaw the other night, I swear he sounds like Chris Collinsworth.
 
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#9
#9
Stoked said:
Give Dane a blank check and call it a day.
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Dane is a great analyst. To broadcast basketball as the play by play announcer, it is a special gift that many aren't good at. Few are great. Mike is near the top in football, basketball just ain't his sport and why would it be? He's never done it
 
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#11
#11
madbamahater said:
Let me start by saying I love that Mike Keith is in Knoxville and calling football games. This is his specialty. He is a top notch professional at calling football.

However, basketball is not his strong suit. I have listened to a couple of bball games on the radio and it is very bad. I honestly just think Mike is not a basketball commentator. This is not a knock on him, I just think basketball is much harder to do radio play by play. You REALLY have to understand the game inside and out and the positions on the court and the areas of the court as to what they are referred to. It is so bad I'm not sure how it gets better.

Mike has just always done football and was obviously with the Titans for over 25 years. I feel it is unfair to Mike to have him do basketball. Redo is contract, make him exclusively football and hire someone else for basketball please.
Click to expand...
I agree about Mike and I miss bert.
 
#12
#12
I always thought Bob was great at basketball, him and Bert were a great pairing. Bob certainly lost some enthusiasm in these recent years.

I haven't listened to much of the radio broadcasts this year. Maybe Chris and Mike will improve. Steve Hamer is terrible though. He is mostly incoherent and just rambles. While I'm sure his knowledge of basketball is fine, it absolutely does not come across in any broadcast I've ever heard from him.

Dane is fantastic, but I don't see why he'd leave his SEC network gig for just a radio gig.
 
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#13
#13
rdk4121 said:
I always thought Bob was great at basketball, him and Bert were a great pairing. Bob certainly lost some enthusiasm in these recent years.

I haven't listened to much of the radio broadcasts this year. Maybe Chris and Mike will improve. Steve Hamer is terrible though. He is mostly incoherent and just rambles. While I'm sure his knowledge of basketball is fine, it absolutely does not come across in any broadcast I've ever heard from him.

Dane is fantastic, but I don't see why he'd leave his SEC network gig for just a radio gig.
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Steve is ok, he just talks too much. He just needs to dial it back some. Short responses .
 
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#14
#14
CobbWebb71 said:
Lord forgive me for saying this, but…Chris Lofton ain’t exactly helping matters.

Steve Hamer and/or Dane Bradshaw would be my guys, if one of them could get a little more seasoning as a play by play guy, rather than just a color guy.
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No. Just move one of them into the color guy position, and I am fine.

I have listened to Mike Keith for one basketball game, and I thought he was fine. Chris Lofton was the problem. I am sure he is the best guy ever, it's just not his thing.
 
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#15
#15
I just don't think it gets better for Mike. Can't roll outta bed and become a basketball guy. As much as Kesling drive me nuts, because I never knew the score or the time, he at least fundamentally understood the sport. Bob came up in basketball and that's what he spent his overwhelming majority of his career doing. Now with football Bob was atrocious.

As great as John Ward was with football he was even better with basketball. I know we have to stop comparing everybody to John. We were just blessed with one of the best to literally ever do it.

I like Hamer as color guy, he really is a student of the game and articulates it well like Dane does. I can't believe that Chris is as bad as he is. It's like they didn't sit down and do mock games and go back and listen and critique themselves to figure out if this was going to work or not. It's like they just willy-nilly threw it together.

Mike is just very slow paced and hesitant sounding. With basketball it's like you have to continuously explain what's happening in real time and it just seems like Mike is reactionary and gets lost with the action. He will say stuff like Timmy is at the top of the key......oh an alley-oop....but can't convey what transpired. I'm telling you it is just an art that most people don't have. You either have it or you don't.

Mike is exceptional with football and I would put him up there with any football play-by-play guy in the country.

A call like.... "little Ernest swings it over to the left wing to Timmy, Timmy looks, fakes, head fakes, looks down low to Earl, Earl doubled, no pass, Timmy looks, 8 seconds on the clock, Timmy shoots from the wing......SCOOOORRESSSS"

With Mike the same call is like...."Ernest dribbles up court.......pass to Timmy............Timmy made the SHOT..... Good "
 
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#18
#18
utvols1975 said:
Keith and Lofton are 5 games into their basketball calling tenure. Maybe let's give them a little chance to get their sea legs with this? Kesling had decades to develop and was still terrible at it.
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I think we should give them a season before calling for everyone to be replaced. Many of us aren’t old enough to remember Kesling or Ward’s first games called (or if we are we don’t remember it well). Mike seems to care a lot about what he does so I could see him studying up in the offseason and improving, and we know Lofton puts in hard work.

I will say I liked Kesling for basketball though, and Bert was fun
 
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#20
#20
madbamahater said:
Let me start by saying I love that Mike Keith is in Knoxville and calling football games. This is his specialty. He is a top notch professional at calling football.

However, basketball is not his strong suit. I have listened to a couple of bball games on the radio and it is very bad. I honestly just think Mike is not a basketball commentator. This is not a knock on him, I just think basketball is much harder to do radio play by play. You REALLY have to understand the game inside and out and the positions on the court and the areas of the court as to what they are referred to. It is so bad I'm not sure how it gets better.

Mike has just always done football and was obviously with the Titans for over 25 years. I feel it is unfair to Mike to have him do basketball. Redo is contract, make him exclusively football and hire someone else for basketball please.
Click to expand...
Good grief. Let's fire the waterboy for not waterboying right, let's fire the cheerleaders for not cheering right, let's fire the band for taking too long at half time, let's fire smokey for not barking at the right time.
 
#21
#21
Mike's background is football and baseball. Basketball is a very different "call." Bob was actually much better with basketball than football. So was Ward (although great at both).

I actually had a similar thought while listening to the TSU game...that Mike wasn't painting the picture like Ward (and even Bob) did.

But he's 5 games in. I'm not ready to say he can't do it. Mike is a talented announcer. He will grow into it.
 
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#22
#22
I don’t think it’s fair to make sweeping judgement about Mike’s ability to call basketball games just yet. Like @NighthawkVol implied above me, it’s exceedingly rare, if not impossible to find someone who excels on radio at calling all 3 sports.

Mike is going to get better. They also aren’t going to fire him and replace him with someone else lol. So we might as well give him a chance to improve and just understand he won’t be as good as he is at football. I mean, it’s not like Bob Kesling was the best basketball announcer either.
 
#24
#24
Give MK time to develop his BB technique. He is a student. He will learn and get better. And, it’s still football season. Were you great the first time you did something new? It takes time. He is still better than the previous guy. John Ward was a legend. Give Mike a couple of seasons before you convict him.
 
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