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Charles Barkley Tested on College Basketball Names to Tip Off March Madness

Poking fun at Barkley’s lack of familiarity with college basketball is better than trying to make him awkwardly attempt analysis on something he clearly isn’t knowledgeable on at this point.

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9 months ago

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The first round of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament tipped off Thursday afternoon. In addition to thrilling college basketball action, that means the return of TNT’s Inside the NBA crew to host pregame, halftime, and postgame March Madness studio coverage.

Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith have spent the past five months following the NBA, and it’s typically a crash course — especially for the analysts — in studying up to become familiar with the 64 teams competing for the national championship from here on out. (And Clark Kellogg is there to keep analysis and commentary in their proper lane.)

But the “Tournament Central” production is at least steering into the fact that Barkley doesn’t do much homework on college basketball, the teams, or players. That was apparent at halftime of the Michigan-Colorado State game with the crew playing a game that Johnson said they would “probably regret.” Barkley was given several college basketball player names in a round of “How Do You Pronounce That?”

Barkley was given Kansas’s Christian Braun as a warm-up before getting into some names that were a bit trickier to pronounce, like Saint Mary’s Tommy Kuhse and Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi.

Astute viewers pointed out that UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez was misspelled as “Jamie,” but everyone was likely focused on the last name there.

Poking fun at Barkley’s lack of familiarity with college basketball is better than trying to make him awkwardly attempt analysis on something he clearly isn’t knowledgeable on at this point. (To be fair, Barkley seems to get better as the tournament progresses, as he watches the games and becomes familiar with who’s involved.)

But several fans pointed out on social media that viewers would be better served — though not necessarily better entertained — and it would be more fair to broadcasters who have covered college basketball all season if Barkley didn’t get such a prominent role on Turner and CBS’s NCAA Tournament coverage.

That’s certainly a valid point, but CBS and Turner have obviously placed a priority on entertainment and name recognition over diehard college basketball knowledge. For a majority of the audience that’s tuning in for college hoops the first time this year, it’s probably a good fit. And it’s all meant to be fun.

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Chris Fallica Leaving ESPN for FOX

Neither FOX or ESPN would comment on the situation, but in the Awful Announcing report it’s believed that there will be a send-off of some sort for Fallica on Saturday.
Jordan Bondurant

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7 hours ago

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December 2, 2022

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A prominent sports betting voice featured on ESPN’s College GameDay will be heading to rival FOX and their Big Noon Kickoff show starting in 2023. According to Awful Announcing, Chris Fallica, affectionately known as “The Bear”, will make his last appearance on GameDay will be this weekend.

Fallica has been with ESPN since 1995. Since 2013, Fallica had been featured on GameDay making betting picks with his patented “Bear’s Board”.

Neither FOX or ESPN would comment on the situation, but in the Awful Announcing report it’s believed that there will be a send-off of some sort for Fallica on Saturday.

Fallica joins Tom Rinaldi as the second former GameDay voice to jump over to FOX and be featured on Big Noon Kickoff.

Both shows have experienced incredible viewership growth this season. For GameDay, there have been several weeks this season that have seen some of the largest audiences in the show’s history.

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Tim Brando Believes Executives Look For Familiarity, Not Great Voices For Announcers

“Executives are going more for people they think they audience knows from having been in the studio. As opposed to man that’s a great voice, that guy really gets it, and his judgement is fantastic.”
Jordan Bondurant

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December 2, 2022

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Tim Brando has seen the broadcasting industry has evolved in a lot of ways through the years, but one thing that’s remained constant is how infrequently some of the announcing gigs with major networks open up to younger voices.

That’s mainly because you have veteran talent already occupying those positions with no plans for the immediate future to step aside.

On a recent edition of The Sports Talkers Podcast, FOX Sports broadcaster and host Tim Brando spoke to Stephen Strom about the reality that many broadcasters face.

“Yeah there are a lot more jobs, but there are fewer great jobs,” Brando said. “A lot of guys are getting jobs, but it’s like a dead end.”

But in terms of hiring younger talent for network jobs, he thinks it’s become more about adding faces to broadcast booths rather than voices.

“There’s a tendency I think now in our business to hire more visible and perhaps more popular talent because they’ve been in the studio,” he said. “But they’re not ready to be in the booth. Not everybody can do both well.”

Tim added that there’s a nuance to calling play-by-play versus working studio coverage. Brando said that perhaps it has a lot more to do with young broadcasters bypassing getting their start in radio and going right into TV.

“It seems to me that in some circles anyway in our business, executives are going more for people they think they audience knows from having been in the studio,” he said. “As opposed to man that’s a great voice, that guy really gets it, and his judgement is fantastic.”

Brando did mention some of the younger voices at FOX who have risen to the bigger opportunities in the booth, and how they ultimately worked their way up. He said he’s had the chance to offer advice to a few of them and act as a mentor in a way, because that’s how it was for him breaking into the industry.

“I believe in pouring into the young broadcasters out there, I really do,” he said. “Because Curt Gowdy poured into me. I think there’s a responsibility and a level of accountability for the generation before to help those that are coming up that you really respect.”

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MLB Network Airing 38 Hours of Winter Meetings Coverage

Coverage will begin on Sunday at 7 p.m. with MLB Tonight leading into the announcement of the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee’s election results for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jordan Bondurant

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8 hours ago

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December 2, 2022

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The annual winter meetings for MLB are set to take place in-person for the first time since 2019 next week, and MLB Network is ready to bring viewers all the coverage possible from San Diego.

The network is devoting 38 hours of live programming on-site, with shows like MLB Tonight, Hot Stove, High Heat, MLB Now and Intentional Talk emanating from the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Coverage will begin on Sunday at 7 p.m. with MLB Tonight leading into the announcement of the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee’s election results for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Fans tuning in to MLB Network can expect to see Greg Amsinger, Fran Charles, Brian Kenny, Stephen Nelson, Alanna Rizzo, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Lauren Shehadi and Matt Vasgersian hosting their respective shows throughout the week. Sean Casey, Mark DeRosa, Al Leiter, Cameron Maybin, Kevin Millar, Dan O’Dowd, Steve Phillips and Harold Reynolds will contribute coverage as analysts.

MLB Network will also carry coverage of the inaugural draft lottery from the winter meetings on Tuesday, December 6 at 8:30 p.m.

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