I'll start by saying I don't think Comcast has Tanguay in it's plans as the long term replacement for Mike Gorman. I sure hope not. I recognize that being asked to call an NBA basketball game can be daunting. But if he's going to be Mike's backup then he really needs to work on a few things. You don't need to be Mike Gorman, but you need to be... I don't know... not annoying.
So To Tanguay:
1. It's not necessary to fake an uncontrollable laugh whenever Tommy tries to make a joke. Mike will often just let it hang out there for a bit. Let it marinate before moving on. Let it stand on it's own. We don't need the laugh track.
2. When a player has 3 fouls in the 4th quarter he is not in foul trouble. Let me break this out for you... 2 fouls in the first quarter or early in the second could be foul trouble. 3 fouls in the first half is foul trouble. 4 fouls in the 3rd is foul trouble. 5 fouls in the 4th if foul trouble. Obviously, there's a bit of a sliding scale for time left in the quarter and they type of player. But please don't tell me a guy is in foul trouble because he just committed his 3rd foul with 10 minutes to go in the 4th quarter.
3. Don't EVER count down the shot clock again. You can remind us there 7 seconds on the clock... and yes, I suppose you can call it the Amica shot clock as you and Mike are surely instructed to do... but once you do that, assume we know where to look for that clock on the screen or that we have our own internal countdowns. Please don't ever subject me to another "Six, five...".
4. Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk. I don't remember where that tag line comes from, but it's appropriate here. Your excitement is often a day late and about 3 dollars too much.
5. In all but rare instances, leave the officiating to Tommy. He does enough of it. As with his jokes, it's best to let him say his peace and then move on.
6. Learn when TV timeouts are taken and how to signify this to viewers. Mike uses "time out on the floor" or "we're going to get ourselves a timeout." You often mix up TV timeouts and real timeouts. TV timeouts are under 6, under 3 of every quarter. And under 9 of the 2nd and 4th. When utah calls a timeout with 10:20 left in the quarter, that's not a TV timeout.
7. You have some good stats. But let them come out in the flow of the game. Right now it's almost like you see Milsap do something, call it, and then tack the statistic on as an after thought. Work it into the call.
Anyway, I'm glad Mike is back on Wednesday.