I spotted checked my last broadcast Charlotte-UAB WBB game and I hit about 8 out of 10, but I think some of the 8 were slower than I want. Game 2 is tomorrow afternoon and I will try again. I really think having focus points like this is making for better broadcasts and listeners’ experiences.

Hi All - Dave Nathan checking-in from North Carolina. I recently did a UNC-NC State MBB game. I listened to a couple of different stretches. The best one came at  the start of the 2nd half. I was 14-18 on who had the ball (with two mentions of who was defending). 16-18 times the listener knew who had the ball from the 1st possession of the half until the first media time-out. This is something I've really worked on over the last several years - and it really makes a big difference for the listener. 

Since we've returned from our COVID-break at Saint Mary's, I've only done our televised feed on the WCC Network. I did radio last season, so I was interested to see if there was a difference between scores for radio and for television. My scores were not ideal...2/10 for radio and 3/11 for TV. The caveat is that I did identify which team had possession EVENTUALLY...just not right away or as soon as they got into the front court (8/10 radio, 9/11 TV).

My question for the group, and possibly Jon, is: does this matter as much for a televised broadcast versus radio? This is my first crack at D1 televised hoops so I've had to scale back and be more selective with words, and thus I didn't feel it was as crucial since you are watching as opposed to listening, but maybe I'm wrong! Curious as to what you all think.

Due to where I am, COVID has canceled all sports since the pandemic started so I've been doing a lot of work on past games that are on youtube. For this specific one, I did an old Wizards game and got 15/17 correct which is about 88% so a B. One of the ones I missed was a steal on an inbounds play that resulted in a made layup half a second later. Then a steal on the press a second after that. The speed just got the best of me there and that is the biggest thing that I am trying to work on personally, slowing things down when chaos occurs.

Went 19/25. Especially considering this objective was top-of-mind, that’s not great! I️’ll try to do better on Monday.

I'm still waiting for my first game on this season. That's the life of high school sports in Illinois currently. I've actually asked some of my friends in other states about doing some remote broadcasts but a huge snow storm in Minnesota bumped out my chance for a game this weekend. All that said, I went back and listened to myself on a game from last season. I was okay going 9/13 on the segment I listed too. Interestingly though I noticed I was actually 8/9 and then struggled as the game went on. I wonder if that's not uncommon. At the start I'm focusing on distinguishing between the teams but once the game is going I make the assumption everyone is as aware as I am...the mistake with that is for those tuning in mid-game. Also, one might say on television it would be obvious but one thing I noticed is with the number of teams who are using alternate jerseys you can't assume white uniform means home and darker jersey means away so I think even on TV it helps to make clear which team has the ball. I really enjoyed thinking about this and I've enjoyed reading comments from everyone else as well. 

Hello fellow broadcasters! My name is Jack Hillgrove and I am a broadcaster for the TribLive HSSN, covering HS sports across Western PA. This is my 3rd year with the network, as I am on the precipice of graduating from Waynesburg University with a Communication degree with emphasis in Sports Broadcasting. My mentor and professor, Lanny Frattare, is the former 33 year voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Tonight I was able to call boys hoops action between South Allegheny and Washington. This was my first basketball broadcast since the end of last February, and like the players after a month off via a shutdown, I too had to shake off some rust. Here were 3 of my biggest challenges this evening.

1. Memorization of players and numbers
-To me, this is key for basketball broadcasting. As a college student, there will be times where I have a million other things to do leading up to a broadcast, so memorizing players and numbers doesn’t get done as well when I’m busy with school work. That has kicked back in this week, and my memorization for this game was much weaker than I’d like it. In a perfect world, when I’m done with my charts, I’ll have one of my parents or my roommate quiz me on the players and numbers after I give them a look through. I find that this helps tremendously.

2. Foul sequencing
-This always takes some time to get down right after a hiatus from announcing basketball for me. In class, Lanny teaches us a certain way to call and sequence a foul when it happens. I know everyone has their methods, but I find that this helps a ton. The following is how I was taught to teach a foul:
State the whistle- score, time period,- who foul is on - “his first, team second” - “to the line is player x” or “team a will inbound” 

When you give the score after the whistle, it allows you and the referee to run to the scorers table and explain the guilty party, so you know for sure who the foul is on and it all flows nicely through the broadcast. As my game went on tonight I got back into this routine. 

That’s about it from me. I also took this time to integrate Jon’s email about possession changes, which got better as my game went on. When I went back and listened, adding that in there made my call sound even more descriptive and insightful. With practice, I am confident I’ll be able to sear that into my brain for further basketball broadcasts. 

If you took the time to read this, I greatly appreciate it. Feel free to comment as well, and I’ll try to get back to you. Very much looking forward to more discussions and hopefully chatting with some of you. Take care! 

Definitely thought I was gonna grade poorly on previous broadcasts and randomly picked a segment where I was 10/12. (Didn’t count it if it wasn’t at the beginning of the possession)
Our basketball team doesn’t start until the 20th, so I broadcasted our scrimmage and was 14/14 on a stretch today but obviously it was top of mind and because it was a scrimmage I was focusing solely on it.
Part of the challenge for me seems to be varying vocabulary. Sometimes during a broadcast I’m thinking about NOT establishing because I assume people know. Does anyone feel similar or am I just crazy?

After listening to 10 minutes of game action from my high school basketball broadcast on Tuesday, there were 23 changes of possessions. I counted 17 times out of those that I noted which team has the ball. That's a 74% clip, and clearly not good enough... it's something I will zero in on through the course of this season to see if I can improve my consistency there.

Curious to get y'all's thoughts on this though... nearly all of the possession changes in which I did not explicitly state which team had the ball were after a made bucket. On all of these, I did clearly say which team scored.

Ex: "Kemp dribbles to the right elbow, pulls up, and knocks down a jumper to extend Franklin's lead, 42-38 with 3 minutes left in the half....... Herbert jets across the timeline on the other end" 

Ideally, I know I need to make it more clear which team has the ball. But when the listener knows Franklin has just scored, they can conclude that the other team has the ball on the following possession, right? What are y'all's thoughts?

I'll give myself an A- with 12 of 14 in the stretch I listened to. Doing regional high school games I've always made an effort to identify teams consistently since a listener who happens to find me on the dial may not be familiar enough with either team to know who they are based on the player's names.