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ESPN Volleyball Announcers

mike412

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Jul 1, 2001
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Giving credit where credit is due, I thought the announcers for the Pitt v Florida match, who also did Wisconsin v PSU, were very good, as was the camera work, except for not having a camera on the baseline when Fisher challenged the out call. That was a huge point in the match. The call being reversed gave Pitt a 24-21 lead and the won the set on the next point.

I would think they always would want a baseline view as well as a good view on both sidelines. They did have that on the challenge by Florida.

We’ve had to listen to some terrible announcers this year on ESPN+ so it’s nice to get some professionalism at the Regionals. I’m on the West Coast so I also watched San Diego, which beat us in 5 sets early in the year. They are for real. I didn’t see Stanford, who they play Saturday in the regional final.
 
I didn’t see Stanford, who they play Saturday in the regional final
Pretty sure it's San Diego.

I think the ESPN+ announcers for Pitt games have been decent compared to some of the other games we've watched, which is kind of a surprising statement. Want to say we watched a pretty average SEC game that didn't even have announcers, so there's that.
 
Some of the ESPN+ announcers at the away games were pretty awful. Just not very knowledgeable
 
I'm just finally now getting to watch the match but I have to say I find these announcers, while good, to be so in favor of Florida I found myself wondering if they are SEC announcers. For what its worth, I often think Pitt fans over react to announcers and proclaim they are anti-Pitt, but in this case I think its true.
 
The male announcer is pretty widely disliked in volleyball circles. I personally didn't think he was great, and thought the guy doing the Stanford regional was much better. To each their own though. H2P
 
Giving credit where credit is due, I thought the announcers for the Pitt v Florida match, who also did Wisconsin v PSU, were very good, as was the camera work, except for not having a camera on the baseline when Fisher challenged the out call. That was a huge point in the match. The call being reversed gave Pitt a 24-21 lead and the won the set on the next point.

I would think they always would want a baseline view as well as a good view on both sidelines. They did have that on the challenge by Florida.

We’ve had to listen to some terrible announcers this year on ESPN+ so it’s nice to get some professionalism at the Regionals. I’m on the West Coast so I also watched San Diego, which beat us in 5 sets early in the year. They are for real. I didn’t see Stanford, who they play Saturday in the regional final.
The guy was terrible, like he had a cliche script card ,, “Terminate” , “tool the block” and a dozen others
continually pumped Marcova from Florida like she was the 2nd coming of Logan Tom (look her up)
rooted for Florida constantly, couldn’t believe pitt was good, did no homework, had no clue pitt led nation in wins last 4 years

compare that with other sites that had Paul sunderlund at one and holly mcpeak , actual people who know volleyball not a Gus Johnson hype tool spouting nonsense

they were no better tonight
 
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The male announcer is pretty widely disliked in volleyball circles. I personally didn't think he was great, and thought the guy doing the Stanford regional was much better. To each their own though. H2P
Paul sunderlund doing the west region actually played volleyball, 1984 gold medal and Karch teammate
 
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Paul Sunderland is the gold standard. Hopefully, he will go to Omaha and do the games there.

He started out doing beach volleyball tournaments doing the color with Chris Marlowe doing the play by play back when beach volleyball was just a Southern California sport. Both of them have had very successful careers. He is now 70, has been doing this for more than 35 years and still looks like he is 25.
 
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Paul Sunderland is the gold standard. Hopefully, he will go to Omaha and do the games there.

He started out doing beach volleyball tournaments doing the color with Chris Marlowe doing the play by play back when beach volleyball was just a Southern California sport. Both of them have had very successful careers. He is now 70, has been doing this for more than 35 years and still looks like he is 25.
Man that’s a name from the past. I used to play a lot of beach volleyball in Santa Cruz and I met and had the unfortunate opportunity of playing a game against him and a female media coworker of his when he was in town covering a pro beach volleyball tour event. They won. Lol. He was probably in his late 30’s at the time. He was a cool guy.
 
I was referring to the male announcer for the Pitt matches. H2P
I always make fun of people who complain about announcers who are pro the Steelers opponent or complain that they are anti Pitt. But 9 times out of 10 they’re there to sell the event they are covering and will lead you to believe that the two teams playing are the best things since sliced bread.

That said, it didn’t bother me, but it did feel like last nights announcer had a little more pep in his step after Badger points. I’d like to think that if me of all people noticed, then it must have been rather profound.
 
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I always make fun of people who complain about announcers who are pro the Steelers opponent or complain that they are anti Pitt. But 9 times out of 10 they’re there to sell the event they are covering and will lead you to believe that the two teams playing are the best things since sliced bread.

That said, it didn’t bother me, but it did feel like last nights announcer had a little more pep in his step after Badger points. I’d like to think that if me of all people noticed, then it must have been rather profound.
Agreed. I think his name is Sam Gore. The "terminate" call was annoying to me, but it wasn't as bad last night as it was vs Florida. Honestly, last night's match was so exciting that I didn't notice what he was saying as much as I did vs Florida, or else I was just blocking him out lol. What a match! Whew! H2P!
 
Man that’s a name from the past. I used to play a lot of beach volleyball in Santa Cruz and I met and had the unfortunate opportunity of playing a game against him and a female media coworker of his when he was in town covering a pro beach volleyball tour event. They won. Lol. He was probably in his late 30’s at the time. He was a cool guy.
He’s a really interesting guy. Grew up in the San Fernando Valley playing football and basketball. Went to an all-male Catholic high school. When he was 14-15, he and friends used to go to the beach in the Summer to meet girls. That’s where he discovered beach volleyball.

Went to Oregon on a basketball scholarship. They didn’t have a volleyball team so he played on the club team. Then transferred to Loyola Marymount to play volleyball. Played a lot with Karch Kiraly at the beach. Their goal was an Olympic Gold Medal. No beach volleyball in the Olympics back then. They and they US team were in the their prime for the 1980 Olympics. Then, we withdrew because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Once said the hardest thing he ever had to do was try to stay in top shape for 4 more years for the 1984 games. He was 34 then. US won the gold, perhaps because this time it was the Russians who boycotted.

He used to joke that if his parents had sent him to a coed public high school, he never would have discovered volleyball.
 
Agreed. I think his name is Sam Gore. The "terminate" call was annoying to me, but it wasn't as bad last night as it was vs Florida. Honestly, last night's match was so exciting that I didn't notice what he was saying as much as I did vs Florida, or else I was just blocking him out lol. What a match! Whew! H2P!
Yes Florida match was worse
 
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