There Is A Reason Gus Johnson Is Not A Baseball Announcer

I am not sure why there is such a crazy about over-lapping Gus Johnson screaming into every dramatic sports video ever, but nonetheless it is somewhat entertaining. If you have ever thought about why Gus Johnson never does baseball, hearing him screaming dubbed over T-Mac and Wheels on John Mayberry, Jr.'s top of the 9th game-tying 2-run blast off Huston Street may carry some of the answers.



On the plus side, that was better than T-Mac's orgasm.

The Phillies went onto win 4-3 in the 10th inning thanks to a Victorino solo shot.

Butler Is Back In The Final Four

1985 was the first year the NCAA Tournament expanded to a field of 64 with the only format changes since then being that of play-in-games. In that year, 8-seeded Villanova went to the Final Four, and ultimately won the NCAA Tournament in what is considered one of the greatest NCAA Tournament upsets of all time. Since that time, only 3 other teams seeded 8th (and 0 seeded 9th) advanced to the Final Four: North Carolina in 2000, Wisconsin in 2000, Butler in 2011. North Carolina and Wisconsin both bowed out in the Final Four that year. There is a reason this is a rare occurrence. The 8 or the 9 seed is literally the worst possible draw in the NCAA Tournament. If Butler beats the winner of Kansas/VCU, they will do something that has not been done in 26 years: advance to the Final Four as an 8-seed. Best of luck to the Butler Bulldogs, for when they take the court next Saturday in Houston, they will be up against some very sacred NCAA Tournament history.

The Gus Johnson Sound Alike Contest

Having Gus Johnson as "the voice of Big Ten basketball" certainly has some benefits, including the ability to have Gus Johnson star in some odd promotional events. This one, though, features Gus taking a backseat as three kids do Gus Johnson impersonations while calling three exciting moments in Big Ten basketball. It's as entertaining as it sounds.



Given that this occurred at the Indiana-Penn State game, I would say this was probably the most exciting portion of the night for everyone at Conseco Fieldhouse. As far as who had the most realistic Gus Johnson scream, I would say that honor goes to the third guy who went. He even managed to get in a few Gus quotes there. Nice work to all three of them, and may I express my supreme jealousy that they got to stand next to Gus Johnson on a basketball court while impersonating him. Lucky bastards.

(hat tip to kt1000 in the live blog.)

2011 March Madness Announcers Revealed

One day after CBS accidentally leaked that Steve Kerr would be joining Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg for the Final Four, CBS and Turner have released their entire announcing roster for this year's March Madness. To try to mitigate the confusion as much as possible, I have the rounds listed below and the announcer pairings working said rounds.

TV stations that will be used

CBS
TNT
TBS
TruTV

Tuesday Night First Four (note: First Four games will be broadcast on TruTV)

Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, and Steve Kerr

Wednesday Night First Four

Gus Johnson and Len Elmore

2nd Round and 3rd Round (note: these are in no particular order)

Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg
Marv Albert and Steve Kerr
Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery
Gus Johnson and Len Elmore
Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel
Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, and Reggie Miller
Spero Dedes and Bob Wenzel
Tim Brando and Mike Gminski

Sweet 16 and Elite 8 announcers

Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg
Marv Albert and Steve Kerr
Gus Johnson and Len Elmore
Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery

(source: Fang's Bites; hat tip to ssreporters in the comments section

Final Four and National Championship game

Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, and Steve Kerr

No one specific was mentioned in Richard Deitsch's article that broke the news, for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, however, if I were to guess I think it would shape up a bit like this.

Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg: Easy, this is the top pairing.

Gus Johnson and Len Elmore: The team calling the national championship game is doing one night of First Four games. Johnson and Elmore are doing the other. CBS and Turner know who to give exposure to (or, so we think). I would not say this is a sure thing as Johnson always seemed to be the #4 in the old days of March Madness, but I think this a pretty safe bet nonetheless.

Marv Albert and Steve Kerr: Turner is going to want their broadcasters represented in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, especially if Kerr is only joining Nantz and Kellogg in the Final Four.

Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery: Tournament veterans. Gotta have Verne and Raft, no?

If there is a 5th team lurking here, it is the Harlan/Bonner/Miller combination. Kevin Harlan does NBA games for TNT as does Miller. I would not be surprised if Harlan gets a promotion at the expense of either Johnson/Elmore, Albert/Kerr (with Kerr joining Nantz/Kellogg over a week early), or Lundquist/Raftery.

The following will act as sideline reporters during March Madness (note: sideline reporters have not been assigned broadcast teams yet, except for Tracy Wolfson and Nantz/Kellogg/Kerr on the Final Four)

Tracy Wolfson
Craig Sager
David Aldridge
Sam Ryan
Marty Snider
Lesley Visser

Now for the studio coverage. There will be two studios, one in CBS's headquarters in New York like normal, and another in Atlanta at Turner's headquarters.

Now for the list of personnel who will see at some point or another during March Madness.

Greg Gumbel
Ernie Johnson
Matt Winer
Charles Barkley
Kenny Smith
Greg Anthony
Seth Davis
Steve Smith

If you want to read a little more about the studio assignments, check out Deitsch's article.

I am not sure I am entirely thrilled about this (no Jay Bilas; too many talking heads in the studio), but everytime I think about that, my thoughts turn to the prospect of ESPN taking over an over 100 team tournament and how this is only 68 teams with every game being shown on national TV. I then realize that things could be 10 times worse. Every March Madness game is being shown on national TV. There may be some kinks in the broadcast, but at least I will no longer have to hope that Greg Gumbel changes the remote for me or that March Madness On Demand is not running 3 minutes behind.

Jags Win On Amazing Last Second Hail Mary; Gus Johnson Loses His Mind Screaming.

Remember when Gus got the amazing hail mary finish last year? Yeah. Good times. If I'm a Bills or a Bengals fan, I'm buying a defibrillator for next week.

Gus Johnson To Be Featured In Madden 2011

Pat Summerall, Al Michaels, Tom Hammond, and now, Gus Johnson.

This year, Gus Johnson will be joining the above group of announcers who have done play-by-play for EA Sports' Madden video game franchise. From USA Today.

CBS Sports announcer Gus Johnson has been named the play-by-play announcer for Madden NFL 11, publisher Electronic Arts has announced.

Johnson will join Cris Collingsworth as part of the two-man broadcast team slated to call games on EA's NFL simulation.

Johnson, known for his high-energy playcalling, breathes some new life into an audio presentation that had been criticized for lacking punch.

"Taking a step back, we really looked at -- this has to be one of the most important parts of the game," says Madden art director Mike Young in a video documentary on the developers' emphasis on audio for Madden NFL 11.

The game will also feature more authentic in-game sounds such as team chants, fight songs and music piping into the stadium between plays. Madden NFL 11 is slated for release in August.

While in the past, EA Sports has turned Al Michaels and Tom Hammond into completely boring robots, Gus Johnson is a fresh voice whose excitement is just contagious and will almost certainly sound more into it than any of the above announcers were. Now granted, when playing sports video games, I turn the announcer audio all the way down and do all the commentary myself, but at the same time, I do like to feature the in-game announcers as a change of pace, and each time I do it, I find myself bored to tears. Congrats to Gus and here is hoping he can liven up the Madden franchise and make it a much more enjoyable listen when I am not doing the games myself.

Gus Johnson Announces A Dog Humping A Stuffed Animal

The only thing better than Gus Johnson is Gus Johnson announcing a dog humping a stuffed animal. The link is broken now for some reason, but this, my friends, is the (now seemingly defunct) Gus Johnson soundboard put to good use.



"BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!"
"He's in shape!"
"OHHH!!!!! OHHHHH!!!!!!!"
"Here comes the pain!"

That video has just completed my life. Thank you With Leather. If you did not enjoy that awesomeness then I never ever want to talk to you again. Ever. I mean that.

"AN INSTANT CLASSIC ON THE CORNER OF JOHN STOCKTON AND KARL MALONE DRIVE!" And The Rest of Gus Johnson's Fun Night In Salt Lake City

Oh, Gus, we really did miss you and your awesome screaming in the NCAA Tournament! What a night he had. For all the bad luck he has had in the past few years, he can now say that in what has been a wild and incredible tournament, he called the Game of the Tournament. But before we go there, let's get to this little thing called Butler upsetting Syracuse in a close game, shall we?



"BUTLER! AGAIN!"

Priceless Gus Johnson. It is worthy to note that before that Gus did have his moments of complete freakout in that game, although aside from the highlight videos that everything out, I can't seem to find anything.

And that maybe because the game he called after that one trumped it by a wide margin. Here are your late 2nd half and overtime game and Gus Johnson highlights of what was undoubtedly the game of the tournament, quite possibly the game of the college basketball season thus far, and maybe even an overall game of the year candidate. I present to you this highlight video starring Kansas State, Xavier, Karl Hess, and Gus Johnson.



"Let's it go AND BURIES IT!" - GuJo on a K-State 3 to put them up 3 with 23.6 to go.
"Here comes Holloway with the screen, OH HE'S FOULED ON THE SHOT!" - GuJo on the shooting foul behind the arc.
"WE'RE HEADING TO OVERTIME!" - GuJo. Self explanatory.
"Holloway, turns, fires OH HE MADE IT AGAIN! - GuJo on a Holloway 3 that tied the game with 46 seconds left.
"Holloway, he's shown a flare for the dramatic. Holloway! 11 to go! Holloway! Holloway gets it out. Crawford! 8! Crawford's gotta HURRY! UP..OOOHHHH!!!!!!!! HE'S TIED IT! CLEMENTE! CLEMENTE FIRES....AND WE'RE HEADING TO DOUBLE OVERTIME!! WHAT A GAME! INSTANT CLASSIC ON THE CORNER OF JOHN STOCKTON AND KARL MALONE DRIVE!" - Gus Johnson calling the final seconds of the first overtime.(Len Elmore's screaming drowns out the "OH!" but if you listen closely you can still make it out.)
"Redford a 3. Off the glass and no good and that's it! Kansas State advances to the Elite 8 with a double overtime win over Xavier! 101-96!" - Gus at the end of the game.

Now for some talk about the game. Yes, Karl Hess did mess up that call at the end of regulation. Yes there was a foul before the shot before the foul in the act of shooting behind the arc was called. Yes, Karl Hess was given a get out of jail free call by Kansas State holding off Xavier and winning one of the most thrilling and exciting NCAA Tournament games we've seen in quite some time.

Now back to Gus. If you think that we are the only ones that talk about Gus Johnson, think again.

Check this out:

As the seconds were winding down in double overtime, Gus Johnson was the #1 Worldwide Trending Topic on Twitter. How cool is that.

And yes, I was at first disappointed that Gus got the West region. I figured that out of his three possible destinations (Houston is the excluded destination for the obvious reasons; Nantz's hometown and Duke), SLC was the least attractive of the bunch. Boy was I wrong. We are yet to see what takes place in St. Louis but last night Salt Lake City saw a close and exciting upset, even if at times it was not the most beautiful basketball game ever played, and that was followed by the Kansas State-Xavier thriller that was without a doubt the game of a tournament filled with great games. On the other hand, the games in Syracuse set basketball back a few decades.

2010 CBS March Madness Announcers Revealed

While exact games and locations obviously will not be known until after Selection Sunday, CBS sent out a press release today announcing their 8 announce pairings for this year's NCAA Tournament. And to keep you on the edge of your seat, there are two surprises. For starters, an announcer that we all thought retired from college basketball is not actually retired just yet and, alas, the epic pairing of WenzelJack is no more! So without further ado, here are your 8 announce teams for CBS' coverage of the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament!

Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg
Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas
Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery
Gus Johnson and Len Elmore
Kevin Harlan and Dan Bonner
Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel
Tim Brando and Mike Gminski
Spero Dedes and Bob Wenzel

Both changes garner an "ugh" from me. As much as I love Dick Enberg, keeping up with basketball was the first thing to go with age and there is no sign of him ever coming back. Sadly, he is likely to do nothing but embarrass himself this year. The only game he did with CBS all year was the Arch Madness title game and now he is going to call big tournament games? With the slow senility that Enberg is descending into, this has trainwreck written all over it.

The other change, is the removal of the Jack from WenzelJack. Now it's WenzelDedes. Or something. As horrible a color commentator as Wenzel is, I always sort of enjoyed Bolerjack's work. He was clearly passionate about the game and was very excitable, though being stuck with a horrible analyst did him no favor. Now we've got the very dull Spero Dedes with Bob Wenzel. Kill me now.

Scottie Reynolds Would Like To Make Gus Johnson's And Greg Anthony's Life Difficult

I like Scottie Reynolds. I like Gus Johnson. I don't think Scottie Reynolds likes Gus Johnson very much.

During the Villanova game today against West Virginia, Scottie Reynolds lost his balance as he was running out of bounds. So what does he do to regain his balance? Natrually, he tries to use the announce table and unfortunately for all, he ended up knocking over the CBS table where Gus Johnson and Greg Anthony were sitting.



Too funny. And the telestrator going nuts right afterwards was priceless. It actually amazes that with the number of times players hustle and dive out of bounds like that this type of thing thing does not happen more often. Obviously I was being sarcastic at the top and it was an accident, but still, that is funny. And it was also nice to see Gus and Greg take it in a good stride like they did.

Brandon Stokley And Gus Johnson Are Each The Recipient Of A Miracle

22 hours later and I still can't believe this play. And I also can't believe that Gus Johnson is still alive. Check out the video with the GuJo audio.



What a play. And what a call by Johnson. It was a bit over-the-top, yes, but that's not really a bad thing. I greatly enjoy his enthusiasm, even if it his over-the-top. And if Brandon Stokley's catch is any indication as to how the Broncos's season is going to go and/or is a momentum and confidence booster to them, then I'm pretty sure Seattle fans everywhere are feeling a dagger in their hearts despite shutting the Rams out 28-0.