i know this has probably been beat to death but....

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

i cant remember of a more biased color commentator than this circle jerk who couldnt coach at St. John's.

This guy makes vitale look like the best ever

He AGAIN mentioned how unskilled our team was over and over again. Then after Arkansas won he stated: "Arkansas was 2-1 in this tournament and VCU was 1-2 but as we all can see, VCU will have another very good team this year."

No credit to the Razorbacks. He did comment on the defense but that was about it.
He seemed to get really excited anytime VCU would start a comeback.

HOpefully thats the last game he does.

[Hogtropolis™]

Or as he would have put it, "I don't want to beat a dead horse", which he clearly was.

I was sick and tired of hearing about how athletic but unskilled our guys were (except PBev, because he also commented that he had the basketball savvy to draw a foul when going coast to coast) and also hearing about how it wears on a coach to call plays and timeouts.  What the heck is a coach there for if he is not going to call plays?  I am hoping and praying that I don't have to sit through another broadcast that he is involved in this year.

[pfrg999]

Who was he? ... I recorded the game, was Out of Town...

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

Who was he? ... I recorded the game, was Out of Town...

fran frischilla
the one hit wonder at Manhatten

[Hogginitall]

i cant remember of a more biased color commentator than this circle jerk who couldnt coach at St. John's.

Dick Vitale makes this guy look like the best ever.

He AGAIN mentioned how unskilled our team was over and over again. Then after Arkansas won he stated: "Arkansas was 2-1 in this tournament and VCU was 1-2 but as we all can see, VCU will have another very good team this year."

No credit to the Razorbacks. He did comment on the defense but that was about it.
He seemed to get really excited anytime VCU would start a comeback.

HOpefully thats the last game he does.

I agree, I don't care if it is true or not (which I don't believe it is), he should not say that our team is "not skilled or they would be in the NBA already".  He kept saying that we look like an NBA team, but if they were good, they'd already be in the NBA by now.  That's just crap.

He was doing the same thing when we were beating College of Charleston by 20+.  He is not a professional. 

[PeytonManningSUCKS]

I watched in a bar, so I didn't have to hear any of it.

[Knot2brite]

He kept saying how the players had to get used to the officiating and how that the coaches/players were going to have to get used to it. Funny part about it is that when he was at Manhattan he used to get T'd up all the time. I hate that damn midget

[jchill]

i cant remember of a more biased color commentator than this circle jerk who couldnt coach at St. John's.

Dick Vitale makes this guy look like the best ever.

He AGAIN mentioned how unskilled our team was over and over again. Then after Arkansas won he stated: "Arkansas was 2-1 in this tournament and VCU was 1-2 but as we all can see, VCU will have another very good team this year."

No credit to the Razorbacks. He did comment on the defense but that was about it.
He seemed to get really excited anytime VCU would start a comeback.

HOpefully thats the last game he does.

+100 for that!!!! Man, was he ever annoying! I hope that players(Especially our frontline) will use that as motivation and make him eat crow.

[MDH]

He's yet another in a long list of tool announcers that ESPN gives opportunities to.  In the new generation off announcers on ESPN, I can't think of any that hold a candle to what we had in the 70's, 80's and 90's.  Good lord, look what they did to MNF.  Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy though.

[dsewell70]

Maybe if we learn how to hold onto the ball and how to make a good pass announcers won't have the opportunity to say that in the future

He was saying things about being unskilled because we had 26 turnovers against Charleston, 32 against Providence and we "improved" to only having 17 against VCU. He was right the lead wasn't safe because we can't hang onto the ball and run a decent halfcourt offense. That's 75 turovers in 3 games.

They threw up a state in the Providence game at one point where we had 34 shots compared to 30 turnovers at that time.

That's why he was saying we were very athletic but unskilled. He was overkill after a while becuase that's about the only thing he would say repeatedly, but the truth of the matter is that he was right if you base it strictly on the play in that tournament.

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

Maybe if we learn how to hold onto the ball and how to make a good pass announcers won't have the opportunity to say that in the future

He was saying things about being unskilled because we had 26 turnovers against Charleston, 32 against Providence and we "improved" to only having 17 against VCU. He was right the lead wasn't safe because we can't hang onto the ball and run a decent halfcourt offense. That's 75 turovers in 3 games.

They threw up a state in the Providence game at one point where we had 34 shots compared to 30 turnovers at that time.

That's why he was saying we were very athletic but unskilled. He was overkill after a while becuase that's about the only thing he would say repeatedly, but the truth of the matter is that he was right if you base it strictly on the play in that tournament.

he may have been right but why you dont say that while you're doing a game.

plus he took shot after shot after shot. Even said we're not very good because these players would be in the NBA if they were any good.

[dsewell70]

Maybe if we learn how to hold onto the ball and how to make a good pass announcers won't have the opportunity to say that in the future

He was saying things about being unskilled because we had 26 turnovers against Charleston, 32 against Providence and we "improved" to only having 17 against VCU. He was right the lead wasn't safe because we can't hang onto the ball and run a decent halfcourt offense. That's 75 turovers in 3 games.

They threw up a state in the Providence game at one point where we had 34 shots compared to 30 turnovers at that time.

That's why he was saying we were very athletic but unskilled. He was overkill after a while becuase that's about the only thing he would say repeatedly, but the truth of the matter is that he was right if you base it strictly on the play in that tournament.

he may have been right but why you dont say that while you're doing a game.

plus he took shot after shot after shot. Even said we're not very good because these players would be in the NBA if they were any good.

he's a color commentator for live games... if he doesn't say it during the game, when do you expect him to say it?

as for the NBA comment, he was talking about the big post players that are all seniors .... he may or may not be right on that... if they were NBA material though, they probably wouldn't be seniors, wouldn't you agree?  For example, do you really expect PBev to be here for his senior year if he has two outstanding years this year and the next?

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

Maybe if we learn how to hold onto the ball and how to make a good pass announcers won't have the opportunity to say that in the future

He was saying things about being unskilled because we had 26 turnovers against Charleston, 32 against Providence and we "improved" to only having 17 against VCU. He was right the lead wasn't safe because we can't hang onto the ball and run a decent halfcourt offense. That's 75 turovers in 3 games.

They threw up a state in the Providence game at one point where we had 34 shots compared to 30 turnovers at that time.

That's why he was saying we were very athletic but unskilled. He was overkill after a while becuase that's about the only thing he would say repeatedly, but the truth of the matter is that he was right if you base it strictly on the play in that tournament.

he may have been right but why you dont say that while you're doing a game.

plus he took shot after shot after shot. Even said we're not very good because these players would be in the NBA if they were any good.

he's a color commentator for live games... if he doesn't say it during the game, when do you expect him to say it?

as for the NBA comment, he was talking about the big post players that are all seniors .... he may or may not be right on that... if they were NBA material though, they probably wouldn't be seniors, wouldn't you agree?  For example, do you really expect PBev to be here for his senior year if he has two outstanding years this year and the next?

I've never heard someobody covering a game cut a team like that.

like i said, was he right? yeah
was it appropriate? no

[Corganist]

I agree, I don't care if it is true or not (which I don't believe it is), he should not say that our team is "not skilled or they would be in the NBA already".  He kept saying that we look like an NBA team, but if they were good, they'd already be in the NBA by now.  That's just crap.

Yeah. Whenever he brought up that point, I always wished that someone would turn it around on him. By his logic, if he really knew that much about basketball, he'd be coaching a team instead of doing color commentary. And if he was really that good of a color commentator, he'd be doing games on ESPN or CBS instead of ESPN2 or ESPNU.

[31to6]

the bad:
the team is unskilled
hard for pel to coach when the pg can't run the offense
pro look but no pro skills
averaging 1 turnover every 3 possessions instead of the target of 1/5
the good:
playing hard
solid defense
the obvious:
most coaches this time of year have better defense at the cost of offense
there is a new emphasis on carrying this year and players are just going to have to adjust
less tolerance of coaches outside the coaching box

It's not so much that what he said was wrong but that he gave us very little credit for the good things (we dominated the offensive boards, for example) and he said the same crap over and over and over with very little analysis of what was actually going on in the game.. he'd even talk over the pbp guy to state one of his canned little items when the pbp guy was trying to do a little analysis.... terrible

[The_Bionic_Pig]

He is a huge Big East guy and his bias was so obvious that a lot of people took notice.

[BigSexyHog]

who cares what he says or any other announcer for that matter.  If his tune was going the other way, everyone would be lined up to please him....

One thing that did strike me as funny was when he was talking about our bigs saying if there where really skilled they would not be seniors, but they would be in the NBA....  Pretty telling statement if you ask me...  I like, Hill, Thomas and Townes, but maybe this guy is onto something. 

[805 SOCALHOG]

Other than the repitition I really didn't think he was off. We can't finish around the basket. Our PG play is painful. He also said the way to get through it is recruiting. Our defense is great and we have room for improvement. I like the way Pelphrey gets pissed at his own assistants. It is going to be a great season.

[Zero Tolerance]

He is a huge Big East guy and his bias was so obvious that a lot of people took notice.

Actually, he does the Big XII games with Ron Franklin on Big Monday (unless it's a huge game and Vitale and his crew does it), so you won't get to hear much of him the rest of the season. It's still possible he could be the color man for the Arkansas-OU game next month.

[GRIMMHOG]

He really was getting on my nerves also even though I agree with him.

[Dr Swineglove]

i cant remember of a more biased color commentator than this circle jerk who couldnt coach at St. John's.

Dick Vitale makes this guy look like the best ever.

He AGAIN mentioned how unskilled our team was over and over again. Then after Arkansas won he stated: "Arkansas was 2-1 in this tournament and VCU was 1-2 but as we all can see, VCU will have another very good team this year."

No credit to the Razorbacks. He did comment on the defense but that was about it.
He seemed to get really excited anytime VCU would start a comeback.

HOpefully thats the last game he does.

East coach dooshbags dissing southeastern basketball is nothing new.  The year LSU and Florida went to the final four, and Florida won it all, came as quite a shock in a 'down year.'  Of course, it only seemed like a down year because Arkansas was mediocre and Kentucky wasn't loaded - the 'Cats and to a lesser extent the Hogs are the only two programs a lot of these idiots seem to know anything about.

[slopinhogs]

beverly needs to stay his senior year and learn a liitle more aboiut point becaus he is to small to play #2 in the NBA

[Michael11]

I agree with most of you, it got very old. However, he was right on in his assesment. Beverly is our only true b-ball player and it is obvious.

[dsewell70]

Maybe if we learn how to hold onto the ball and how to make a good pass announcers won't have the opportunity to say that in the future

He was saying things about being unskilled because we had 26 turnovers against Charleston, 32 against Providence and we "improved" to only having 17 against VCU. He was right the lead wasn't safe because we can't hang onto the ball and run a decent halfcourt offense. That's 75 turovers in 3 games.

They threw up a state in the Providence game at one point where we had 34 shots compared to 30 turnovers at that time.

That's why he was saying we were very athletic but unskilled. He was overkill after a while becuase that's about the only thing he would say repeatedly, but the truth of the matter is that he was right if you base it strictly on the play in that tournament.

he may have been right but why you dont say that while you're doing a game.

plus he took shot after shot after shot. Even said we're not very good because these players would be in the NBA if they were any good.

he's a color commentator for live games... if he doesn't say it during the game, when do you expect him to say it?

as for the NBA comment, he was talking about the big post players that are all seniors .... he may or may not be right on that... if they were NBA material though, they probably wouldn't be seniors, wouldn't you agree?  For example, do you really expect PBev to be here for his senior year if he has two outstanding years this year and the next?

I've never heard someobody covering a game cut a team like that.

like i said, was he right? yeah
was it appropriate? no

Maybe they should say such things more instead of building up teams... heck, ballplayers get a lot worse said about them on boards such as these than they ever do on sports broadcasts lol

[yraciv]

The NBA comment was ridiculous because at least 4 of these players will get a shot at the NBA, where I think Weems and Beverley could catch on to a team for at least 3 years.  What really got me was athletic, but not basketball players.  I think that is the case for Steven Hill and Michael Washington, but thats it.  Darian Townes, Charles Thomas, Beverley, and Weems are the definition of basketball players.  Hard nosed guys that will scrap and are not afraid to take it to the basket.  This comment was only made, in my opinion, because Hill & Washington were missing close shots.  Although he did did say it after a bad lob caused a missed dunk.

[Michael11]

The NBA comment was ridiculous because at least 4 of these players will get a shot at the NBA, where I think Weems and Beverley could catch on to a team for at least 3 years.  What really got me was athletic, but not basketball players.  I think that is the case for Steven Hill and Michael Washington, but thats it.  Darian Townes, Charles Thomas, Beverley, and Weems are the definition of basketball players.  Hard nosed guys that will scrap and are not afraid to take it to the basket.  This comment was only made, in my opinion, because Hill & Washington were missing close shots.  Although he did did say it after a bad lob caused a missed dunk.

I agree those guys will get a shot. However, I think he said it not only b/c of misses short shots but b/c of the number of walks and times that the ball was thrown away. I have always thought all 4 of those guys could play in the NBA, especially Townes, Bev, and Weems. But, if it is true we have 4 nba players on the court why can we not score against a zone. That is not all coaching. 4 good players could score points without a coach or an offense.

[dsewell70]

The NBA comment was ridiculous because at least 4 of these players will get a shot at the NBA, where I think Weems and Beverley could catch on to a team for at least 3 years.  What really got me was athletic, but not basketball players.  I think that is the case for Steven Hill and Michael Washington, but thats it.  Darian Townes, Charles Thomas, Beverley, and Weems are the definition of basketball players.  Hard nosed guys that will scrap and are not afraid to take it to the basket.  This comment was only made, in my opinion, because Hill & Washington were missing close shots.  Although he did did say it after a bad lob caused a missed dunk.

He was saying it because we couldn't handle the ball at all. At times, the offense was nonexistent from turnovers and missed close range shots.

Hill will make a team for a while simply for his shot blocking. He won't hang around long however if he doesn't learn not to jump into people everytime he goes up for a block.

Beverly will likely make it, but how much impact he'll have will depend on development this year and next. Then we'll get to play the will he or won't he go to the NBA game.

The good thing about Thomas is he can somewhat handle the ball. But Manimal isn't making the NBA. And neither is Townes. He takes too many plays off on defense. Sure he has a lot of blocks, but he gets lost on defense just as much at times, at least he did during this past tournament.

Weems might have an outside shot of making it as a bench player, but considering there are only two rounds in the draft, meaning there will also be a ton of free agents at his level or better, don't count on an NBA career. He's going to have to pick up his intensity and more importantly his consistency to go on past college.

[Hogginitall]

The NBA comment was ridiculous because at least 4 of these players will get a shot at the NBA, where I think Weems and Beverley could catch on to a team for at least 3 years.  What really got me was athletic, but not basketball players.  I think that is the case for Steven Hill and Michael Washington, but thats it.  Darian Townes, Charles Thomas, Beverley, and Weems are the definition of basketball players.  Hard nosed guys that will scrap and are not afraid to take it to the basket.  This comment was only made, in my opinion, because Hill & Washington were missing close shots.  Although he did did say it after a bad lob caused a missed dunk.

He was saying it because we couldn't handle the ball at all. At times, the offense was nonexistent from turnovers and missed close range shots.

Hill will make a team for a while simply for his shot blocking. He won't hang around long however if he doesn't learn not to jump into people everytime he goes up for a block.

Beverly will likely make it, but how much impact he'll have will depend on development this year and next. Then we'll get to play the will he or won't he go to the NBA game.

The good thing about Thomas is he can somewhat handle the ball. But Manimal isn't making the NBA. And neither is Townes. He takes too many plays off on defense. Sure he has a lot of blocks, but he gets lost on defense just as much at times, at least he did during this past tournament.

Weems might have an outside shot of making it as a bench player, but considering there are only two rounds in the draft, meaning there will also be a ton of free agents at his level or better, don't count on an NBA career. He's going to have to pick up his intensity and more importantly his consistency to go on past college.

He said, NUMEROUS TIMES in MULTIPLE GAMES, that Arkansas' players are not talented.  If they were talented they'd be in the NBA.  That is just a RIDICULOUS statement.  How many players from our National Championship team played in the NBA for a prolonged period of time?  Corliss, and that's it.  This team and all of it's players are TALENTED.  They just haven't been coached to take care of the ball, as well as a few other things (finishing around the basket---Hill), as well as they should've for 3 years of their 4 year careers.  They don't have to be future NBA stars to be talented enough to win in college. 

His comments were ridiculous and uncalled for.  I hope we don't have to ENDURE any more of his analysis for our games for the rest of the season.

[dsewell70]

The NBA comment was ridiculous because at least 4 of these players will get a shot at the NBA, where I think Weems and Beverley could catch on to a team for at least 3 years.  What really got me was athletic, but not basketball players.  I think that is the case for Steven Hill and Michael Washington, but thats it.  Darian Townes, Charles Thomas, Beverley, and Weems are the definition of basketball players.  Hard nosed guys that will scrap and are not afraid to take it to the basket.  This comment was only made, in my opinion, because Hill & Washington were missing close shots.  Although he did did say it after a bad lob caused a missed dunk.

He was saying it because we couldn't handle the ball at all. At times, the offense was nonexistent from turnovers and missed close range shots.

Hill will make a team for a while simply for his shot blocking. He won't hang around long however if he doesn't learn not to jump into people everytime he goes up for a block.

Beverly will likely make it, but how much impact he'll have will depend on development this year and next. Then we'll get to play the will he or won't he go to the NBA game.

The good thing about Thomas is he can somewhat handle the ball. But Manimal isn't making the NBA. And neither is Townes. He takes too many plays off on defense. Sure he has a lot of blocks, but he gets lost on defense just as much at times, at least he did during this past tournament.

Weems might have an outside shot of making it as a bench player, but considering there are only two rounds in the draft, meaning there will also be a ton of free agents at his level or better, don't count on an NBA career. He's going to have to pick up his intensity and more importantly his consistency to go on past college.

He said, NUMEROUS TIMES in MULTIPLE GAMES, that Arkansas' players are not talented.  If they were talented they'd be in the NBA.  That is just a RIDICULOUS statement.  How many players from our National Championship team played in the NBA for a prolonged period of time?  Corliss, and that's it.  This team and all of it's players are TALENTED.  They just haven't been coached to take care of the ball, as well as a few other things (finishing around the basket---Hill), as well as they should've for 3 years of their 4 year careers.  They don't have to be future NBA stars to be talented enough to win in college. 

His comments were ridiculous and uncalled for.  I hope we don't have to ENDURE any more of his analysis for our games for the rest of the season.

That's true, you don't have to be an NBA talent to win in college. But it's also true that if those guys that are seniors were serious NBA talent, with their size, they wouldn't be in school right now. Because as evidenced by the number of young players that jump to the NBA, if you have NBA talent, you don't necessarily need college coaching to succeed in the NBA. Nowadays unfortunately, the really talented players jump to the NBA well before their senior years.

And it is lack of good coaching that they can't pull it together on the court and hang onto the ball. Or maybe it was a mix. Heath saw how these guys couldn't learn to hang onto the ball and he couldn't coach well enough to help them improve much.

i said it last year, in the case of Ervin, if a coach lets a player transfer to another school within the same conference division, then there is something wrong there. The problem is that it's not just one player, it's the majority of the team that can't handle the ball, either passing or receiving it, well enough to be better than their natuarl athletic abilities will allow. It's like their basketball brains haven't caught up with their athletic ability.

[booogaga]

but you know espn is generally like that when any team from the sec is playing. if a northern team is playing they are all about it. its very biased and has been since the beginning

[Valerie]

I was there, sitting right behind the idiot.  We told him what we thought of him and his ideas.  No way anyone knows what this team can do at this point in the season  AND remember he was announcing in Puerto Rico on ESPNU, so I would say his skills might be in question!

[dsewell70]

I was there, sitting right behind the idiot.  We told him what we thought of him and his ideas.  No way anyone knows what this team can do at this point in the season  AND remember he was announcing in Puerto Rico on ESPNU, so I would say his skills might be in question!

lol... i keep seeing people mention that he was announcing on ESPNU.. and Arkansas was playing in a tournament whose first few rounds were being played on ESPNU in a mostly empty gym in Puerto Rico...