This video came into the AA Twitter account, and features the call of the end of the game between Tennessee high schools Brentwood and Ravenwood. Brentwood player Jack Montague lays in a basket with 1.6 seconds left to give Brentwood the win, and announcer Alex Dostaler goes completely bonkers. By the time the crowd storms the court as the final buzzer sounds, Dostaler's voice is cracking as he's screaming and cheering in the booth. 

WBHS-9 appears to be a local public access channel that's run by Brentwood High, featuring tons of sports programming. That explains the exuberant attitude shown by Dostaler in the booth. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any contact info for him on their website to try to get a comment. At any rate, the insane reaction shown by Dostaler is a nice breath of fresh air in the era of political correctness, even if this was just a high school game.

For the record, when I was watching my high school football team play in the state title game back in December, the announcers didn't show a fraction of this emotion. It's good to see that at least one announcer out there has passion for something. Unfortunately, this didn't give us a "PY-RO-TECH-NICS" moment, but it was still pretty funny.

[h/t: Twitter]

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Ratings for the NFL's Pro Bowl are in, and they're down 8.1% from last year. The 2011 Pro Bowl drew an 8.6 last year on Fox, but this year's was just at 7.9 on NBC. But overall, in spite of its less than competitive nature, the Pro Bowl is still the king of All-Star games. 12.5 million people watched the game this season, in comparison with 11 million for last year's MLB All-Star Game, 8.1 million for the NBA All-Star Game last year (on cable, no less), and 2.4 million this past weekend's NHL All-Star Game in Canada (the total number of viewers in North America still likely placing it 4th out of the 4 major All-Star games).

Each game (aside from the NFL's) has a skills competition of some sort and other festivities, including the MLB with the Home Run Derby, Futures Game and Celebrity Softball Game, the NHL's skills competition, and the NBA with its dunk contest, skills competition, and rookies vs sophomores game. The fact that the NFL doesn't have any other events surrounding the game may compel people to tune into the game as opposed to just the skills competition that may actually be more watchable.

None of the games are really played hard with the possible exception of the MLB game. Points are usually prevalent in the games, with the NHL All-Star game cracking 20 goals, the Pro Bowl breaking 100 points, and the NBA All-Star Game almost exceeding 300 points last year.

In the MLB game, it's kind of tough to take it easy, unless you just expect your pitchers to throw 85 mph fastballs instead of 97 mph heaters, and have the fielders jog towards every ball and not really bother laying out for any balls. But by the same token, the MLB All-Star Game is the only one that "matters" (despite your opinions on that, it still does), and each team actually has some motivation to try to win.

If I had to watch any of the games, I'd choose the MLB game, which I usually do watch every year. The other games just seem like a total joke, and despite Bud Selig's incompetence in the office of MLB Commissioner, the MLB game at least has some semblance of "mattering." But the fact that the Pro Bowl continues to win the ratings battle once again emphasizes what we all know: the NFL is king in this country, even amongst exhibition games.

[h/t: USA Today]

Tell us which All-Star Game you would watch if given the choice to only watch one.  Of course, none is also an option...

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The following videos from Big Ten Network take you behind the scenes with AA favorite Gus Johnson for a recent Northwestern v Michigan State game.  BTN has done something few networks have ever done and centered their basketball coverage around an announcer.  There are plenty of fans that wish Fox would get behind Gus like BTN has done.  However, with Gus largely missing from the NFL, it looks like Gusaholics will have to settle for his college football work with Fox and basketball work with Big Ten Network.

BTN routinely promotes the network as the home of Gus Johnson announcing college basketball games.  Given his popularity amongst young fans and the blogs, it's a wise move.  Gus is one of the few announcers that fans will actually tune in to watch regardless of the game.  Even outside of Gus Johnson's popularity though, the three videos below are an interesting look inside how any announcer prepares for a game.

The second segment shows Gus at the arena talking to players and coaches (in a gray Knicks sweatsuit) and takes a look at his announcing boards and the information he uses during a game.  

The third segment is the best though as it shows what Gus Johnson is like during the actual game.  Critics of Gus will say his theatrics are just for show, but the man is the genuine article.  He actually does get as excited as he sounds on a broadcast!  The video shows Gus ringing up baskets, pointing dramatically at timeouts, and getting up out of his chair for a long three at the end of the first half.  That's why Gus Johnson resonates with the fan as an announcer.  It's not just his excitement, but his authenticity that makes Gus such a popular announcer.

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It's hard to believe that 2012 marks the tenth year of ESPN's Bracketbusters.  What started as a novelty concept has become one of the highlights of the college basketball season.  I have no idea if this was a first or not, but last night ESPU held a "selection show" to reveal the games for this year's edition in mid-February.  Last year, two so called mid-majors made the Final Four with Butler and VCU making an appearance.  This year, it's unbeaten Murray State and #12 Creighton leading the way.  The marquee matchup of Bracketbusters will certainly be Murray State hosting #16 St. Mary's and ESPN can only hope the Racers stay perfect until then.  Here's the full schedule...

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Blake Griffin has thrown down some pretty monstrous dunks in his short NBA career.  There were these two amazing jams against the Knicks last year including permanently putting Timofey Mozgov on a poster.  There was this steal and reverse dunk against the Pistons.  There was this 360 in the Slam Dunk contest and he even dunked over a car.  There were over 200 more from his rookie campaign and many more this year with the advent of Lob City.

Blake Griffin may have thousands of dunks by the time his career is over, but none will be better than his dunk in tonight's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.  In fact, I dare say this is not just Blake Griffin's greatest dunk, but the greatest dunk in NBA history.  Is that being a prisoner of the moment?  Of course!  Blake Griffin goes 1 v 1 with one of the best and most intimidating defenders in the game, Kendrick Perkins.  Griffin meets Perkins at the rim and then uses his body as a launching pad to lift into the stratosphere before throwing the ball through the net with enough force to momentarily throw the planet off its rotational axis.  Normal human beings aren't supposed to do this!  

Here's Clippers announcers Ralph Lawler and Mike Smith with the call...

H/T TalkHoops

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In case you missed it, you can catch highlights of Sunday's NHL All-Star Game above.  It featured slightly more defense and competitiveness than the Pro Bowl, although with Drew Brees attempting drop kicks, maybe that's not saying much.  Your announcing schedule for the week on ice is below.

Tuesday January 31

Washington Capitals @ Tampa Bay Lightning (NBCSN 7:30PM) Dave Strader, Brian Engblom 

Wednesday February 1

New York Rangers @ Buffalo Sabres (NBCSN 7:30PM) Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire

Thursday February 2

Carolina Hurricanes @ Boston Bruins (NHLN US 7PM) Local Broadcast

Saturday February 4

Pittsburgh Penguins @ Boston Bruins (NHLN US 1PM) Local Broadcast

Los Angeles Kings @ Carolina Hurricanes (NHLN US 7PM) Local Broadcast 

Sunday February 5

Boston Bruins @ Washington Capitals (NBCSN 12:30PM) Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire

H/T Sammy!

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The ratings are in for the UFC's first full-length show on FOX, and while they're down from the debut one-hour event last November, they're still solid overall.

It's being reported that the show drew 4.37 million viewers, which is down 27% from the 5.7 million viewers drawn in November for the Cain Velasquez vs Junior dos Santos heavyweight title fight. However, FOX won the night in the key young adult demographic once again.

The reasons for the decline in ratings seem pretty easy for me to process. The fights themselves weren't very entertaining, with all three going to decisions and dragging at times. The first fight of Demian Maia vs Chris Weidman was marred by both men looking exhausted early in the fight and plodding through most of it, opting to kickbox sloppily as opposed to playing to their strenghts (jiu-jitsu and wrestling, respectively). The night's second fight of Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping featured a lot of trash talking beforehand, but the fight itself was lackluster, with lots of clinchwork against the cage. And finally, the main event of former champion Rashad Evans vs undefeated Phil Davis was an absolutely dominant performance by Evans, who swept all three cards 50-45. That fight mainly featured Evans pounding on Davis, who ended up not posing much of a threat to Evans.

It could have been much worse for the UFC, though. Now defunct competitor EliteXC drew 4.85 million viewers (on CBS, mind you) for their first show, 2.62 million viewers for their second network show, and 4.56 million viewers on their third and final show. The two higher rated EliteXC shows featured former street fighter Kimbo Slice and celebrated women's fighter Gina Carano, which the company seemed to use as a crutch. The UFC really doesn't rely on any one fighter like EliteXC did, and instead chooses to build up several fighters at once.

Another former UFC competitor, Strikeforce, also had shows on CBS. They drew 4.04 million viewers for their first show and 2.9 million viewers on their second show. Strikeforce's second show resembled Saturday's UFC show, with three fights all going to decision and running overtime on their timeslot. The difference was that all three Strikeforce shows were five rounds, as opposed to just one five round fight on the UFC show.  The fact that UFC on FOX 2 held much more of its viewership after its primetime debut must be encouraging to Dana White.

The third (and second full-length) UFC show on FOX is scheduled for May 5th in East Rutherford, NJ. The only fights announced so far are between top lightweight contenders Nate Diaz and Jim Miller, both of whom are very exciting fighters, and bantamweights Darren Uyenoyama and John Dodson, which would likely be a preliminary fight to air on Fuel TV.

[h/t: MMA Fighting, MMAJunkie]

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Here is your NBA national announcing schedule for the coming week.  Is it too early to call Friday night's Knicks-Celtics game an elimination game with both teams strug-g-ling mightily?  Maybe it shouldn't be too much longer before we see the Cavs (?!?) back on national television if Kyrie Irving can pull off more game winners like this.

Monday January 30

Chicago Bulls @ Washington Wizards (NBA TV 7PM) Local Broadcast

Oklahoma City Thunder @ LA Clippers (NBA TV 10:30) Local Broadcast

Tuesday January 31

Denver Nuggets @ Memphis Grizzlies (NBA TV 8PM) Ernie Johnson, Greg Anthony, Chris Webber

Wednesday February 1

Oklahoma City Thunder @ Dallas Mavericks (ESPN 8PM) Mike Breen, Hubie Brown

Los Angeles Clippers @ Utah Jazz (ESPN 10:30PM) Terry Gannon, Chris Mullin

Thursday February 2

Chicago Bulls @ New York Knicks (TNT 8PM) Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller

Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Clippers (TNT 10:30PM) Marv Albert, Steve Kerr

Friday February 3

New York Knicks @ Boston Celtics (ESPN 8PM) Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy

Los Angeles Lakers @ Denver Nuggets (ESPN 10:30PM) Terry Gannon, Hubie Brown

Saturday February 4

Orlando Magic @ Indiana Pacers (NBA TV 7PM) Local Broadcast

Denver Nuggets @ Portland Trail Blazers (NBA TV 10PM) Local Broadcast

Sunday February 5

Memphis Grizzlies @ Boston Celtics (NBA TV Noon) Local Broadcast

H/T Sammy!

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There was a pretty wacky brawl in the ECHL between heated division rivals the Bakersfield Condors and the Ontario Reign. On the call are Kevin Bartl and Ryan Holt and a few seconds of listening will easily let you know that they are the Condors announcers. Hockey brawls are usually pretty great (take note of the current NHL head of discipline's flying collision with Patrick Roy 3:30 in), but this one between the Condors and Reign was very minor league.

I spent the majority of this video cringing. Not because a whole bunch of guys with sharp skates were punching each other, but that almost every player ridiculously still had their helmet on as the fights were happening, thus making every punch thrown pretty much just self-destructive.

The goalie fight is by far the lowlight in this clip. First, the idea of goalies fighting is ludicrous as they stand on opposite sides of the ice and have zero interaction with each other, but there's no doubt that they are fantastic and mean that the brawl has just been taken up a notch. Roy vs. Osgood is an example of what a good goalie fight looks like. Unfortunately, only the Reign's goalie got the memo to take off his helmet as the Condors goalie kept his helmet on, which pretty much made him invincible.

While the fight was poor, the Condors announcers were not much better (even with the clear Ghostbusters reference). Here's their PBP of the goalie fight which starts 1:50 in,

"Bryan Pitton still with his mask on! Throws lefts and it doesn't matter. He could have no gear on, Berubbe's (Reign goalie) got no prayer in that one!"

Yeesh. It's not hard to get the better of the fight when you are still fully padded with your helmet on when the guy who you are fighting with is helmetless and wearing giant pillows on his legs.

The Reign got the last laugh though, winning the game 5-1 while the Condors are currently in last place.

[Puck Daddy]

Florida State's women's basketball team beat NC State on the road Friday night 67-64 thanks to a three pointer from Leo Rodriguez with just seconds left.  While the game winner from Rodriguez is impressive, the call of Ryan Pensy of the Seminole IMG Sports Network raises eyebrows.  If someone on your team just nailed a clutch three pointer to win a road game in the ACC, would your mind immediately go to a barely passable Jersey Shore pun?

"The Noles escape NC State with a win!  Oh my goodness, go get J-Woww and Snooki, we got a Situation here as the Noles win 67 to 64 over the NC State Wolfpack!"

Oy...  As a regular Jersey Shore watcher and fan of common sense and decent puneology, this call leaves much to be desired.  First of all, Mike is currently involved with Paula, not J-Woww or Snooki.  In fact, Snickers and Sitch have been at odds ever since they may or may not have hooked up before departing for Italy.  At least the announcer didn't say "go get Deena," that would have just been sad.  Honestly though, only Mike himself should ever be able to say "we got a Situation here" and even that was old and tired after about midway through the second episode. 

I'm all for entertainment and breaking new ground in announcing though, so the effort is appreciated.  Jersey Shore quotes are such an embarrassment of riches, even if only about 12% of them are actually usable during a broadcast.  I'd rather hear an announcer scream, "CABS ARE HERE!!!  CABSAREHERE!!! CABZUHE!!!" after a huge road win.  Why not stand up and taunt the opposing fans by screaming "COME AT ME BRO!!!" or finding a cement wall to bang your head into?  

Hopefully this is the start of announcers across the nation embracing the cultural impact of Jersey Shore and working it into telecasts.  I would die a happy man if Jim Nantz would yell "it's TEEE SHIIIRRTT time" just once.  Too bad Matt Howard graduated last year...

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