Commentary/Production Quality at start of the season

[DoctahLexus]

Not sure where is best to do this so just starting a new thread, because there simply has to be a rapidly typed monday rant about the abysmal commentary and overall production value both us and all lacrosse fans have been dealing with. This year has been a race to the bottom in production value across all conferences. The student commentary we have had the first three games...I will say the one pro in their favor is that they have almost definitely played lacrosse before. The guy doing color knows all the terminology in the game, knows when a shot or pass is backhanded sidearm or what have you, knows basics of strategy and sliding and exploiting short stick dms etc. The two different play by play guys have been solid there as well, and they will occasionally drop a relevant fact on team or player stats from past years. Clearly they did some homework.

That's about it for positives. The best simple advice you could give them is to stop trying to make every word out of your mouth a bold significant statement. Stop trying to make every commentary moment go viral. The aggrandizing of Spallina is at a level that make Carc and Anish look like hating biased twitter trolls. He is a freshman, and just because he is the number 1 ranked recruit and wearing a famous number does NOT make him "arguably the best player in college lacrosse" (not exact quote but close to it) or "the superstar" or "there is no one who can do what he can do" or anything like that. Will have to watch some of the youtube highlights to get more of the horrible exact quotes thrown around. Just beyond over the top.

Yesterday they were talking about our canadian players and the color guy goes (not exact quote) "lets face it canadians are BETTER at stick skills in lacrosse than american players as they pass and catch better with BOTH HANDS" That is just such a hilariously massive generalization to say a whole country is better than a whole other country at stick skills and then prove you know nothing at all by saying they play with both hands! They specifically don't! If you don't know something about the game, then how hard is it to keep the analysis simple and not fake it! So many more examples and I am sure you all have heard some good ones.

Then there are camera operators too stoned to know where the ball is. Replays and close ups of coaches while the game is going on. Yesterday they came back from a commercial and the ref was announcing a Holy Cross penalty. They missed an entire possession and didn't even have a replay of the penalty. Yes our font is a little goofy with the numbers and an 8 looks a lot like a 9. But after three games how are you still calling Birtwistle Luke Rhoa every time he scores?? How is ssdm Vinnie Trujillo making all these incredible passes on a 6v6 offensive possession and not Alex Simmons?? I swear every freaking time one of those 4 guys got the ball they were saying the wrong name.

Won't go into detail about the continued issues with Big 10 and Patriot league games, but the short take is that there is an across the board complete lack of respect for dotting the I's and crossing the T's in college lax and it is an embarrassment. A lot of this sheet aint hard! It's not hard to test a mic before a game to make sure it won't peak and distort when a commentator yells. It is not that hard to follow the ball. Anish and Carc were not even on the mic for the start of the Michigan UVA game! That can not all be blamed on a tight budget. Someone is not doing their job. And that doesn't even touch camera placement and quality. It feels like the whole apparatus, which already was struggling, took 3 giant steps back this year. I assure you, I could go on.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Anish and Carc were not even on the mic for the start of the Michigan UVA game! That can not all be blamed on a tight budget. Someone is not doing their job. And that doesn't even touch camera placement and quality. It feels like the whole apparatus, which already was struggling, took 3 giant steps back this year. I assure you, I could go on.

Anish and Carc weren't even at the game...

 

[DoctahLexus]

Anish and Carc weren't even at the game...

Season opener for preseason #1 or 2 team in nation. First Big 10 vs ACC game of the year. Yeah no need to double check things.

 

[MD Cuse Fan]

Not sure where is best to do this so just starting a new thread, because there simply has to be a rapidly typed monday rant about the abysmal commentary and overall production value both us and all lacrosse fans have been dealing with. This year has been a race to the bottom in production value across all conferences. The student commentary we have had the first three games...I will say the one pro in their favor is that they have almost definitely played lacrosse before. The guy doing color knows all the terminology in the game, knows when a shot or pass is backhanded sidearm or what have you, knows basics of strategy and sliding and exploiting short stick dms etc. The two different play by play guys have been solid there as well, and they will occasionally drop a relevant fact on team or player stats from past years. Clearly they did some homework.

That's about it for positives. The best simple advice you could give them is to stop trying to make every word out of your mouth a bold significant statement. Stop trying to make every commentary moment go viral. The aggrandizing of Spallina is at a level that make Carc and Anish look like hating biased twitter trolls. He is a freshman, and just because he is the number 1 ranked recruit and wearing a famous number does NOT make him "arguably the best player in college lacrosse" (not exact quote but close to it) or "the superstar" or "there is no one who can do what he can do" or anything like that. Will have to watch some of the youtube highlights to get more of the horrible exact quotes thrown around. Just beyond over the top.

Yesterday they were talking about our canadian players and the color guy goes (not exact quote) "lets face it canadians are BETTER at stick skills in lacrosse than american players as they pass and catch better with BOTH HANDS" That is just such a hilariously massive generalization to say a whole country is better than a whole other country at stick skills and then prove you know nothing at all by saying they play with both hands! They specifically don't! If you don't know something about the game, then how hard is it to keep the analysis simple and not fake it! So many more examples and I am sure you all have heard some good ones.

Then there are camera operators too stoned to know where the ball is. Replays and close ups of coaches while the game is going on. Yesterday they came back from a commercial and the ref was announcing a Holy Cross penalty. They missed an entire possession and didn't even have a replay of the penalty. Yes our font is a little goofy with the numbers and an 8 looks a lot like a 9. But after three games how are you still calling Birtwistle Luke Rhoa every time he scores?? How is ssdm Vinnie Trujillo making all these incredible passes on a 6v6 offensive possession and not Alex Simmons?? I swear every freaking time one of those 4 guys got the ball they were saying the wrong name.

Won't go into detail about the continued issues with Big 10 and Patriot league games, but the short take is that there is an across the board complete lack of respect for dotting the I's and crossing the T's in college lax and it is an embarrassment. A lot of this sheet aint hard! It's not hard to test a mic before a game to make sure it won't peak and distort when a commentator yells. It is not that hard to follow the ball. Anish and Carc were not even on the mic for the start of the Michigan UVA game! That can not all be blamed on a tight budget. Someone is not doing their job. And that doesn't even touch camera placement and quality. It feels like the whole apparatus, which already was struggling, took 3 giant steps back this year. I assure you, I could go on.

Well said and spot on. I especially appreciate that you point out the camera operators. I have been watching lacrosse on TV for 25 years now and it's still frustrating as hell that no matter who is broadcasting the game, they focus on the goalie after he's already made a clear and the ball is moving up the field, or it's showing the bench for 4-5 seconds while the game is in progress etc. Always been one of my pet peeves.

 

[kismet35]

Certainly not looking forward to Cuse playing at Maryland this weekend...Honestly hard to watch a game with the zoomed out camera angles from the Maryland football stadium...Quint hinted at his dislike for the venue as well "which can be seen on Big Ten+, shot from a satellite in outer space."...

 

[MD Cuse Fan]

Certainly not looking forward to Cuse playing at Maryland this weekend...Honestly hard to watch a game with the zoomed out camera angles from the Maryland football stadium...Quint hinted at his dislike for the venue as well "which can be seen on Big Ten+, shot from a satellite in outer space."...

Funny that he commented about that but I will say, I think it's the ESPN camera when they broadcast games from MD that is the eye in the sky, whereas when the BIG10 Network does the game, the camera is set up on the opposite side of the field at a much more reasonable level that doesn't make you feel like you're watching from space.

 

[orangecuse]

Question. I know if your particular tiered TV package includes the ACCN and BiGN (as my DirecTV package does) it allows you to stream ACCNX games online going through your TV provider gateway/redirect, etc. Does the same work here for the BiGN +? Or does one have to pay above and beyond to access this game with an additional BiG + subscription?

 

[DoctahLexus]

Well said and spot on. I especially appreciate that you point out the camera operators. I have been watching lacrosse on TV for 25 years now and it's still frustrating as hell that no matter who is broadcasting the game, they focus on the goalie after he's already made a clear and the ball is moving up the field, or it's showing the bench for 4-5 seconds while the game is in progress etc. Always been one of my pet peeves.

That's been a classic for a while now. It's the type of thing where you put the camera operators in a room for 20 minutes with any guy or gal who has ever played lacrosse and so much could be cleared up. "Sometimes players fake passes and shots so be ready for that." "Unsettled situations often develop quickly after a save so do not show the goalie or bench for long after one." "A pause in the game is usually brief and ends with a quick whistle from the ref so an out of bounds ball or whistle that sends it the other way is not a good time to cut away from the action on field." That's a better product already if you get that through the heads of a camera crew.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Certainly not looking forward to Cuse playing at Maryland this weekend...Honestly hard to watch a game with the zoomed out camera angles from the Maryland football stadium...Quint hinted at his dislike for the venue as well "which can be seen on Big Ten+, shot from a satellite in outer space."...

Every year the entire lacrosse community calls them out on this and every year they come back if anything worse. It's pathetic. And nowadays the other conferences aren't even much better.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Question. I know if your particular tiered TV package includes the ACCN and BiGN (as my DirecTV package does) it allows you to stream ACCNX games online going through your TV provider gateway/redirect, etc. Does the same work here for the BiGN +? Or does one have to pay above and beyond to access this game with an additional BiG + subscription?

It's a separate thing all together (i believe)

 

[AD31]

Not sure where is best to do this so just starting a new thread, because there simply has to be a rapidly typed monday rant about the abysmal commentary and overall production value both us and all lacrosse fans have been dealing with. This year has been a race to the bottom in production value across all conferences. The student commentary we have had the first three games...I will say the one pro in their favor is that they have almost definitely played lacrosse before. The guy doing color knows all the terminology in the game, knows when a shot or pass is backhanded sidearm or what have you, knows basics of strategy and sliding and exploiting short stick dms etc. The two different play by play guys have been solid there as well, and they will occasionally drop a relevant fact on team or player stats from past years. Clearly they did some homework.

That's about it for positives. The best simple advice you could give them is to stop trying to make every word out of your mouth a bold significant statement. Stop trying to make every commentary moment go viral. The aggrandizing of Spallina is at a level that make Carc and Anish look like hating biased twitter trolls. He is a freshman, and just because he is the number 1 ranked recruit and wearing a famous number does NOT make him "arguably the best player in college lacrosse" (not exact quote but close to it) or "the superstar" or "there is no one who can do what he can do" or anything like that. Will have to watch some of the youtube highlights to get more of the horrible exact quotes thrown around. Just beyond over the top.

Yesterday they were talking about our canadian players and the color guy goes (not exact quote) "lets face it canadians are BETTER at stick skills in lacrosse than american players as they pass and catch better with BOTH HANDS" That is just such a hilariously massive generalization to say a whole country is better than a whole other country at stick skills and then prove you know nothing at all by saying they play with both hands! They specifically don't! If you don't know something about the game, then how hard is it to keep the analysis simple and not fake it! So many more examples and I am sure you all have heard some good ones.

Then there are camera operators too stoned to know where the ball is. Replays and close ups of coaches while the game is going on. Yesterday they came back from a commercial and the ref was announcing a Holy Cross penalty. They missed an entire possession and didn't even have a replay of the penalty. Yes our font is a little goofy with the numbers and an 8 looks a lot like a 9. But after three games how are you still calling Birtwistle Luke Rhoa every time he scores?? How is ssdm Vinnie Trujillo making all these incredible passes on a 6v6 offensive possession and not Alex Simmons?? I swear every freaking time one of those 4 guys got the ball they were saying the wrong name.

Won't go into detail about the continued issues with Big 10 and Patriot league games, but the short take is that there is an across the board complete lack of respect for dotting the I's and crossing the T's in college lax and it is an embarrassment. A lot of this sheet aint hard! It's not hard to test a mic before a game to make sure it won't peak and distort when a commentator yells. It is not that hard to follow the ball. Anish and Carc were not even on the mic for the start of the Michigan UVA game! That can not all be blamed on a tight budget. Someone is not doing their job. And that doesn't even touch camera placement and quality. It feels like the whole apparatus, which already was struggling, took 3 giant steps back this year. I assure you, I could go on.

I was just saying how every play 19 Simmons makes and 16 Murphy makes goes to Trujillo. I mean they got this kid all over the field like Superman playing both ways hahah

 

[JeremyCuse]

Not sure where is best to do this so just starting a new thread, because there simply has to be a rapidly typed monday rant about the abysmal commentary and overall production value both us and all lacrosse fans have been dealing with. This year has been a race to the bottom in production value across all conferences. The student commentary we have had the first three games...I will say the one pro in their favor is that they have almost definitely played lacrosse before. The guy doing color knows all the terminology in the game, knows when a shot or pass is backhanded sidearm or what have you, knows basics of strategy and sliding and exploiting short stick dms etc. The two different play by play guys have been solid there as well, and they will occasionally drop a relevant fact on team or player stats from past years. Clearly they did some homework.

That's about it for positives. The best simple advice you could give them is to stop trying to make every word out of your mouth a bold significant statement. Stop trying to make every commentary moment go viral. The aggrandizing of Spallina is at a level that make Carc and Anish look like hating biased twitter trolls. He is a freshman, and just because he is the number 1 ranked recruit and wearing a famous number does NOT make him "arguably the best player in college lacrosse" (not exact quote but close to it) or "the superstar" or "there is no one who can do what he can do" or anything like that. Will have to watch some of the youtube highlights to get more of the horrible exact quotes thrown around. Just beyond over the top.

Yesterday they were talking about our canadian players and the color guy goes (not exact quote) "lets face it canadians are BETTER at stick skills in lacrosse than american players as they pass and catch better with BOTH HANDS" That is just such a hilariously massive generalization to say a whole country is better than a whole other country at stick skills and then prove you know nothing at all by saying they play with both hands! They specifically don't! If you don't know something about the game, then how hard is it to keep the analysis simple and not fake it! So many more examples and I am sure you all have heard some good ones.

Then there are camera operators too stoned to know where the ball is. Replays and close ups of coaches while the game is going on. Yesterday they came back from a commercial and the ref was announcing a Holy Cross penalty. They missed an entire possession and didn't even have a replay of the penalty. Yes our font is a little goofy with the numbers and an 8 looks a lot like a 9. But after three games how are you still calling Birtwistle Luke Rhoa every time he scores?? How is ssdm Vinnie Trujillo making all these incredible passes on a 6v6 offensive possession and not Alex Simmons?? I swear every freaking time one of those 4 guys got the ball they were saying the wrong name.

Won't go into detail about the continued issues with Big 10 and Patriot league games, but the short take is that there is an across the board complete lack of respect for dotting the I's and crossing the T's in college lax and it is an embarrassment. A lot of this sheet aint hard! It's not hard to test a mic before a game to make sure it won't peak and distort when a commentator yells. It is not that hard to follow the ball. Anish and Carc were not even on the mic for the start of the Michigan UVA game! That can not all be blamed on a tight budget. Someone is not doing their job. And that doesn't even touch camera placement and quality. It feels like the whole apparatus, which already was struggling, took 3 giant steps back this year. I assure you, I could go on.

Gonna post a longer response later but just wanted to note your 100% spot on. The B10 should be embarrased with the lack of availability for their teams. You have the defending national champ and the games harder to get then Vermont vs BU on dame Canadian Border.

 

[Cuse All-In]

Gonna post a longer response later but just wanted to note your 100% spot on. The B10 should be embarrased with the lack of availability for their teams. You have the defending national champ and the games harder to get then Vermont vs BU on dame Canadian Border.

I could not agree more with this thread!! The dumb jock commentary is incredibly frustrating with cliche after cliche and guys repeating the same dumb talking points. In the past, I found the local Cuse guys on radio are some of the best I've heard. Carc, Quint etc. are obnoxious and no longer funny, falling back on personal anecdotes during critical stages of games and failing to analyze when they should.

The early season tv and streaming coverage is embarrassing - they like to make a big deal about ESPN, ESPNU and ACC later in the season. It's very difficult to get games from Canada - pathetic.

 

[sholokov2]

Not sure where is best to do this so just starting a new thread, because there simply has to be a rapidly typed monday rant about the abysmal commentary and overall production value both us and all lacrosse fans have been dealing with. This year has been a race to the bottom in production value across all conferences. The student commentary we have had the first three games...I will say the one pro in their favor is that they have almost definitely played lacrosse before. The guy doing color knows all the terminology in the game, knows when a shot or pass is backhanded sidearm or what have you, knows basics of strategy and sliding and exploiting short stick dms etc. The two different play by play guys have been solid there as well, and they will occasionally drop a relevant fact on team or player stats from past years. Clearly they did some homework.

That's about it for positives. The best simple advice you could give them is to stop trying to make every word out of your mouth a bold significant statement. Stop trying to make every commentary moment go viral. The aggrandizing of Spallina is at a level that make Carc and Anish look like hating biased twitter trolls. He is a freshman, and just because he is the number 1 ranked recruit and wearing a famous number does NOT make him "arguably the best player in college lacrosse" (not exact quote but close to it) or "the superstar" or "there is no one who can do what he can do" or anything like that. Will have to watch some of the youtube highlights to get more of the horrible exact quotes thrown around. Just beyond over the top.

Yesterday they were talking about our canadian players and the color guy goes (not exact quote) "lets face it canadians are BETTER at stick skills in lacrosse than american players as they pass and catch better with BOTH HANDS" That is just such a hilariously massive generalization to say a whole country is better than a whole other country at stick skills and then prove you know nothing at all by saying they play with both hands! They specifically don't! If you don't know something about the game, then how hard is it to keep the analysis simple and not fake it! So many more examples and I am sure you all have heard some good ones.

Then there are camera operators too stoned to know where the ball is. Replays and close ups of coaches while the game is going on. Yesterday they came back from a commercial and the ref was announcing a Holy Cross penalty. They missed an entire possession and didn't even have a replay of the penalty. Yes our font is a little goofy with the numbers and an 8 looks a lot like a 9. But after three games how are you still calling Birtwistle Luke Rhoa every time he scores?? How is ssdm Vinnie Trujillo making all these incredible passes on a 6v6 offensive possession and not Alex Simmons?? I swear every freaking time one of those 4 guys got the ball they were saying the wrong name.

Won't go into detail about the continued issues with Big 10 and Patriot league games, but the short take is that there is an across the board complete lack of respect for dotting the I's and crossing the T's in college lax and it is an embarrassment. A lot of this sheet aint hard! It's not hard to test a mic before a game to make sure it won't peak and distort when a commentator yells. It is not that hard to follow the ball. Anish and Carc were not even on the mic for the start of the Michigan UVA game! That can not all be blamed on a tight budget. Someone is not doing their job. And that doesn't even touch camera placement and quality. It feels like the whole apparatus, which already was struggling, took 3 giant steps back this year. I assure you, I could go on.

so right. My favorite is "Carter Rice is subbing for Aviles, who is injured", nearly a quote. I always subscribe to ESPN+ for a month to catch some early season games. It's hit or miss. I have tried to watch the contest between ants on a tundra from a ground view camera with no commentary. Can't see numbers, can't see the ball because it's snowing. Or the camera is in a blimp several miles up watching munchkins run back and forth and seeing nothing of the game. Production values, hell I'll take production. If you have ACC and ACCNX which is not subscription you get some fair video work. My favorite commentator is the old coach who does the Loyola games. Calm and insightful, he actually lets some of the action speak for itself.

 

[AD31]

so right. My favorite is "Carter Rice is subbing for Aviles, who is injured", nearly a quote. I always subscribe to ESPN+ for a month to catch some early season games. It's hit or miss. I have tried to watch the contest between ants on a tundra from a ground view camera with no commentary. Can't see numbers, can't see the ball because it's snowing. Or the camera is in a blimp several miles up watching munchkins run back and forth and seeing nothing of the game. Production values, hell I'll take production. If you have ACC and ACCNX which is not subscription you get some fair video work. My favorite commentator is the old coach who does the Loyola games. Calm and insightful, he actually lets some of the action speak for itself.

Yesterday was Trujillo is subbing for Aviles. These guys are all over the place. Murphy stepped up to the 1st line for Aviles. It's bad I mean Trujillo has done well filling in at SSDM as the 4th guy but if they went by the broadcast this kid would be on the tewarrton watch list for playing both ways and dominating. It's just how can u make so many mistakes and be all over the place. Haha

 

[CuseAlum87]

so right. My favorite is "Carter Rice is subbing for Aviles, who is injured", nearly a quote. I always subscribe to ESPN+ for a month to catch some early season games. It's hit or miss. I have tried to watch the contest between ants on a tundra from a ground view camera with no commentary. Can't see numbers, can't see the ball because it's snowing. Or the camera is in a blimp several miles up watching munchkins run back and forth and seeing nothing of the game. Production values, hell I'll take production. If you have ACC and ACCNX which is not subscription you get some fair video work. My favorite commentator is the old coach who does the Loyola games. Calm and insightful, he actually lets some of the action speak for itself.

I believe that both Dave Cottle and Don Zimmerman have done Loyola games. Excellent work

 

[ForCuseSake]

I caught the first quarter of UNC/Mercer and it made the Newhouse lax broadcast operation look like The Masters on CBS.

I've seen fewer faked out cameramen on Varsity Media streams of COVID era high school sports.

 

[Laxfanshutt]

Question. I know if your particular tiered TV package includes the ACCN and BiGN (as my DirecTV package does) it allows you to stream ACCNX games online going through your TV provider gateway/redirect, etc. Does the same work here for the BiGN +? Or does one have to pay above and beyond to access this game with an additional BiG + subscription?

I don’t think so. It didn’t do it with mine so I had to subscribe.

 

[longtimefan]

One of my major peeves, and it doesn't apply only to lax broadcasts--please look at the official who just blew his whistle. That's the best way to determine the call on the field. I hate it when there's a change of possession and the announcers don't tell us (or don't know) why. The ref will tell you if it's offsides, or an illegal pick, or a loose ball push. Please watch the action!

 

[Stealth4785]

The 8s and the 9s on the jerseys are so similar I can see how people make that mistake. The open loop on the bottom of the 9 is almost completed, making it look like an 8 rather than 9.

 

[Laxfanshutt]

The 8s and the 9s on the jerseys are so similar I can see how people make that mistake. The open loop on the bottom of the 9 is almost completed, making it look like an 8 rather than 9.

Then having that problem all season.. my solution is when Leo and Thomson are on the field.. it’s Birt.. when Kirst and cook are on the field it’s Rhoa.. lol
Also having the same problem with 16s and 18s.. lol

 

[JeremyCuse]

The 8s and the 9s on the jerseys are so similar I can see how people make that mistake. The open loop on the bottom of the 9 is almost completed, making it look like an 8 rather than 9.

Agreed, I had to stare fairly hard a few times to double check but as others have noted some of it is self explanatory and Rhoa hasn't really been out with the 1's to date (at least that I am not aware of). The Trujillo stuff is even worse. That said SU needs to do something to clarify the 8 and 9 number, when seasons fans are struggling there is an issue.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Agreed, I had to stare fairly hard a few times to double check but as others have noted some of it is self explanatory and Rhoa hasn't really been out with the 1's to date (at least that I am not aware of). The Trujillo stuff is even worse. That said SU needs to do something to clarify the 8 and 9 number, when seasons fans are struggling there is an issue.

We're due for new uniforms ... in 2025.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Just having the amount of games on tv we get now is awesome.

Long gone are the days of the F4 only.

Production, Cameras and the announcing does not bother me in least.

Great practice and proving grounds for all these kids.

And let’s face it, we are all waiting for another ‘Boom goes the Dynamite’ moment anyway.

 

[DoctahLexus]

I am of course rooting for them to succeed and they are a part of the cuse family. It has to be a tough task for the young guns as one of their first times on screen for a major event. They have the enthusiasm and good energy on the mic and like I said clearly did their homework. Will still call out the things they say that would simply not fly if said by older more experienced commentators. Time flys and that is the standard they will soon be held to in their careers. It would not fly if we had students doing the TV commentary for the first couple bball games and one of them said Judah Mintz is arguably the best point guard in the sport after he crosses up a low level player. That is the type of thing they are throwing around now, and it will only improve their chances of future success if they learn these lessons sooner than later.