[olldflame]

I don't know how hard/costly it is to do, but having the shot clock on the screen would be a big plus IMHO.

[BJWilliams]

Im no television production expert but I would think that itd take a few (possibly minor) adjustments to the preexisting graphic to be able to display a shot clock as part of it

[PAmedic]

BUMP

***

wanted to say "thanks" to all the staff, incl the Chancellor, who made the televised games possible this year. I'll throw FB season in here too, even though I'm primarily talking hoops season.

Loved coming home at 0-dark-thirty, parking my butt on the couch, and dialing up LU hoops on my Xbox. Great way to wind down after a shift, for sure. Great job by SCAR and company, always like seeing you bro.

Even better, I can go back and watch FB from last fall to get my fix if needed.

One complaint tho- and it's a big one. Will someone PLEASE explain to me WHY we insist on letting the BSOUTH come into OUR arena and take OUR games from us? And if that wasnt the case, why are some home games NOT avail when so many are? It just seems to me that we are in the position w/ this half-arsed league that we really don't need permission to air OUR content.

Loved being able to put it up on the big screen in reasonably good definition. Just wish it was an automatic thing each time the teams are in action. Guess I'm spoiled.

Here's hoping we start getting LU baseball on ESPN3/Xbox.

Thanks again everyone!

[BJWilliams]

Definitely enjoy having the games on ESPN3. The only comments I have on improvement are what have been reiterated for a while on this thread: add more commercials to the rotation and change up the graphics. I like the graphic ESPN uses so something similar to that would be great

[kuntryboimike]

Gotta second PAmedics comment on hopefully getting LU Baseball AT LEAST on the Liberty Channel. In my opinion any time there's a Liberty athletic event going on it should be on the Liberty channel. I personally only know a couple people who watch the Liberty channel when sports are not being televised.

[PAmedic]

Considering the huge number of LU-Online students and our national alumni base, you have a BIG audience that can ONLY follow online or via ESPN/MASN/whatever.

I really hope we are emphasizing our TV network BIGTIME when it comes to conference negotiations. I'm sure JB/JFJR are on it tho.

to do something like BYU and have everything on nationwide, all the time, would be great. Even if we could grease some palms to get the Liberty Channel on Dish. I'd give up one of the 87 freakin' Spanish Channels I seem to have. Or equal number of shopping channels. How much cubic zirconia, flo-bee's and size 24 sundresses does a guy need anyway?

[TylerBakersGonnaBGreat]

I have seen quite a few games over the last few seasons:

the crew (Jones/Scarborough) is second to none. Good rapport, smooth call and color, and very little "homer" attitude, in my opinion. These guys need to do away games too. First Rate.

camera angles are good, replays good, stats... eh. I've seen at least one broadcast where they were flat out wrong, but that may be for a variety of reasons.

halftime shows- dont know; I dont watch them, as a rule.

commercials: if we had more than 3 in the rotation, that would be nice. Trey has lost his appeal to me...

hope that helps

I agree with all of these comments.

I think the graphics are awful looking. Ive had numerous people that watch games at my house and that is the first thing that they say.

I also hate the halftime interviews/shows. It just makes us look like we are trying to be a big time production (College Gameday type), but we have no idea what it takes to do it.

Other than that I think everything is great. Ive seen MUCH worse that the mid-major level.

And obviously would prefer HD, but thats not an option at this point.

[Bigsouthking]

The announcers talk too much! It's not radio, it's TV we can see what's going! They need to explain what the Flames need to do to win or the opponent needs to do..

Most diehard fans that already know the LU program and doesn't need to be reminded where every player is from every 4 minutes.

Camera angle gets too zoned in sometimes, especially if there is a skirmish... One game Burrus got pushed but camera angle was bad and ref couldn't call a tech on other team..

Other than that it's better than rest of the BSC schools TV crews!

Does Liberty have a broadcasting major??? Seriously?

[BJWilliams]

It does actually...that was my specialization in undergrad.

[thepostman]

I think the basketball broadcasts are a lot better then the football broadcasts.

For our level currently you can't really complain. Its light years ahead of anything the Big South does

[thepostman]

Does Liberty have a broadcasting major??? Seriously?

I am a PROUD holder of a degree from the LU School of Communications!!! Concentration in broadcasting...

Ok, so not that proud. In fact I regret choosing that field to major in. Would've been fine as a minor but the program was fairly weak and ended up teaching myself more then I actually was taught.

[NotAJerry]

I think the basketball broadcasts are a lot better then the football broadcasts.

For our level currently you can't really complain. Its light years ahead of anything the Big South does

This nails it down pretty well. While basketball just needs some tinkering/improvement when the funds and equipment are there, football is awful on every level.

Keep churning along with the hoops broadcasts, things are definitely going in the right direction on that front.

[Sly Fox]

In fairness, the hoops broadcasts are much easier to pull off than football. And we have considerably more experience at one over the other. Frankly I thought this year's football production was much cleaner and smoother than last year. Our team appears to be getting its legs under itself.

[thepostman]

In fairness, the hoops broadcasts are much easier to pull off than football. And we have considerably more experience at one over the other. Frankly I thought this year's football production was much cleaner and smoother than last year. Our team appears to be getting its legs under itself.

Agreed completely. Football is a whole different animal. There is still work to do but it is moving in the right direction

[NotAJerry]

In fairness, the hoops broadcasts are much easier to pull off than football. And we have considerably more experience at one over the other. Frankly I thought this year's football production was much cleaner and smoother than last year. Our team appears to be getting its legs under itself.

Agreed completely. Football is a whole different animal. There is still work to do but it is moving in the right direction

They do need to find at least 1 decent announcer. The current crew is unbearable.

[Purple Haize]

In fairness, the hoops broadcasts are much easier to pull off than football. And we have considerably more experience at one over the other. Frankly I thought this year's football production was much cleaner and smoother than last year. Our team appears to be getting its legs under itself.

Agreed completely. Football is a whole different animal. There is still work to do but it is moving in the right direction

They do need to find at least 1 decent announcer. The current crew is unbearable.

They could move York to the TV side he does a good job on the radio. Of course that may be because he has the face for radio?

[flamehunter]

Nick Pierce.

[BJWilliams]

Dunno how Nick would do calling football but he does fine work on baseball and basketball

[thepostman]

Nick Pierce.

This....for radio that is. Alan would do fine on tv, he already does the weekly tv show and does fine

[flamehunter]

Dunno how Nick would do calling football but he does fine work on baseball and basketball

He always seems well prepared and quite knowledgeable. Also, he's easy to listen to, not always mispronouncing names/words and stumbling over himself. I know football's a whole different animal, but I think he would do a fine job, TV or radio.

[EagleOne]

As for areas of improvement, the only thing really needing a significant upgrade is the halftime show. The current setup simply isn't clicking. I wish I could work all three of the talent some time. Hildo & Coach Manley have good content but just need to some polish & understanding of what works best on television. It would probably help quite a bit to have some cover b-roll for the long interviews. Perhaps Hildo & Coach Manley could you guys a heads up on one topic they each will be working ... perhaps a player or series of plays that were crucial in first half so you could cut a couple short VOs. It'd be awesome if you had some packages to toss to but I understand those challenges as well.

I also hate the halftime interviews/shows. It just makes us look like we are trying to be a big time production (College Gameday type), but we have no idea what it takes to do it.
.

I agree with both of you. I'm sure it'd take more work to put together polished features for halftime, but now it just looks like they wanted an easy way to fill up halftime. But just having a desk and three talking heads isn't really cutting it.

At the minimum it'd be nice if they could add some footage of what the hosts are talking about, like was suggested above, rather than just watch them talk. The optimum though, would be having pre-produced segments to air and then just come back and having Ray and Scar do a first half wrap up with highlights and stats, etc. I'm sure this would be more time-consuming, but you'd think most of them could be put together during the offseason.
But if that can't be done I'd almost rather see a recorded interview of a player, coach or other Liberty sports personnel and then just using Ray and Scar live at the half talking/analyzing the game and showing highlights. The 3 or 4 person desk just doesn't seem to add much imo, especially for basketball. Instead I'd suggest just using one of these hosts as a sideline reporter who could interview each HC, one going into the half and one coming out.

Overall though, the games themselves look very good, and as well as most you see anywhere. The main announcers, imo, are solid. Ray and Scar do a very good job with basketball and I think Mike does a fine job with football teamed with Ray. I also think the camera work is on par with that of most networks.

As others have said, I'm sure the graphics could be upgraded, but I see Old School has already mentioned it is going to be addressed. Although I would suggest having the score bar moved to the bottom of the screen like ESPN and CBS does to avoid keeping it off of players heads, etc.

Overall a good solid production and a few tweaks, especially with halftime, will be able to take it up another notch.

[Old School]

Thank you for all the comments. Very informative. Too address a couple of questions.....coaches don't want to be interviewed at halftime, because they are preparing to address the team at that time and are usually late coming out of the half. Working on the graphics as addressed before for next season. With our current staff, time and equipment it is virtually impossible to put together packages to roll in at the half, alto I would like to do that. I am looking into special guests, commentators, former players, etc. for halftime interviews. I think that will enhance the halftime a lot more. Pleasae keep watching the broadcasts as we look to make them better each year. As a side note, our Stony Brook vs Liberty Big South Conference Championship football game won a Telly Award this year for TV broadcasting along with our production of the Flames SportsDesk. Thank you all.

[BJWilliams]

Dunno how Nick would do calling football but he does fine work on baseball and basketball

He always seems well prepared and quite knowledgeable. Also, he's easy to listen to, not always mispronouncing names/words and stumbling over himself. I know football's a whole different animal, but I think he would do a fine job, TV or radio.

Nick does well with baseball because thats the real foundation for him as it relates to sports broadcasting (doing our games as well as Danville Braves games for a number of years). If they expanded to include things like more baseball games, softball, women's lacrosse or even soccer, itd be nice to have some additional available talent to call upon for those sports

[thepostman]

thanks OldSchool...I know I have been a critic in the past but overall the quality of broadcasts are very solid. Not many schools at our level have the opportunity to watch so many games. There has been improvements every year and that is all one can ask for.

[jbock13]

As a suggestion, remember the bottom scoreboard graphics that we used for Liberty at Charleston Southern game? I would love to see that become permanent. It was absolutely perfect.