Gary Cohen’s Masterpiece
Great moments in sports broadcasting are set up by great games and great finishes. The climax of Sunday’s North Carolina-Kentucky game provided Westwood One’s Gary Cohen with a glorious chance, and Cohen cashed in, delivering one of the most spot-on radio play-by-play calls I have ever heard.
Here’s a link to the highlights, courtesy of Westwood One. In the highlights section on the page, click “UNC 75-73 Luke Maye makes jumper with .3 seconds left” to hear the final 14 seconds of action.
The transcript:
COHEN: Jackson, with 19 points, the junior from Tomball, Texas; the ACC Player of the Year, can try and make it a two-possession game if he can hit this front end. With North Carolina up three. 14-point-7. The first one…off the back rim, no good, rebound Fox. 13 seconds. Here comes Briscoe. Briscoe veering right, hands off to Monk. Turns, fires a three GOOOOOD!! The game is tied! Seven seconds to go! Here comes Pinson down the center of the floor. Pinson penetrates, hands to Maye, 18-footer GOOOOD!! with three-tenths of a second to go! North Carolina leads! Luke Maye from just inside the left arc, after Monk hit the three to tie the game, Pinson penetrated, got it out to Maye, Maye hit it from just inside the left arc! 75 – 73 North Carolina, with three-tenths of a second to go!
If you would like to watch as well as listen, here’s a link to the final 14 seconds on Deadspin. Cohen’s call on Westwood One begins at about the :28 mark.
Let’s break this call down. Cohen sets up the final moment with giving a short bio on Jackson and giving the listener the two most important facts a play-by-play announcer can deliver, the time and score, and how many points a player has scored in the game.
Cohen didn’t just say the free-throw was “no good” but now you can see in your mind’s eye that Jackson pushed it too hard “off the back rim.” A second time check. Great verb “veer.”
The way Cohen stretches out and increases his volume on the first “Good” conveys how unbelievable Monk’s shot was. Time and score again. Gives Pinson’s location on the court. Another terrific verb “penetrates.” Another precise location with “18-footer”.
The second “Good” was actually a tad shorter but I feel like Cohen understandably cut it short so he could give time and score. And then a short, to-the-point recap of what just happened.
This is such a fundamentally sound call of the last seconds of a basketball game, it should be required study for every aspiring play-by-play announcer until we all get replaced by robots. Time and score at the start, and after each basket. Cohen has just the right pitch of excitement, not shouting. And while he did not pause to let the crowd fill in after the Maye shot, he slowed down his tempo just slightly in the recap so that you could hear the crowd in the background. A tip of the cap to whomever was at the mixing board, too; the mix of announcer and crowd noise is perfect.
I was listening to the game on the Sirius XM app on my iPhone — because I was at The Home Depot working on a honey-do. I was not only impressed by Cohen’s call of the final 14 seconds, but also by the 31 seconds of game action that preceded the climax. The entire piece immediately goes onto my list of the top 10 play-by-play performances of all time.
Same link to Westwood One for the archived call. In the highlights section on the page, click “UNC 73-70 Justin Jackson layup after Malik Monk 3-pointer for UK” to hear the action from the 46-second mark down to the tie-up with 16 seconds left. Analyst P.J. Carlesimo gets in a few words as well.
The transcript:
COHEN: Clock didn’t move. 46-point-8 to go, 71-67.
CARLESIMO: See, you’re in front of the Kentucky bench so the coaches can’t yell time out, (unintelligible) the other end of the floor.
COHEN: Here’s Fox, left wing. Fox takes to the elbow, kick-out to Willis. Out to Monk, he steps left, fires up the three, GOOOOD! Malik Monk with a three-pointer! One-point North Carolina lead! 38-point-5 to go! Lopez downcourt. Jackson, he’s ahead of the field. Jackson under the basket, lays it in! 33-point-1 to go!
[nat sound]
CARLESIMO: Great look, better basket.
COHEN: 73 – 70 North Carolina. Here’s Fox, moving to his right. Fox brings it back to the top. Poked at by Meeks. Fox down the left of the lane, finds Adebayo, he’s stripped! Loose on the floor! They dive for it, Adebayo! and Maye!, and they tie each other up. The ball goes to North Carolina on the alternating possession, with 16-point-nine to go!
Again, Cohen is so solid on the fundamentals of basketball play-by-play here it’s breathtaking. Time and score three times, plus the time again after the tie-up. Working in just enough details to paint the picture in your mind’s eye but not talking too fast or trying to cram in too much info to make it difficult to follow the play. Active verbs — “poked”, “stripped.” I also love how he uses active tense the whole time and never says the word “will”, especially in the last sentence.
I’ve long admired Cohen’s work as the radio and television voice of the New York Mets. And I am so glad my wife sent me on that errand, otherwise I would have missed a phenomenally entertaining and pleasurable play-by-play call!