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CBS

Nessler is great. Raftery doesn’t seem to know the rules of the game at times—also doesn’t seem to like UK much nowadays. I’ll take him over Bilas and a few others, but the commentators of the sport are almost in as a piss poor state as the refs are.
 
I have to disagree on Raftery, he used to great but his schtick is tired and he seems to be a lot more negative and critical of us when he calls our games. I always liked Nessler, he's fair and calls a good game.

I think his memory is not what it used to be. Would rather watch the game and him make a few mistakes than watch the ESPN guys show everything but the game.
 
Raftery getting excited and spouting off unintelligibly is probably the most annoying thing any broadcaster does in college basketball.

I may want him to retire more than Dickie V. And that's saying something.
 
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Let’s not forget the obvious welcomed difference between CBS And ESPN broadcasting today. Two of the best in the game calling it in Raftery and Nessler.
Rafferty is the worst.. "he takes the ball.........tothebasket!" It doesn' t sound exciting, it sounds ridiculous...and we rarely run anything resembling the dribble drive since cal has been at uk, but every game he calls, its dribble drive any time we touch the ball.
 
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Raff is a top 5 announcer of all time he brings excitement and a voice in college basketball always look forward to his calls
 
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In that business, some of these guys take it upon themselves to try to stand out from the crowd. And for some it's coming up with a trademark phrase, etc. I think that's happened over the years with Rafferty. He use to be (still is IMO} a very solid b'ball analyst who was strictly business (not so much now). Then he came up with the 'man to man' to start the games and it got more and more over the top. Same thing with Dickie V but he was more outgoing when he started which has made more over the top as the years have gone by.

Nessler on the other hand is just a very good play by play guy. Knew him just a little when I lived in Atlanta. Good guy.
 
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Like Raftery a lot. Don’t know why anyone would complain about his commentary today.
Dont dislike him.....but he did say great call on those phantom fouls when the replay clearly showed zero contact. Reffing is not easy for sure if you think so you need to try it, but they need challenges as in college football, you can sure make a case for trying to keep games aligned with the gamblers. Raft should not make calls when a replay he has access to clearly shows no contact plus sending Nick to the bench when he was hot.
 
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Tom and Mike all game every game. CBS does imo put in a better production. It’s still about the game with them. ESPN make sure it about them. They have pretty much ruined the game experience and their SportCenters are unwatchable.

CBS messed up the start times. Guides had previous game running to 3 CST. Some DVRs you can adjust times but it’s hard to know when to for live events.
 
It was pleasant not to have to look at up close views of the coaches when ball is being played.
Very pleasant not to see cameras on Bill Walton and Dave Pasch, or hear Bill Walton and Dick Vitale drone on with their incessant "diarrhea of the mouth." Not really fair to players nor the fans watching.
 
Very pleasant not to see cameras on Bill Walton and Dave Pasch, or hear Bill Walton and Dick Vitale drone on with their incessant "diarrhea of the mouth." Not really fair to players nor the fans watching.

As far as Walton, lets get this out of the way. He definitely fried his brain on drugs back in the 70's and 80's. And is still a "california" flower child today. I have mixed emotions about his basketball calling skills. I generally have trouble watching him drone on and on. But I was pretty impressed during the UK game he called recently. He was very knowledgable about UK, the state of KY and Lexington. Seemed to have a genuine appreciation for UK and their basketball history. Frankly, I was surprised.
 
Raff is way better than Bilas. Bilas trolls some of our fans, and they are too dumb to know it, hence the threads about him on RR
 
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I may be in the vast minority but I actually liked Billy Packer most of the time. Except for when we played Duke in 1998 I felt like he was generally neutral or positive of our program despite his reverence of the ACC which is not as bad as Bilas and other ESPN shills. His big fault was he credited coaches for everything, not the players, but maybe because they are the constants of the sport. I guess the broadcasting has declined so much in general that in hindsight he seems better.
 
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